Texas Revolution

The **Texas Revolution** (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a fight for Texas to be independent from Mexico.

## Background

Texas now has the largest area of any state in the Continental United States.

However, Texas was not always as large as it is today. During the early 1830s, Texas was part of Mexico and included only the eastern half of the present-day state. The rest of the present-day state of Texas was split between the Mexican territory of New Mexico and several other Mexican states, including Coahuila and Chihuahua.

Spain and then Mexico claimed Texas for much of the 1700s and 1800s. However, a powerful Native American tribe, the Comanche (kuh-MAN-chee) controlled much of the area. Today, historians call that territory "Comanchería" (kuh-man-chuh-REE-uh).

The Comanche wanted to keep settlers out of Comanchería and so they Comanche took horses and other supplies from areas that historians call "raiding zones," which were outside Comanchería's borders. The Cherokee lived in the eastern part of Texas. Many had moved there from the Southeastern United State during the 1830s Trail of Tears.

Later, when Texas fought for its independence from Mexico, some Texan leaders asked for Cherokee support. When Texas became part of Mexico in 1821, most of the people in Texas belonged to Native American groups such as the Comanche. The population of Texas changed a lot over the next fifteen years, however. In the 1820s and 1830s, the population of Texas included these groups:

- _Tejanos_ (tay-HAH-nose), or people of Mexican descent living in Texas
- Anglos, or white people from the United States living in Texas
- Native Americans, who were made up of hundreds of different tribes.

Over its history, many different groups of people have chosen to settle in Texas. Today, Texas is one of the most diverse states in the United States. In other words, people in Texas come from _many_ different backgrounds just Tejano, Anglo, or Native American. Because of its time as part of Mexico, Texas is filled with Mexican-inspired culture. Over time, Tejano culture blended with Anglo culture to create new forms of food, music, and ways of life that are uniquely Texan. Other groups, like immigrants from Central Europe, have also contributed to the culture of Texas.

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. The new Mexican government wanted Texas to have more people who would support Mexico. It believed having more loyal people in Texas would protect Mexican citizens from Comanche raids and agreed to contracts with businessmen called empresarios. They recruited Anglos, or white settlers from the United States, to move to Texas and offered settlers inexpensive land and the chance to make money on farms and ranches. Empresarios' contracts required them to do certain things:

- make sure that they brought to Texas who would follow the law, learn Spanish, and practice Catholicism
- separate the land that the Mexican government had given them into smaller shares for the settlers brought to Texas

The Mexican government believed that making the settlers speak the same language and practice the same religion as Mexican citizens would make them loyal to the country.

Empresario who brought enough families to Texas would get a large piece of land for themselves. The most successful empresario was Stephen F. Austin. His father had agreed to an empresario contract with the Spanish government in 1820 but died before he could begin. Stephen continued his father's work and introduced thousands of Anglo settlers to Texas during the 1820s and 1830s. While Texas was part of Mexico, Austin was the most widely-respected leader in Texas and is often called "The Father of Texas." He wanted a good relationship with the Mexican government but was later arrested and spent nearly a year in prison because the government suspected him of not being loyal.

In the 1820s, landowning _empresarios_ led immigrants, mostly from the United States, to Texas, which was part of Mexico, for cheap land. At first, the Mexican government was happy to fill the land, which had mostly only Native Americans, but most Texans were soon from the United States . Mexico began to worry about losing Texas to the United States and so decided to stop all immigration from there.

Tejanos, or those of Mexican descent living in Texas, opposed slavery, spoke Spanish, had conflicts with Native Americans, and usually lived in towns in western Texas.

Anglos, or settlers from the United States in Texas, practiced Protestantism, supported or accepted slavery, spoke English, had conflicts with Native Americans, and usually lived on farms and ranches in eastern Texas.

The annexation of Texas by the United States was a major cause of the later Mexican-American War. Colonized in the 18th century by the Spanish, Texas declared its independence from Mexico on March 2, 1836.

To make things worse, Mexico had a new president, Antonio López de Santa Anna, who got rid of the Mexican Constitution and made himself president for life. People in several places, especially in northern Mexico, joined together to fight him and the Mexican Army and to secede from Mexico.

Most Texans wanted independence, and one reason was that they refused to accept a new Mexican law that was declared on April 8, 1830 and slavery. Many immigrants were from the Southern United States and saw slavery as a way of life. They had brought enslaved African Americans to work as field hands to produce cotton, corn, and sugar.

## Course of war

The war in Texas started when Mexican soldiers tried to take a cannon from the city of Gonzales on October 5, 1835. A famous battle in the war was the Battle of the Alamo in which about 200 Texans were killed, and hardly any of them survived the Mexican victory.

Texas won because many Mexicans did not want to fight for the central government. Also, Texas got many volunteers from the United States. The war ended on April 21, 1836 with the Battle of San Jacinto. Texas was declared an independent country and called itself the Republic of Texas.

## Aftermath

The Republic of Texas was not recognized by the United States until a year later, in 1837.

Although most of its citizens supported annexation by the United States, Texas remained an independent country for ten years since most of the Northern United States did not want another slave state and feared war with Mexico. In 1845, the United States Congress voted to admit Texas as a slave state, which made it the country's 28th state.

Mexico opposed that and so the Mexican–American War began, which the Americans won.