Transcript Map 1) Borderlands 1700-1763

Map 1) Borderlands 1700-1763
Map 2) Borderlands 1763-1800
Map 3) Borderlands 1800-1819
Map 4) Borderlands 1819-1848
Moses Austin (1761-1821)
Stephen F. Austin—Land Empresario
Philip
Nolan
(1801)
A scientific
expedition
dispatched by
President
Thomas
Jefferson. (1806)
General James
Wilkinson
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
The
Constitution
of 1824
Haden Edwards,
Benjamin
Edwards and the
Fredonia Republic
(1826)
The 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
and
Manuel de the
Mierdrafting
y Terán, 1789-1832
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
into Texas.
THE QUIET SUFFERING AND MISERY OF WAR: The
Wars for Independence left Mexico in disorder and
decay. Conditions were far worse in Mexico than in
Argentina or Brazil because the actual fighting had
been so much more widespread and protracted in
Mexico. The economy was in shambles. Spaniards and
taken their capital out of the country. Of a population
of seven million, an estimated half a million died
during the war years. Devastation in the countryside
and in the cities left thousands unemployed. Disease,
banditry, and violence were rampant. (Skidmore &
Smith, p. 254; Suchlicki, p. 61)
Agricultural production was
at a standstill, because many
farms and haciendas had
been destroyed and
abandoned. (Suchlicki, p. 61)
The textile industry had fallen on hard times. The
scars of battle were visible throughout the country,
especially in the central valley. As one traveler
recalled, there were “ruins everywhere—here a
viceroy’s place serving as a tavern, where the
mules stop to rest, and the drivers to drink
pulque—there, a whole village crumbling to pieces;
roofless houses, broken down walls and arches,
and old church—the remains of a convent.”
(Skidmore & Smith, p. 255.)
RESTLESS UNEMPLOYED SOLDIERS: Economic disorder meant
there were very few jobs and much unemployment. According
to one estimate, about 300,000 men, most of whom had fought
in the wars, had no job or income when the battles came to an
end. This represented 15 to 30 percent of the entire adult male
population. They were eager, often angry, and usually armed.
They posed not only an economic problem but a social threat as
well. (Skidmore & Smith, p. 255.)
The two institutional bases of power
in Mexico after independence:
The Church
The Military
President Guadalupe Victoria
Liberals wanted:
• the state to guide the Church,
instead of the other way around
• a decentralized, federal republic
• limited democracy (but more
inclusive than any conservative
wanted)
• individual property rights as
opposed to communal property
rights
• the abolition of fueros, or special
privileges of corporate entities
(i.e. the Church and the army)
• secular education
Vice-President Nicolás Bravo
Conservatives wanted:
• a strong Church which would
play an important role in guiding
the nation
• a strong central government
that guarded against the
passions of the masses and the
dominance of local interests
• to support corporate ownership
in mining and industry
• protection for Church and
military fueros
• Catholic education
The Presidential Election of
1828
1. Manuel Gómez Pedraza wins.
2. The liberals could not accept the outcome, and
started a revolution with Santa Anna as their
military leader.
3. The Revolution is successful, and the insurgents
install their candidate, Vicente Guerrero, as
president. Anastasio Bustamante, a compromise
conservative, became vice-president.
The Spanish Invasion of 1829
1. The Spanish invade Mexico and take
Tampico in July of 1829.
2. Santa Anna lays siege on their fort, and the
Spaniards, plagued by yellow fever and lack
of provisions, surrender by October.
3. Many Spanish merchants leave Mexico to
escape reprisals by angry Mexican nationals.
General Santa Anna
A Parade of Coups d'état
1. Guerrero refused to relinquish the extraordinary "emergency" powers that Congress
had given him to cope the threat posed by the Spanish invasion.
2. In reaction against this, Vice-President Bustamante posed as a champion of
constitutionalism and led an armed revolt against Guerrero's government.
For the second time in Mexico's brief history a conservative vice-president led an armed
revolt against a liberal president.
