It’s not quite common knowledge that what is now part of the United States, was once

part of Mexico, and Mexico, part of Spain.

Of course the Spanairds conquered it from the Aztecs, who took it from the Toltecs,

who took it from the Mayans, who took it from the Olmecs, etc.

But what we’re concerned about in this video is how Texas, once a territory in Mexico – became

its own country.

It all started when Mexico gained its independence from Spain which occurred around 50 years

after the U.S. gained its independence from Great Britain.

In 1821 Mexico concluded its war of independence and became a its own country, which was founded

on a federalist system of government, that gave control to both Mexico’s states and

federal government.

Texas was one of these states and was given a lot of autonomy in its ability to control

itself.

Because of its tiny population and distance from Mexico City, Mexico’s government started

a settlement program in the hopes that Texas would become more developed and be able to

integrate with the more populous regions of Mexico.

Part of this settlement program was allowing foreigners to purchase land in Texas for little

money.

The only conditions that they were given were that they had to live in Texas for 10 years,

they had to be loyal to the Mexican government, and they had to accept Catholicism as their

own religion.

One American, named Stephen Austin, from Virginia accepted this deal and was given a lot of

land on the condition that he would bring more settlers into Texas.

By 1830, Austin was able to bring over 10,000 white Americans who came to Texas and lived

alongside the Mexican Tejano population of 4,000.

The Mexican government was happy with how its settlement program was going, but was

also becoming very cautious at this stage.

After all the Mexican population of Texas was less than half that of the white Anglo

population.

Many Americans settling in Texas were also protestant, patriots of the U.S. and from

slave states – which is important to note because Mexico had made it illegal to practice

slavery in its country.

In 1833 Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was elected president and began to centralize the power

of the Mexican government back to the capital in Mexico City.

The federal system weakened and states like Texas were now being controlled from the capital.

Because of this, Austin went to the capital in protest, requesting that Texas get its

autonomy back.

Unfortunately for Austin, he was jailed.

However, when he was released and back in Texas, serious rebellion began to occur and

the Mexican soldiers stationed in Texas were pushed back to Mexico City.

Santa Ana became furious and took command of the army.

By February, 1836, his troops had passed the Nueces River, which was the traditional border

of Texas and made his way to the Alamo in San Antonio where the Texan Rebels were holed

up.

Most of the rebels in the Alamo, however, were not Texans.

In fact of the 180 rebel soldiers, only 29 were Texas, 28 were European, and the remainders

were Americans.

This makes me wonder, what incentive did any Americans or Europeans have for fighting on

the side of the Texan rebels?

It was here in 1836 that Texas became independent of Mexico.

However, in several years, after war with Mexico, the U.S. would claim Texas for its

own.

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