TEXAS BECOMES THE TURNING POINT FOR WAR WITH MEXICO
Texas was originally a Mexican colony, though settled by freelance American pioneers; ultimately, they chose to be annexed by the United States, thus, provoking war with Mexico.
“…it will come to pass that the Anglo-American race will give this great continent as an inheritance to men…This national policy [expansion] necessity or destiny, we know to be just and beneficent…”
--from an editorial, NY Morning News, Oct. 13, 1845 on annexation of Texas (Merk 25).
*underlines American Nationalism and Westward Expansion as justification for the annexation of Texas
-The Adams-Onis Treaty: all of Texas belonged to Spain
-Successful 1821 Mexican Revolution against Spanish colonial power caused Mexico to inherit the Treaty
-Texas, sparsely occupied and decrepit from the Revolution, had high demand for skilled settlers to rehabilitate that land.
-Stephen Austin, American, and Erasmo Seguin had Mexican authorization emigrate American settlers
-1820s: 1500 immigrant American families in Texas, for new opportunity with "manifest destiny"
-1836: Anglo-American population outnumbered Hispanics 10 to 1
“The old Latin mistake had been repeated,” said historian Frederick Merk: “admitting Gauls into the Empire” (Howe 660).
-1833: General Santa Anna was elected dictator of Mexico; called himself the Napoleon of the New World
-1835: Texans rebelled, after Mexicans abolish slavery, to reinstate the 1824 democratic Mexican Constitution
-1836: Texas, independent as a republic after Santa Anna was personally captured in the Texan Rebellion
Texas under threat of Mexican retaliation had an ultimatum:
1) Texas could be annexed by USA and protected.
2) Texas could remain independent but vulnerable to immediate Mexican attack.
-1845: James K. Polk elected President; an imperialist whose dogma was Manifest Destiny and approved Texas annexation
-Successful 1821 Mexican Revolution against Spanish colonial power caused Mexico to inherit the Treaty
-Texas, sparsely occupied and decrepit from the Revolution, had high demand for skilled settlers to rehabilitate that land.
-Stephen Austin, American, and Erasmo Seguin had Mexican authorization emigrate American settlers
-1820s: 1500 immigrant American families in Texas, for new opportunity with "manifest destiny"
-1836: Anglo-American population outnumbered Hispanics 10 to 1
“The old Latin mistake had been repeated,” said historian Frederick Merk: “admitting Gauls into the Empire” (Howe 660).
-1833: General Santa Anna was elected dictator of Mexico; called himself the Napoleon of the New World
-1835: Texans rebelled, after Mexicans abolish slavery, to reinstate the 1824 democratic Mexican Constitution
-1836: Texas, independent as a republic after Santa Anna was personally captured in the Texan Rebellion
Texas under threat of Mexican retaliation had an ultimatum:
1) Texas could be annexed by USA and protected.
2) Texas could remain independent but vulnerable to immediate Mexican attack.
-1845: James K. Polk elected President; an imperialist whose dogma was Manifest Destiny and approved Texas annexation
Stephen Austin was one of the founders of the Texas colony. He simply wanted Texas to thrive.
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was the Mexican general and ruler. He fought against Texas and later against America in the Mexican War.
The Alamo- A battle site between Texans and Mexicans
