When Mexico gained independence from Spain, the population in much of what is today Texas was dominated by Native Americans. Feeling threatened by the native groups, and worried that the United States would try to take Texas, the Mexican government moved to enact policies to move more settlers into the area to help implement control over the region. The Mexican government worked with empresarios, who operated as land agents in Texas. Empresarios
worked to bring settlers who would develop Texas for the Mexican government. In exchange, those settlers would receive title to land – a resource that was abundant. Estevan F. Austin Signature One of the most famous empresarios, Stephen F. Austin, brought 300 families to settle Texas – a group sometimes referred to as the “Old Three Hundred.” The tracts offered were vast – 4,605 acres for each family. As empresario, Austin would be compensated with an even larger parcel of land. He would also serve, in effect, as the government for his settlers. The records of Austin’s Colony still exist today, in the archives of the state’s General Land Office. They offer a very personal connection to some of the early settlers of Mexican Texas – mainly Anglo Americans who renounced their United States citizenship to move to Texas. Most people who came to Austin’s settlement were southern cotton farmers from the United States who began to develop the rich bottomlands along the Colorado and Brazos Rivers. Many brought slaves with them, to work their new lands. Although the 1820s brought a series of laws abolishing slavery in Mexico, the government granted a temporary exception to the ban in Texas. By the 1830s, both the Anglo and Tejano populations of Texas had increased significantly. However, despite becoming official citizens of Mexico, many settlers maintained their affinity for the United States. Texas became a breeding ground for distrust and differences between the US and Mexico. In an attempt to enforce control, the Mexican government tried to force the end of slavery in the region, impose taxes, and end immigration from the United States. Engaged in civil war, the Mexican government struggled to maintain power in the region. After several skirmishes against Mexican soldiers, and a failed attempt to form a separate Mexican state, war seemed inevitable for the settlers. Relations between the Mexican government and the Texas settlers deteriorated considerably in 1834-35 as President Santa Anna abandoned the constitution under which the American settlers had agreed to live. In the summer of 1835, Santa Anna sent a small army to Texas to confront the rebellious Texans, which included many of the new Anglo American settlers as well as some native Tejanos unhappy with the direction of Santa Anna’s government. Fearing violence from the settlers, Mexican military officials attempted to retrieve a cannon that had been given to the town of Gonzales for Indian defense. The successful resistance of Gonzales residents, who flew a flag with a picture of a cannon and the slogan “Come and Take It,” is traditionally considered the beginning of the Texas Revolution.
Hoping to recover from bankruptcy with a bold scheme of colonization, Moses Austin meets with Spanish authorities in San Antonio to ask permission for 300 Anglo-American families to settle in Texas. A native of Durham, Connecticut, Austin had been a successful merchant in Philadelphia and
Virginia. After hearing reports of rich lead mines in the Spanish-controlled regions to the west, Austin obtained permission in 1798 from the Spanish to mine land in an area that lies in what is now the state of Missouri. Austin quickly built a lead mine, smelter, and town on his property, and his mine turned a steady profit for more than
a decade. Unfortunately, the economic collapse following the War of 1812 destroyed the lead market and left him bankrupt. Determined to rebuild his fortune, Austin decided to draw on his experience with the Spanish and try to establish an American colony in Texas. In 1820, he traveled to San Antonio to request a land grant from the Spanish governor, who initially turned him down. Austin persisted and was finally
granted permission to settle 300 Anglo families on 200,000 acres of Texas land. Overjoyed, Austin immediately set out for the United States to begin recruiting colonists, but he became ill and died on the long journey back. The task of completing the arrangements for Austin’s Texas colony fell to his son, Stephen Fuller Austin. The younger Austin selected the lower reaches of Colorado River and Brazos River as the site for the colony, and the first colonists began arriving in December
1821. Over the next decade, Stephen Austin and other colonizers brought nearly 25,000 people into Texas, most of them Anglo-Americans. Always more loyal to the United States than to Mexico, the settlers eventually broke from Mexico to form the independent Republic of Texas in 1836. Nine years later, they led the successful
movement to make Texas an American state. READ MORE: 9 Things You May Not Know About Texas On December 26, 1985, primatologist and conservationist Dr. Dian Fossey is found
