13.2 Mexican Texas, the Empresarios & the Texas Revolution

Overview & Exam Relevance

This section continues Competency 002 (History). It covers Texas under Mexico from 1821 to 1835, the empresario system, the rising tensions between Anglo colonists and the Mexican government, and the Texas Revolution of 1835–1836. These events are at the center of the Grade 4 TEKS. Expect items that ask you to match events with their significance, explain causes and effects, and compare points of view, such as Texan and Mexican perspectives on the Alamo.

The Mexican National Era & The Empresario System

In 1821, Mexico achieved independence from Spain after more than a decade of revolutionary struggle initiated by Father Miguel Hidalgo's 1810 Grito de Dolores and culminated in the Treaty of Córdoba.

The Empresario System

Inheriting an underpopulated northern frontier vulnerable to indigenous raids and American expansionism, Mexico established the Empresario System. Under the federal colonization laws and the State Colonization Law of 1825 (governing the unified state of Coahuila y Tejas), Mexico contracted with empresarios (land agents) to recruit and settle foreign immigrants:

• Moses Austin: A Missouri businessman who suffered financial collapse in the Panic of 1819, Moses Austin traveled to San Antonio in 1820 and negotiated an agreement with Spanish governor Antonio María Martínez to settle 300 Catholic families in Texas. Moses died shortly after returning to Missouri, requesting that his son fulfill the contract.
• Stephen F. Austin ("The Father of Texas"): Took over his father's grant and negotiated confirmation with newly independent Mexico in 1823. Austin selected fertile river bottomlands between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers, settling the first 297 families, historically designated the Old Three Hundred. Austin was the most successful empresario, balancing diplomacy with Mexican officials while managing Anglo-Texan colony growth.
• Legal Colonization Requirements: Settlers received vast tracts of fertile land at nominal cost (roughly 4,428 acres for a league of grazing land and 177 acres for a labor of farming land). In exchange, immigrants pledged to:
  1. Swear loyalty to the Mexican Constitution.
  2. Practice the Roman Catholic faith.
  3. Demonstrate upright moral character and industry.

Escalating Tensions & The Law of April 6, 1830

By the late 1820s, cultural and political frictions escalated rapidly between Anglo-Texan settlers and the Mexican government:

• Fredonian Rebellion (1826): Empresario Haden Edwards declared a short-lived independent republic ("Fredonia") near Nacogdoches. Although easily suppressed by Mexican troops with Stephen F. Austin's assistance, it sparked Mexican suspicions that the United States intended to annex Texas.
• Mier y Terán Report (1828): Alarmed by unrest, Mexico dispatched General Manuel de Mier y Terán to tour Texas. His report warned that Anglo-American settlers outnumbered Mexican residents ten to one in East Texas, conducted trade almost exclusively with the United States, spoke no Spanish, and flouted Mexican regulations. He warned: "If timely measures are not taken, Texas will pull the whole republic down with it."
• The Law of April 6, 1830: Enacted directly in response to Mier y Terán's warnings, this sweeping decree fundamentally altered relations:
  • Banned all further Anglo-American immigration into Texas.
  • Suspended all unfilled empresario contracts.
  • Placed steep custom duties (tariffs) on goods imported from the United States.
  • Prohibited the introduction of additional enslaved people into Texas (Mexico had officially abolished slavery nationally in 1829 under President Vicente Guerrero).
  • Established new Mexican military forts throughout Texas to enforce tax collection and monitor colonists.
• Stephen F. Austin's Imprisonment (1834-1835): Austin traveled to Mexico City to petition for the repeal of the immigration ban and separate statehood for Texas (apart from Coahuila). Frustrated by bureaucratic delays, Austin mailed a letter to San Antonio leaders urging them to prepare a local state government without waiting for national approval. The letter was intercepted; Austin was arrested for treason and imprisoned for eighteen months. Upon his release in 1835, Austin declared that diplomacy had failed and that war was the only remaining option.

The Texas Revolution (1835-1836)

When General Antonio López de Santa Anna seized autocratic power in Mexico, abrogating the federalist Constitution of 1824 in favor of a centralized dictatorship (Siete Leyes), Texas colonists took up arms.