But where Nicolás Bravo had failed, Bustamante, largely because of his influence with
the army, succeeded.
4. Bustamanta captured President Guerrero, and had him executed on January 14,
1831.
5. The Repression of the Bustamante dictatorship: Bustamante soon became a rather
crude dictator. (suppression of the press, badgering the legislature and judicial branches,
political corruption, repression against the Yorquinos {Liberal Free Masons}).
6. Santa Anna overthrows Bustamante. In response to his General Santa Anna took
up the liberal cause and marshaled his forces to overthrow the Bustamante government.
Bustamanta's government soon fell to Santa Anna, who then returned to Veracruz to
revel in his latest victory and await the outcome of the 1833 presidential elections.
The following era, from roughly
1833 to 1855, can be justifiably
termed the era of Santa Anna.
He dominated Mexican politics
for much of this period, and left
an indelible mark on Mexican
history.
General
Antonio Lopez
de Santa Anna
Born in Veracruz in 1794, the
young Santa Anna showed little
interest in books. Instead, at the
age of sixteen he joined the
army and soon thereafter fought
against pro-Hidalgo rebels. For
the next decade, the young
Calvary officer staunchly
supported the crown's efforts in
New Spain.
General Antonio
Lopez de Santa
Anna
The era of Santa Anna:
An era of flamboyant caudillaje and chronic instability
1821--he switched allegiance and joined Iturbide's fight for Mexican
Independence.
1823--he led republican forces against the empire and was instrumental in
overthrowing Iturbide.
1827--he took the lead in suppressing Vice-President Nicolás Bravo's
(conservative) revolt against President Victoria (liberal).
1828--he saw to it that the defeated liberal candidate, Vicente Guerrero, was
installed in office.
1829--he defeated the Spanish invasion forces as Tampico to save the infant
republic.
1832--he overthrew the Bustamante dictatorship after it had become
intolerable.
But his illustrious career in a chaotic Mexico was just getting started in 1833.
Indeed--if you can believe it--1833 marks the beginning of an era that was even
more chaotic for Mexico.
Between May 1833 and August 1855 the presidency changed hands thirty-six
times, the average term being about 7½ months. Santa Anna occupied the
presidential chair on eleven different occasions, and, without question, he was
Santa Anna wins the
Presidency in 1833,
then leaves it to
Gómez Farías
In 1833, Santa Anna
won the presidency
with the largest
majority in Mexican
history. But, he soon
grew bored of the
presidential day-to-day
work. Thus, he
returned to his estate in
Vera Cruz and left the
presidency to VicePresident Valentín
Gómez Farías.
The liberal reforms of
Valentín Gómez Farías
A.Military Reforms:
1. Reduce the size of
the army
2. He abolished military
fueros (i.e. army
officers would now
have to stand trial in
civil courts.)
B. Gómez Farías’s Clerical Reforms
1.
Clergymen throughout the country were advised that they should limit
their directives and admonitions from the pulpit to matters of religion.
2.
The secularization of education--including the University of Mexico.
3.
All future clerical appointments would be made by the government rather
than the papacy.
4.
The mandatory payment of the tithe was declared illegal. (The individual
was asked to search his own conscience and respond as he would.)
5.
Congress enacted legislation permitting nuns, priests, and lay brothers,
who had taken oaths to spend their entire lives as brides and servants of
Christ, to forswear their vows. (This was done in the name of individual
freedom--a concept much in vogue with the nineteenth-century liberals.)
6.
The Franciscan missions in California were secularized and their funds
and property sequestered.
The
Constitution
of 1824
The Texas Revolt
A. Permission to settle:
Starting in 1821, Spain and then an Independent Mexico had
granted permission to Catholic (North) Americans to settle the
sparsely populated territory of Texas.
B. Incentives for settlement:
Soon there was a great influx of Americans settlers into Texas.
