Colonizing Texas Empresarios, or land agents, recruited Anglo settlers and acted as go-betweens for the settlers and the government. The empresarios spoke Spanish and understood the workings of the Spanish and Mexican governments. (Stephen Austin became a Spanish citizen in 1798.)

Under Mexican law, the empresarios could not sell the land they were granted, but they could charge a fee for the paperwork they performed on behalf of the settlers. Empresarios promised cheap land in which settlers could make a profit

Stephen F. Austin is the best-known of the empresarios, responsible in whole or part for 8000 settlers, but there were many others, including several Tejanos. He wanted settlers to develop the land

The great allure for potential settlers was the possibility of owning more land than they could purchase in the United States. For $100, one could either purchase 80 acres in the US, or 800 acres in Mexican Texas. $$$$$$$ was the motivation for the Anglo- Americans

There was also the draw of escaping from United States law. Many of those who came to Texas from the Mississippi Valley owed great sums of money in the United States. Going to Texas was a way to escape their creditors.

Spanish Reasons for Settlement Spreading the Catholic religion A mission was built in a new area. Spanish priests, called friars, came to the frontier to convert Native Americans to Catholicism to get them to work on the mission grounds farming and helping priests.

Anglo-Americans and the Spanish both developed settlements in East Texas The large empresario land grants were along majors river (Brazos and Colorado)