THE TEXAS REVOLUTION TIMELINE (1835-1836)
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Oct 2, 1835: Battle of Gonzales ("Come and Take It")   │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Feb 23 - Mar 6, 1836: Siege and Fall of the Alamo      │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mar 2, 1836: Texas Declaration of Independence Signed  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mar 27, 1836: Goliad Massacre (Fannin & ~342 Executed) │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Mar - Apr, 1836: Runaway Scrape (Civilian Evacuation)  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Apr 21, 1836: Battle of San Jacinto (Decisive Victory) │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ May 14, 1836: Treaties of Velasco Signed               │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. Battle of Gonzales (October 2, 1835): Mexican commander Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea dispatched troops to retrieve a small six-pounder bronze cannon previously loaned to Gonzales citizens for defense against Comanche raids. The townspeople refused to surrender the piece. Under the leadership of John Henry Moore, the Texans buried the cannon, fashioned a defiant white banner bearing a painted cannon and the legendary words "Come and Take It," and fired upon Mexican troops. This skirmish, widely celebrated as the "Lexington of Texas," marked the military beginning of the Texas Revolution.
2. Siege and Fall of the Alamo (February 23 - March 6, 1836): Santa Anna marched an army of thousands into San Antonio de Béxar to crush the rebellion. Approximately 189 to 200 volunteer defenders gathered within the Alamo mission under joint commanders William B. Travis (regular army) and James Bowie (volunteer militia), bolstered by former Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett. On February 24, Travis penned his stirring "Victory or Death" letter addressed "To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World," pledging that the defenders would never surrender or retreat. For 13 days, the small garrison withstood artillery bombardment. At dawn on March 6, Santa Anna ordered an all-out assault; Mexican infantry breached the compound's walls, killing all defending combatants. Non-combatants, including Susanna Dickinson and her infant daughter, were spared and sent by Santa Anna to spread word of the garrison's annihilation. Rather than breaking Texan morale, the sacrifice galvanized resistance.
3. Convention of 1836 & Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836): While the Alamo was under siege, 59 elected delegates met in an unfinished wooden building at Washington-on-the-Brazos. On March 2, 1836, the convention unanimously adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence, primarily authored by George C. Childress. Modeled closely upon Thomas Jefferson's 1776 U.S. Declaration, it listed grievances against Santa Anna's tyrannical centralization. The convention drafted a national constitution and appointed David G. Burnet as interim president and Lorenzo de Zavala (a prominent Mexican federalist) as vice president.
4. Goliad Massacre (March 27, 1836): Colonel James W. Fannin commanded approximately 400 Texan volunteers at Presidio La Bahía in Goliad. Delayed in obeying Sam Houston's orders to retreat to Victoria, Fannin's force was surrounded by Mexican General José de Urrea at the Battle of Coleto Creek. Fannin surrendered under the standard military expectation of being paroled to the United States. However, Santa Anna strictly enforced Mexico's "Tornel Decree," which defined foreign rebels as pirates subject to capital execution. On Palm Sunday, March 27, Mexican forces marched the unarmed Texan prisoners out onto the roads and shot them; a man-by-man study cited by the Texas State Historical Association counts 342 executed, including Fannin, with 28 escaping and about 20 spared to work as doctors, interpreters, or mechanics. The atrocity ignited international outrage and intensified the Texans' resolve.
5. The Runaway Scrape: Following news of the Alamo's fall and the Goliad executions, hundreds of panic-stricken civilian families abandoned their homes, farms, and personal belongings, fleeing eastward in freezing rain toward the safety of the Sabine River and the United States. Concurrently, General Sam Houston, commander-in-chief of the Texas military, led a strategic retreat across the Colorado and Brazos Rivers. While criticized by political leaders for retreating, Houston utilized the delay to train, discipline, and recruit his volunteer army.
6. Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836): Santa Anna pursued Houston's army, dividing his force and camping along the San Jacinto River near Buffalo Bayou. Believing the Texans would remain defensive, Santa Anna permitted his exhausted soldiers an afternoon siesta without posting sufficient perimeter sentries. At roughly 4:30 PM on April 21, Houston deployed approximately 900 Texans in a surprise charge across open prairie grass, shouting the battle cries: "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" The assault shattered the Mexican lines in just 18 minutes. Santa Anna escaped during the battle disguised as a common soldier but was captured the following day.
7. Treaties of Velasco (May 14, 1836): Captured by Houston, Santa Anna signed two treaties at the port town of Velasco:
   • Public Treaty: Declared an immediate cessation of hostilities, ordered Mexican troops to retreat south of the Rio Grande, and mandated the release of all Texan prisoners.
   • Secret Treaty: Provided for Santa Anna's immediate release in exchange for his secret pledge to lobby the Mexican government to recognize Texas independence and establish the Rio Grande as the official southern and western boundary. The Mexican Congress later repudiated Santa Anna's agreements on the grounds that they were signed under duress while a prisoner of war, leaving the official boundary contested between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River.

Classroom Instructional Strategies & Scenario Application

Classroom Context: Mr. Navarro is teaching a 4th-grade unit on the Texas Revolution. He displays a facsimile of William B. Travis's famous "Victory or Death" letter alongside an excerpt from General Santa Anna's official orders issued to his commanders during the siege of the Alamo.

Instructional Sequence:

1. Primary Source Interrogation: Mr. Navarro reads aloud Travis's words: "I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch... I shall never surrender or retreat... VICTORY OR DEATH." Students highlight emotionally charged persuasive vocabulary (patriotism, liberty, honor, duty).
2. Perspective Comparison: Students examine Santa Anna's viewpoint. Santa Anna viewed the defenders not as heroic patriots, but as unauthorized foreign interlopers and armed rebels attempting to seize sovereign Mexican territory. Mr. Navarro asks: "Why did Travis choose such urgent and dramatic words? How did Santa Anna's view of the conflict differ from Travis's?"
3. Connecting to Revolution Outcomes: Mr. Navarro guides students to connect the sacrifice at the Alamo to the subsequent battles of the Revolution. Students map the chronological progression from the Alamo to Goliad, the Runaway Scrape, and the decisive 18-minute victory at San Jacinto, illustrating how Travis's stand provided time for the Texas government to declare independence and for Sam Houston to organize the army.