President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the president of Mexico at the time, started to move the governmental system of Mexico towards a dictatorship. This in conjunction with the annulment of the constitution of 1824 early in the year of 1835 cause compelled large numbers of federalists to revolt. Though Texas was a part of Mexico at the time, many of its residents were used to a federalist government paired with vast amounts of freedoms. One of these freedoms that these residents missed the most was freedom, and the right, to own slaves. The Texians became quite displeased with Mexico’s shift towards centralism and their abolition of slavery in 1831.
Over time, the Mexican government became more centralized, less federalist, and eventually steered the Texans to call for independence. Early in March 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico; and for the next two months, bloody battles ensued. Mexico, under supreme dictator and President Santa Anna, vowed to remove the Anglo-American brigands from Mexico. Sam Houston’s small, undertrained and underequipped army of ragtag volunteers conducted a tactical retreat to gain time, manpower, and material as well as spread the Mexican army’s supply lines over one thousand miles. Houston’s goal was to conduct a campaign of his choosing and not that of the Mexican army.
This transition caused American settler's living in Texas to seize several of Santa Anna's garrisons, including the Alamo. The author states though that the questionable historical inaccuracies occur when historians and directors try and find out why the Americans decided to stay and fight for the Alamo when there was no clear chance of winning the battle. The 1960's movie suggests it was a fight for freedom for Americans, and therefore could be why the director left out the fact that the fight for defending the Alamo was led by four groups of people, including one group of Mexicans seeking to restore the Mexican Republic. In addition, the author
(10) The Texas Revolution was launched in October of 1835 by settlers in Mexican Texas. There were many Texans who did not understand the ultimate goal of the Revolution. Some Texans wanted reimplementation of the Mexican Constitution of 1824, which had greater freedoms than the centralist government in Mexico run by General Santa Anna. Texas attempted to petition for the establishment of a separate state government, but got rejected. Other Texans wanted complete and total freedom from Mexico; they wanted Texas to be its own independent country.
A People’s History of the United States: Reflection Chapter 8 We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God This chapter gives a summary of the events that centered around America’s newfound greed for land. It details James J. Polk’s leadership as president of a nation that was quickly expanding, yet expanding at a cost. President Polk wants to annex Texas and, in general, gain more land, but he does so without concern for the native people already living there. Zinn gives a quote from the diary of Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who opposed measures taken by General Taylor (under Polk) to annex Texas. Hitchcock explains, “He seems to have lost all respect for Mexican rights and is willing to be an instrument of Mr. Polk for pushing our boundary as far west as possible,” (Zinn 150).
In order for Anglo-Americans to immigrate to Mexico, they had to take an oath of loyalty to the nation, which meant being or becoming Catholic. However, Mexicans had experienced a flood of American immigrants to their country to take advantage of the opportunities they saw there, which prompted the Mexican government to pass the Law of April 6, 1830. Articles 9 and 11 of this law stated that American immigration was, at that point, outlawed. Northern immigrants would not be allowed to enter the country unless they had a passport to a specific colony that they had already been accepted into. The beginning of the Texas Revolution itself began with the Anahuac disturbances.
2.) There are a few points to compare and contrast the acquisition of Texas and the Southwest with the annexation of Oregon. For one, the acquisition of Texas was forced basically through war while Oregon was done with a treaty. In Texas, annexation came when many settlers started to migrate to Texas with the promise from the Mexican government of land for the exchange of converting to Roman Catholic and to be a Mexican citizen. On page 428, it says that many didn’t like the Mexican culture or government and refused to convert.
Just before he left for Mexico, Governor Velazquez revoked Cortez's commission because he feared that Cortez would not recognize his authority once in Mexico. Cortez however, left anyway, and later destroyed his ships so that men loyal to the governor would not have the ability to return to Cuba. When they arrived in Mexico, the Spaniards imprisoned many captives and later founded a town called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, now called Veracruz. One of the prisoners, Malinche, became his lady and acted as a guide and an interpreter. Cortez established an independent government and only recognized the authority of the Spanish crown.
The Underdogs Throughout history when the people of an established society are upset with the government there is always pattern of reform. This was the case for the Demetrio and his band of rebels during the Mexican Revolution which began as united movement against the three decades of authoritarian leaders such as Porfirio Diaz, Francisco Madero, and finally Victoriano Huerta. However, Demetrio and his band did not set out for reform because of the same reasons. Each member of the group had a different reason that they wanted change within the Mexican government. Nevertheless, the purpose of Demetrio and his band of rebels was to get rid of authoritarian rule and make Mexico more like democratic America, but instead they lose track of what
Arizona is a state bordering Mexico and ruled mainly by Republicans. The new immigration scandal started in Arizona when the governor of this state, Jan Brewer signed a new law that authorizes local police to check people immigration status. Supporters say that, since the federal government does not care about immigration reform, that they do not protect the border, through which all the time pass illegal immigrants, mainly from Mexico, the job have to be done by local, state service. Opponents of the law express the concern that it will lead to racial problem. People will be checked because of their appearance or skin color.