murdered in her cabin at Karisoke, a research site in the mountains of Rwanda. It is widely believed that she was killed in connection with her lifelong crusade against poaching. An animal lover from ...read more The first day of the first Kwanzaa is celebrated in Los Angeles under the direction of Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. The seven-day holiday, which has strong African roots, was
designed by Dr. Karenga as a celebration of ...read more Jack Johnson becomes the first African American to win the world heavyweight title when he knocks out Canadian Tommy Burns in the 14th round in a championship bout near Sydney, Australia. Johnson, who held the heavyweight title until 1915, was reviled by whites for
his defiance ...read more Mobster Bugsy Siegel opens the glitzy Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 26, 1946. Well-known singer and comedian Jimmy Durante headlined the night's entertainment, with music by Cuban band leader Xavier Cugat. Some of infamous gangster
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel’s ...read more On December 26, General George S. Patton employs an audacious strategy to relieve the besieged Allied defenders of Bastogne, Belgium, during the brutal Battle of the Bulge. The capture of Bastogne was the ultimate goal of the Battle of the Bulge, the German offensive through
the ...read more On December 26, 1972, former President Harry S. Truman dies in Independence, Missouri. Then-President Richard Nixon called Truman a man of “forthrightness and integrity” who had a deep respect for the office he held and for the people he served, and who “supported and wisely ...read more On December 26, 1973, The Exorcist, a horror film starring the actress Linda Blair as a girl possessed by an evil spirit, makes its debut in theaters; it will go on to earn a reputation as one of the scariest movies in history. The Exorcist was based on William Peter Blatty’s ...read more A powerful earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, on December 26, 2004 sets off a tsunami that wreaks death and devastation across the Indian Ocean coastline. The quake was the second strongest ever recorded and the estimated 230,000 dead made this disaster one of the 10 ...read more On December 26, 1609 or 1610 (sources are not conclusive), Count Gyorgy Thurzo makes an investigative visit to Csejthe Castle in Hungary on orders from King Matthias and discovers Countess Elizabeth Bathory directing a torture session of young girls. Bathory was already infamous ...read more On December 26, 1956, the visionary carmaker Preston Tucker dies of lung cancer. He was just 53 years old. Tucker began his career in the auto industry as a mail messenger at General Motors. He quickly worked his way out of the mailroom, however, and before he turned 30 he was ...read more At approximately 8 a.m. on the morning of December 26, 1776, General George Washington’s Continental Army reaches the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey, and descends upon the unsuspecting Hessian force guarding the city. Trenton’s 1,400 Hessian defenders were still groggy from ...read more Eight months after the United States enters World War I on behalf of the Allies, President Woodrow Wilson announces the nationalization of a large majority of the country’s railroads under the Federal Possession and Control Act. The U.S. entry into the war in April 1917 ...read more On December 26, the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst is sunk by British warships in the Arctic after decoded German naval signals reveal that the Scharnhorst is on a mission to attack an Anglo-American convoy to Russia. Hitler’s navy had posed serious threats to convoys shipping ...read more What led to the founding of the first Anglo American colony in Texas?Annotation: Anglo-American settlement of Texas began with the encouragement of the Spanish government. In 1820, Moses Austin, a bankrupt fifty-nine-year-old Missourian, asked Spanish authorities for a large Texas land tract that he would promote and sell to Anglo-American pioneers.
What drew Anglos to settle Texas?Anglo-Americans were drawn by inexpensive land and believed annexation of Texas to the United States was likely and would improve the market for the land. Some settlers were fleeing debts and sought refuge in the Mexican colony, where they were safe from American creditors.
Who were the Anglo American settlers?The Anglo-Americans were people who moved from the United States to Texas. They spoke English. Their parents or ancestors had come from northern Europe to America.
Who was the general who led the Texas forces to victory at San Jacinto quizlet?The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican army in a fight that lasted just 18 minutes.
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Who was an influential empresario who spent the 1820s successfully promoting the settlement of many Anglo Americans in Texas?
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