nessed the expiration of the Spanish power in Texas. What with the filibustering expeditious and hostile Apaches and Comanches, and the great struggle for independence in Mexico, the Spanish foci of civilization were all but extinguished. When the harsh Spanish law which forbade the entry of Americans into the region could no longer be enforced, the frontiersmen from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana wandered in with their families. They came to stay.
In 1821 Moses Austin secured from the Mexican Government the right to establish a colony in Texas. He died soon after, but his son Stephen took up the work. Being free to choose the location for his colony, Austin selected the lower Brazos and Trinity valleys. Before long many empresarios had been granted, plastering over with claims the whole region from the Sabine to the Nueces. Discontent with the Mexican rule was not long in appearing. This reached a crisis on December 16, 1826. The struggle which ensued is known as the Fredonian War. A band of dissatisfied Americans, headed by Benjamin Edwards, proclaimed the eastern part of the State an independent republic with Nacogdoches as its capital. A skirmish in which one man was killed and one wounded practically ended the uprising. The times were ripening, however, and a change was soon to come.
The United States was making repeated offers to the Mexican Government to buy Texas, but this only made the Mexicans more determined to retain it at any cost. The Mexicans, resenting all attempts of the United States to possess the land, turned their attention to the Texans. Decrees were drawn up prohibiting slavery in Mexico, and forbidding further colonization. These decrees were specially aimed at Texas, and roused much bitterness and indignation. The march of events was hastened by the closing of all Texas ports, except Anahuac, and by the presence of military forces. An uprising occurred in June, 1832, which led to the removal of certain obnoxious officials. This was followed by the calling of a convention which elected Stephen F. Austin President. Petitions were drawn up asking the Mexican Government for free trade for three years, begging for a grant of land from the State to promote education, and asking for a separate government. Austin was sent with the petition to Mexico, but could not gain a hearing and was made a prisoner. During 1833 and 1834 the Mexican Government acceded to certain reforms; but in 1835 the spirit of revolt reappeared among the colonists. Then the Mexican Government made another attempt to collect duties at the Texas ports. An armed schooner was sent to Anahuac, but having committed various outrages, a Texas vessel captured it and the struggle against Mexico was precipitated. The first victory was that of Gonzales, October 2, 1835, when the Texans put the Mexicans to flight. On October 28th Colonel James Bowie and Captain J. W. Fannin defeated the Mexicans near Mission Concepción, a few miles below San Antonio; on December 11th that city was taken. A provisional government was formed. Henry Smith was elected Governor, and Sam Houston major-general of the Armies of Texas; Branch T. Archer, William H. Wharton, and Stephen F. Austin were appointed commissioners to the United States. Many Americans, principally from Mississippi, hurried to the assistance of the Texans. Dissension among the Texans, however, nearly proved disastrous. In March, 1836, two parties, one under Johnson and the other under Grant, were captured by the Mexicans, and the prisoners slaughtered; also Fannin's command, which had been in possession of the Goliad fortress, surrendered and was shamelessly massacred. In all, nearly five hundred Texans met death. In February-March occurred the heroic defense of the Alamo (q.v.). March 2d the Texans issued a declaration of independence, and as if to answer this, Santa Anna, the Mexican President, hurried his army in three columns eastward over the country. On April 21st the Texan army under Houston on the field of San Jacinto avenged the slaughter of Fannin's men and the Alamo. (See San Jacinto, Battle of.) Santa Anna, a prisoner, was glad to sign a treaty in which he engaged to do what he could to secure recognition of the independence of Texas with boundaries not to extend beyond the Rio Grande.
Thus was launched the Republic of Texas. A constitution was ratified in September, 1836, and Houston was elected President. Houston was the capital from 1837 to 1839, when Austin became the capital. The great and pressing need of the Republic was money. With little taxable property, the Government ran deeply in debt. By 1841 the amount reached $7,500,000. To the financial difficulties of the Republic was added the aggravation of invasions from Mexico, which had never abandoned her claims on the country. Three times Mexican forces reached San Antonio, but the Mexicans always retreated without attempting to hold the place.
Meantime the independence of Texas had been recognized by the United States, France, Holland, Belgium, and Great Britain, and the presence of the representatives of these powers lent zest to the interest with which the subject of the annexation of Texas to the Union was invested. The question of annexation was bound up with that of slavery, and the whole Union was agitated. (See under United States.) The matter became finally a national issue, and James K. Polk was elected President on a platform favoring annexation; but before he took office a joint resolution was passed by Congress making an offer of Statehood to Texas. This was accepted by the Texans, and in December, 1845, the State was formally admitted into the Union. The Mexican War (q.v.), originating in a dispute over the boundaries of Texas, followed, and the first fighting took place near the Rio Grande, at Palo Alto (May 8, 1846),
As a State of the Union Texas grew rapidly. Politics played small part until the wave of secession reached its borders. Texas, a slaveholding State, thereupon seceded from the Union (February 1, 1861), Sam Houston was Governor at the time, and threw all his weight in opposition to secession, but there was no staying the resolve of the people, many of whom went soon to join the armies of the Confederacy. The State was fortunate in that it was not the scene of much active fighting. Galveston was captured and held by the Federal forces for three months in the fall and winter of 1862; but two attempts of the Union forces to enter the State from Louisiana were disastrously defeated. The last battle of
