Transcript Document

Map 1) Borderlands 1700-1763
Map 2) Borderlands 1763-1800
Map 3) Borderlands 1800-1819
Map 4) Borderlands 1819-1848
Moses Austin (1761-1821)
Stephen F. Austin—Land Empresario
Philip Nolan
(1801)
A scientific
expedition
dispatched by
President Thomas
Jefferson. (1806)
General James Wilkinson
(1806)
In 1819, Dr. James Long and a
force of fellow filibusters
attempted to wrest Texas from
Mexico. This endeavor
apparently had the backing of a
group of Natchez entrepreneurs
who were upset over the
passage of the
Transcontinental Treaty of
1819. p. 57.
The
Constitution of
1824
Haden Edwards,
Benjamin Edwards
and the Fredonia
Republic (1826)
The Investigation and Report of Mier Y Terán
In order to evaluate how the national government might
best deal with the troubles in Texas, Mexico dispatched
Manuel de Mier y Terán, a high-ranking military officer
and trained engineer, to the north. Crossing into Texas in
1828, Mier y Terán reported that:
•The province was flooded with Anglo Americans
•Nacogdoches had essentially become an American town
•Prospects for assimilation of the Anglos into Mexican
culture appeared dim
•The Anglo settlements generally resisted obeying the
colonization laws.
Mier y Terán report spurred the drafting and
implementation of the Law of April 6, 1830.
p. 64.
The Law of April 6, 1830
•The Law of April 6, 1830 intended to stop further
immigration into Texas from the United States by
declaring uncompleted empresario agreements as void,
although Mier y Terán let stand as valid those contract
belonging to men who had already brought 100 families.
•Future American immigrants must not settle in any
territory bordering the United States.
•New presidio were established to check illegal
immigration.
•The Law banned further importation of slaves into
Texas.
p. 64.
General Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna
The era of Santa Anna:
An era of flamboyant caudillaje and chronic instability
1821--he switched allegiance and joined Iturbide's fight for Mexican Independence.
1823--he led republican forces against the empire and was instrumental in overthrowing
Iturbide.
1827--he took the lead in suppressing Vice-President Nicolás Bravo's (conservative) revolt
against President Victoria (liberal).
1828--he saw to it that the defeated liberal candidate, Vicente Guerrero, was installed in
office.
1829--he defeated the Spanish invasion forces as Tampico to save the infant republic.
1832--he overthrew the Bustamante dictatorship after it had become intolerable.
But his illustrious career in a chaotic Mexico was just getting started in 1833. Indeed--if
you can believe it--1833 marks the beginning of an era that was even more chaotic for
Mexico.
Between May 1833 and August 1855 the presidency changed hands thirty-six times, the
average term being about 7½ months. Santa Anna occupied the presidential chair on
eleven different occasions, and, without question, he was the most powerful political figure
in Mexico during this time. Even when he was out of office he was a powerful force to be
reckoned with and a constant danger to the incumbent regime and to anyone aspiring to the
succession.
Santa Anna wins the
Presidency in 1833, then
leaves it to Gómez Farías
In 1833, Santa Anna won
the presidency with the
largest majority in Mexican
history. But, he soon grew
bored of the presidential
day-to-day work. Thus, he
returned to his estate in
Vera Cruz and left the
presidency to VicePresident Valentín Gómez
Farías.
The liberal reforms of
Valentín Gómez Farías
A.Military Reforms:
1. Reduce the size of the
army
2. He abolished military
fueros (i.e. army officers
would now have to stand
trial in civil courts.)
B. Gómez Farías’s Clerical Reforms
1.
Clergymen throughout the country were advised that they should limit their
directives and admonitions from the pulpit to matters of religion.
2.
The secularization of education--including the University of Mexico.
3.
All future clerical appointments would be made by the government rather than the
papacy.
4.
The mandatory payment of the tithe was declared illegal. (The individual was asked
to search his own conscience and respond as he would.)
5.
Congress enacted legislation permitting nuns, priests, and lay brothers, who had
taken oaths to spend their entire lives as brides and servants of Christ, to forswear
their vows. (This was done in the name of individual freedom--a concept much in
vogue with the nineteenth-century liberals.)
6.
The Franciscan missions in California were secularized and their funds and property
sequestered.
The
Constitution of
1824
The Texas Revolt
A. Permission to settle:
Starting in 1821, Spain and then an Independent Mexico had granted
permission to Catholic (North) Americans to settle the sparsely
populated territory of Texas.
B. Incentives for settlement:
Soon there was a great influx of Americans settlers into Texas. The land
was practically free--only 10¢ an acre as opposed to $1.25 an acre for
inferior land in the U.S. Each male colonists over twenty-one years of
age was allowed to purchase 640 acres for himself, 320 acres for his
wife, 160 acres for each child and, significantly, an additional 80 acres
for each slaves that he brought with him.
