Transcript The Investigation and Report of Mier Y Terán

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 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
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.
General Antonio
Lopez de Santa
Anna
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
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
Republic:
1836
$1.25 million
1838
$2 million
1841
$7 million
1846
$10 million
By 1841, the Texas
Republic seemed to be
on the verge of a
complete financial
collapse. (p. 93)
In June 1837, the Texas Congress started to
print paper money in the form of promissory
notes. (p. 90.)
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.
In 1844, Prince Carl von SolmBraunfels 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.
Immigrati
on
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.)
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
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
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)