The land was practically free--only 10¢ an acre as opposed to
$1.25 an acre for inferior land in the U.S. Each male colonists
over twenty-one years of age was allowed to purchase 640
acres for himself, 320 acres for his wife, 160 acres for each
child and, significantly, an additional 80 acres for each slaves
that he brought with him.
The numerical dominance of the American settlers:
1827: By 1827 there were some 12,000 United States citizens
living in Texas, while there were only 7,000 Mexicans.
1835: By 1835 the immigrant population had reached 30,000,
while the Mexican population had barely passed 7,800
The Mexican response to the
influx of Americans
1. Slavery was abolished:
The first important piece of legislation designed to prevent a further
weakening of Mexican control was President Guerrero's emancipation
proclamation of 1829. Because slavery as not important anywhere
else in the republic, the measure was clearly directed at Texas.
Although manumission was not immediately enforced, it was hoped
that the decree itself would make Mexico less attractive to colonists
from the U.S. South and would thus arrest immigration.
2. Forbiddance of further immigration:
The colonization law of 1830 explicitly forbade all future immigration
into Texas from the United States and called for the strengthening of
Mexican garrisons, the improvement of economic ties between Texas
and the remainder of Mexico by the establishment of a new coastal
trade, and the encouragement of increased Mexican colonization.
October 2, 1835—
The Battle of
Gonzales. The first
battle of the Texas
Revolution begins
when Santa Anna
sends a
detachment of
Mexican Calvary to
retrieve a cannon.
Texans drive them
back using the
cannon. The battle
flag used by the
Texans features a
picture of a cannon
and the written
dare "come and
The Texans Response
The Texans considered these measures
repressive. The last straw, as far as the Texans
were concerned, was the news from Mexico City
that Santa Anna had arbitrarily annulled the
federal Constitution of 1824. The centralist
tendencies of the new regime meant that, instead
of having a greater voice in the management of
local affairs, the Texans were to have no voice at
all.
The Lone Stare Republic is declared.
The Texans had decided on independence and
subsequently chose David Burnet as president of
the Lone Star Republic and Zavala as vicepresident.
* 1835: Santa Anna moves north at the head of
some 6,000 troops.
* In 1836 a Mexican force of about 4000 men
commanded by Santa Anna reached San Antonio. The
San Antonio garrison—187 men under the command of
Colonel William Barrett Travis—withdrew to the Alamo.
About 15 civilians were with the men inside the Alamo.
Santa Anna attacked the Alamo, eventually breaching
the mission walls. Only the civilians survived.
The Goliad Affair: Mexican forces
executed 365 Texan prisoners who had
surrendered. Several weeks after the
surrender of the Alamo, Genaral José Urrea
engaged a force of Texans under the
command of Colonel James W. Fannin at
the small town of Goliad. Surrounded and
outnumbered, Fannin surrendered in the
belief that he and his men would be afforded
the recognized rights of prisoners of war.
Realizing that the tenor of the war had been
set at the Alamo, General Urrea wrote to
Santa Anna urging clemency for Fannin and
the other prisoners. Urrea then moved on to
another engagement and left the Texas
prisoners in the charge of Lieutenant
Colonel Nicolás de la Portilla. Santa Anna,
however, ordered Nicolás de la Portilla to
execute the prisoners, which he promptly
did despite some moral misgiving. All 365
prisoners were executed.
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
intoOrleans?
the Texas
Texas Forever!!
[New
army.
90.)
1836].(p.
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
Battle of San Jacinto
Santa Anna is defeated and captured at the Battle of San Jacinto:
The excesses committed by Santa Anna's troops at the Alamo and Goliad
crystallized opposition to Mexico both among Texans and in the United
States. Supplies and men began to pour into Texas, and by the third week
in April Houston felt strong enough to make a stand. He chose his own
ground and, in the middle of the afternoon on April 21, caught Santa Anna's
troops of guard near San Jacinto River. Within half an hour the Mexican
arm was routed, and Santa Anna himself fled for safety. Two days later he
was captured by one of Houston's patrols.
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.
Mexico: Territorial Divisions, 1820s