The numerical dominance of the American settlers:
1827: By 1827 there were some 12,000 United States citizens living in
Texas, while there were only 7,000 Mexicans.
1835: By 1835 the immigrant population had reached 30,000, while the
Mexican population had barely passed 7,800
The Mexican response to the
influx of Americans
1. Slavery was abolished:
The first important piece of legislation designed to prevent a further weakening
of Mexican control was President Guerrero's emancipation proclamation of 1829.
Because slavery as not important anywhere else in the republic, the measure
was clearly directed at Texas. Although manumission was not immediately
enforced, it was hoped that the decree itself would make Mexico less attractive
to colonists from the U.S. South and would thus arrest immigration.
2. Forbiddance of further immigration:
The colonization law of 1830 explicitly forbade all future immigration into Texas
from the United States and called for the strengthening of Mexican garrisons, the
improvement of economic ties between Texas and the remainder of Mexico by
the establishment of a new coastal trade, and the encouragement of increased
Mexican colonization.
October 2, 1835—The
Battle of Gonzales.
The first battle of the
Texas Revolution
begins when Santa
Anna sends a
detachment of
Mexican Calvary to
retrieve a cannon.
Texans drive them
back using the
cannon. The battle
flag used by the
Texans features a
picture of a cannon
and the written dare
"come and take it."
The Texans Response
The Texans considered these measures repressive. The
last straw, as far as the Texans were concerned, was the
news from Mexico City that Santa Anna had arbitrarily
annulled the federal Constitution of 1824. The centralist
tendencies of the new regime meant that, instead of
having a greater voice in the management of local
affairs, the Texans were to have no voice at all.
The Lone Stare Republic is declared.
The Texans had decided on independence and
subsequently chose David Burnet as president of the
Lone Star Republic and Zavala as vice-president.
* 1835: Santa Anna moves north at the head of some
6,000 troops.
* In 1836 a Mexican force of about 4000 men commanded by
Santa Anna reached San Antonio. The San Antonio garrison—
187 men under the command of Colonel William Barrett
Travis—withdrew to the Alamo. About 15 civilians were with
the men inside the Alamo. Santa Anna attacked the Alamo,
eventually breaching the mission walls. Only the civilians
survived.
The Goliad Affair: Mexican forces
executed 365 Texan prisoners who had
surrendered. Several weeks after the
surrender of the Alamo, Genaral José
Urrea engaged a force of Texans under
the command of Colonel James W.
Fannin at the small town of Goliad.
Surrounded and outnumbered, Fannin
surrendered in the belief that he and his
men would be afforded the recognized
rights of prisoners of war. Realizing that
the tenor of the war had been set at the
Alamo, General Urrea wrote to Santa
Anna urging clemency for Fannin and the
other prisoners. Urrea then moved on to
another engagement and left the Texas
prisoners in the charge of Lieutenant
Colonel Nicolás de la Portilla. Santa
Anna, however, ordered Nicolás de la
Portilla to execute the prisoners, which
he promptly did despite some moral
misgiving. All 365 prisoners were
executed.
The Houston administration also
passed legislation to encourage
immigration and raise revenue; for
this it turned to land, the
government’s most tangible resource.
The ad interim government had
provided headrights (grants of land
that obliged grantees to comply with
certain conditions, such as improving
the land) in order to entice volunteers
into the Texas army. (p. 90.)
Texas Forever!! [New Orleans? 1836].
Broadside, CN 00834, Broadside
Collection. This is the only known
copy of an inflammatory circular
issued in New Orleans that
demonized the Mexican army and
offered substantial inducements of
land to all who would come to aid the
Texan cause. The broadside contains
a brief account of the Alamo siege,
the outcome of which was still
unknown at the time this circular was
issued.
Santa Anna is defeated and captured at the Battle of San Jacinto:
The excesses committed by Santa Anna's troops at the Alamo and Goliad crystallized
opposition to Mexico both among Texans and in the United States. Supplies and men
began to pour into Texas, and by the third week in April Houston felt strong enough to
make a stand. He chose his own ground and, in the middle of the afternoon on April
21, caught Santa Anna's troops of guard near San Jacinto River. Within half an hour
the Mexican arm was routed, and Santa Anna himself fled for safety. Two days later
he was captured by one of Houston's patrols.
In this popular print the victorious General Houston, dressed in colorful Indian garb, vents
his moral wrath on the defeated Mexican commanders. The contemporary lithograph
suggests how deeply the events of the Texas Revolution resonated in the United States.