General James Wilkinson

(1806)

Philip Nolan (1801)

A scientific expedition dispatched by President Thomas Jefferson. (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 Investigation and Report of Mier Y TeránThe 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 The Law banned further importation of slaves into Texas.into Texas.

p. 64.

General Antonio Lopez de Santa

Anna

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.

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.)

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.

The Growing Debt of the Texas The Growing Debt of the Texas Republic:Republic:1836 $1.25 million

1838 $2 million

1841 $7 million

1846 $10 million

In June 1837, the Texas Congress started In June 1837, the Texas Congress started to print paper money in the form of to print paper money in the form of promissory notes. (p. 90.)promissory notes. (p. 90.)

By 1841, the Texas Republic seemed to be on the verge of a complete financial collapse. (p. 93)

The Homestead Act passed in 1839 protected citizens from seizure of their homestead, tools, and work animals for any debts they might have incurred; this legislation had its antecedents both in the Hispanic tradition and in a decree passed by the congress of Coahuila y Tejas in 1829. (p. 92.)

Castroville, a French-speaking community founded by Henri Castro with some 2,134 immigrants, took root on a land grant near the Medina River, west of San Antonio, from 1843 to 1847. (p. 94.)

Empresario Henri Castro, founder of Castroville and other small "buffer" settlements, struggled for years to settle land claims with the Texas government, in spite of his success in bringing European settlers to the Texas frontier. Source: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/clark/images/castro.html

In 1844, Prince Carl von Solm-Braunfels led Germans to Texas under the auspices of an organization called Adelsverein (Society of Noblemen). In 1845, they founded New Braunsfels in present-day Comal County. (p. 95)

Fundamental to the stability of the republic was an increase in the number of its citizens. Though difficult to determine precisely, the population grew rapidly during the republic’s existence, to about 162,500 in 1848, according to one estimate. (p. 94.)

Immigration

Juan Seguín

In February 1842, President Santa Anna ordered General Rafael Vásquez to take San Antonio. Vásquez occupied San Antonio for 2 days that March. Then General Adrián Woll reoccupied San Antonio on behalf of Mexico again, taking 60 prisoners before retreating upon the arrival of Texan volunteers. In response, Houston commanded General Alexander Somervell to lead an expedition of about 750 men toward the Rio Grande. Its mission was to patrol the border to prevent further invasions. (See p. 107)

Battle of Buena Vista

9 March 1847: 10,000 U.S. troops landed on beaches by Navy at Vera Cruz.

Monument of the Niños Héroes Monument of the Niños Héroes

Juan Escutia

The loss of Texas and the war with the United States contributed more to Mexico’s impoverishment, its apparent sterility, its xenophobia, its lack of self-esteem, and its general demoralization than any other event of the nineteenth century. (Meyer, Sherman and Deeds, p. 317)