In 1810, Mexico received its independence from Spain. In 1824, with the Mexican government wishing to settle the mostly-empty northern region, Moses Austin was invited to settle a colony of Americans in east Texas. The only conditions were that the Americans convert to Catholicism, renounce their American citizenship, become "Mexicanized," and either free or leave behind their slaves. Most of these requests were ignored, and not easily enforceable. After the death of Austin, his son Sam Austin became the de-facto leader of the Texans. The Tejanos (American residents of Texas) wished for increased trade with the United States, more self-rule, and slavery. When met with the "Napoleon of the West," the new Mexican President-General Santa Anna, by 1835, increased tensions between the central government in Mexico City and the distant region of Texas were at the brink of war.
The Texas revolution occurred as a result of a series of events that began long before the first shots fired in Gonzales on October 2, 1835, and finally ending at the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The actual battle of San Jacinto lasted less than twenty minutes, but it was in the making for six years. It had its prelude in the oppressive Mexican edict of April 6, 1830, prohibiting further emigration of Anglo-Americans from the United States to Texas; in the disturbance at Anahuac and in the battle of Velasco, in 1832; in the imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas," in Mexico in 1834. Immediate preliminaries were the skirmish over a cannon at Gonzales; the capture of Goliad; the "Grass Fight", and the siege and capture of San Antonio . . . all in late 1835 and early 1836. The Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, officially signalized the revolution.
After The Texans Won The War, They Began To Create An Independent Nation But They Really Wanted Texas To Join The U.S. This Didn't Happen At First Because Texas Was A Slave State, And Mexico Didn't Recognize Texas As An Independent Nation. So Many U.S. Citizens Rejected Texas Because Of Slavery And The Fact That They Didn't Want To Start A War With Mexico. Eventually, The U.S. Joined With Texas And Texas Sold Of Its Land To Help The U.S. Pay Texas Debts To Other Countries. This Outraged Mexico, And For Other Reasons (Manifest Destiny) The U.S. Went To War With Mexico, The Mexican, American War.
