Mexican Independence and the Texas RevolutionHIST/CS 136: 10.18.2011

Unit Three: Bordering the Southwest

• What did the formation of nation-states in the Southwest (Mexico and the United States) in the 19th century mean for individuals already living here? What new immigrants came to the region and why?

• How did the regional economy—and the way people people made a living, change as a result of incorporation into the United States?

Identity

• I am…

Identity

• I am…• What kinds of identity existed in the

Southwest before the 1800s?– Family or kinship-based

Identity

• I am…• What kinds of identity existed in the

Southwest before the 1800s?– Family or kinship-based– Local or place-based

Identity

• I am…• What kinds of identity existed in the

Southwest before the 1800s?– Family or kinship-based– Local or place-based– Racial, ethnic, or cultural

Central Themes for Today

• What does Mexican independence mean for the Southwest?

• In what ways do people come to identify with the new Mexican nation?

Mexican Independence

• New Spain in 1800– Wealthiest kingdom in the Spanish empire– Divided by race and class– Emerging sense of “creole” identity

The Crisis of Sovereignty

Mexican Independence

• New Spain in 1800– Wealthiest kingdom in the Spanish empire– Divided by race and class– Emerging sense of “creole” identity

• War for Independence (1810-1821)– Goal of complete independence emerges gradually (From

Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s spontaneous uprising on 16 September 1810 to José Maria Morelos y Pavón’s organized army)

– War devastates the economy by the time independent is solidified, September 1821

Mexican Independence• New Spain in 1800

– Wealthiest kingdom in the Spanish empire– Divided by race and class– Emerging sense of “creole” identity

• War for Independence (1810-1821)– Goal of complete independence emerges gradually (From Father

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s spontaneous uprising on 16 September 1810 to José Maria Morelos y Pavón’s organized army)

– War devastates the economy by the time independent Mexico emerges, 27 September 1821

• Inherited and New Dilemmas (Post-1821)– How to integrate the Northern states?

The Far Northern FrontierHispanic Population, c. 1821

• New Mexico: 40,000• California: 3,200• Texas: 2,500

Anglo-American Immigration to Texas

• 1825 Colonization Law– 4,500 acres of grazing land, 177 acres of farm land, to

anyone willing to pay a nominal fee. • Empresario System– Contractors appointed to recruit a specific number of

families to settle in Texas. The “empresarios,” as these contractors were known received no compensation upfront, but rather five leagues of range land (22,142 acres) and five cultivable labors (886 acres) of farm land per every 100 families up to a maximum of 800 families

Empresario Grants in Coahuila y Texas, 1825-1832

Mexican Independence• New Spain in 1800

– Wealthiest kingdom in the Spanish empire– Divided by race and class– Emerging sense of “creole” identity

• War for Independence (1810-1821)– Goal of complete independence emerges gradually (From Father Miguel

Hidalgo’s spontaneous uprising to José Maria Morelos y Pavón’s organized army)

– War devastates the economy by the time independent Mexico emerges, 27 September 1821

• Inherited and New Dilemmas (Post-1821)– How to integrate the Northern states?– What form would the government take? Centralists v. Federalists

Mexican heads of State, 1821-1840Emperor Augstin de Iturbide, 1822-23Guadalupe Victoria, 1824-29Vicente Guerrero 1829José María Bocanegra 1829Pedro Velez, Luis Quintanar and Lucas Alaman, triumvirate 1829Anastasio Bustamante, 1830-32, 1837-39Melchor Muzquiz 1832Manuel Gomez Pedraza 1833Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, variously from 1833 to 1855Valentin Gomez Farías, 1833, 1834, and 1847Miguel Barragán, 1835-36José Justo CorroNicolás Bravo, variously from 1839 to 1846

Federalists vs. Centralists

Roots of the Texas Revolution

• Constitution of 1824– Grants significant autonomy to the states

• 1829 Abolition of Slavery– Threat to slaveholding Anglo-Americans

• 1830 Restriction on Anglo-American immigration– Later eased, but generates hostility to Mexican

government• Part of broader struggle against Santa Ana’s 1834

turn to centralism

Key points

• Newly independent Mexico’s efforts to incorporate its northern states backfire

• Men like Stephen F. Austin and Lorenzo Zavala make strategic choices regarding national identity and loyalty

• Texas independence would eventually help spark the U.S.-Mexico War