Chapter 12, Section 2 Texas Independence

 Early 1800’s Spanish controlled Texas and wanted to promote settlement there  The gov’t offered huge tracts of land to people to bring families to Texas and settle them – called empresarios  Moses and Stephen F. Austin recruited 300 settlers from the western territories of the U.S. to live on land along the Brazos and Colorado Rivers in Texas- called the Old Three Hundred arrived in 1821 Moving to Texas

 To attract new settlers, Mexico passed more laws offering cheap land to people who promised to learn Spanish, convert to Catholicism, and obey Mexican laws  By 1830 there were more Americans than Mexicans in TX, which made the Spanish gov’t nervous  Mexico forbade anyone else to move from the U.S. to Mexico and discouraged trading with the U.S. by taxing American goods

 Austin went to Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the president, to remove the settlement ban and make Texas a separate state. He removed the ban but would not grant statehood.  Santa Anna declared himself dictator and overthrew the Mexican gov’t, raising the desire for Texas to become Independent

1 st fight of the Texas Revolution was in Oct. of 1835 at the town of Gonzales  After losing the skirmish, Texans asked for volunteers to help with their fight  In Dec. Texans scored their 1 st major victory as they liberated San Antonio from a larger Mexican force  Santa Anna then marched north to retake the city and found a small force barricaded inside the Alamo

 Defenders at the Alamo held off with rifle fire the larger and better-armed Mexican force for 12 days  March 6, 1836, after Mexican cannon fire smashed the Alamo’s walls, Mexicans soldiers attacked, killing almost everyone inside  “Remember the Alamo” became a rallying cry for Texas rebels during the rest of the war with Mexico

 While Santa Anna was at the Alamo, American settlers and Tejanos declared the independent Republic of Texas and named Sam Houston chief of the TX forces  At the Battle of San Jacinto, Houston attacked the Mexican forces killing almost 600 and capturing over 700  Both sides signed a treaty recognizing Texas independence on May 14, 1836

 1836 Sam Houston became the 1 st president of the new Republic of Texas  Houston sent reps to ask President Jackson to annex Texas, but he refused b/c Texas would enter as a new slave state which would upset the balance in Congress  The new republic was deeply in debt and the gov’t of Mexico refused to recognize Texas’s independence, so some fighting continued

 Texas remained independent throughout the administrations of Martin Van Buren and John Tyler.  When James Polk, a strong believer in Manifest Destiny, became President in 1844 he wanted Texas  At Polk’s request, congress approved the annexation of Texas on December 29, 1845

 1. Why did the Mexican government decide to stop Americans from settling in their area?  2. Why did the U.S. refuse when Texas first applied for admission to the Union?