[0:00]Today on the Daily Bellringer we are taking a look at Texas Independence.
[0:09]Hello, welcome to the Daily Bellringer. Please don't forget to subscribe and check out the questions down in the description. Also, I'd love to see your answer to question number five in the comments. So, Texas Independence, if we think about Texas, we actually got to go back a ways, uh, back to 1803 when we had the Louisiana Purchase. So, in the Louisiana Purchase, the United States claimed Texas as part of that big huge land that they had bought. But Spain who had control of it at the time said, no, we still have control of it and actually in the uh uh Adams onus treaty, uh this is settled and actually the United States basically backs off on any any claim to Texas. But in 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain. Once they gained independence from Spain, they were really looking for a way to get more people to live in this area of Texas, because really not a lot of people lived there at the time. And so, they basically opened it up to American settlers and said, you know, come settle here as long as you agree to learn Spanish, uh convert to Catholicism, become Mexican citizens and and follow Mexican law, which of course among that was pay taxes to Mexico, you're welcome to come live here in Texas. All right, so, by 1830, Americans far out numbered Mexicans who are living in Texas. And so, Mexico began to get kind of nervous about this and they actually issued a decree saying we are not going to allow any more Americans to move into this area. And also, they also passed a tax that they put on goods that were imported from the United States into Texas, and that really hurt a lot of the Texas settlers that were living there. Uh the Americans that were living there in Texas begin to protest against these, you know, actions being taken by the Mexican government. So, by 1835, the dictator of Mexico, a guy named Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, sent an army into the Texas area to put down these protests. Well, Texans and the Mexican army began to fight first at Gonzalez, which is considered to be the first battle of the uh uh Texas War for Independence. And then, later at San Antonio, where Texans were able to push Mexican troops out of San Antonio. Now, Santa Ana, he's furious that he had lost control of San Antonio, he marches back towards San Antonio with an army of between 1,800 to 6,000 troops. And when he gets there, of course, he encounters famously, about 180 to 200 soldiers barricaded inside the old Spanish mission of the Alamo. And of course, among them there were guys like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, of course, led by William Travis, and the Alamo, it's actually a very, very small area, only about five acres. But for 13 days, these 180 defenders of the Alamo held off this, you know, army of thousands of Mexican troops, but uh from February 23rd to March 6th, they they fought this battle, but eventually it was just too much for them to stand and the Mexican troops were able to get in. Uh, all of the defenders of the Alamo were killed, except for a few uh women and children. But in the meantime, while that was going on uh at the Alamo, about 150 miles to the east at Washington on the Brazos, uh Texas declared independence from Mexico on March 2nd of 1836. Well, of course, then they hear word of the Alamo and they get really irate about it, begin to yell, remember the Alamo. But they set up a temporary government and they named Sam Houston as the commander-in-chief of this new government. Then on March 27th of 1836, we have this thing known as the uh massacre of the Goliad massacre, where Santa Ana ordered the execution of 300 unarmed uh Texas soldiers. And so now the rally cry became not only remember the Alamo, but also remember Goliad and what happened there. The war culminated at the Battle of San Jacinto, uh near present day uh Houston, Texas where on April 21st, 1836, Sam Houston and about 900 Texans Texans launched a surprise attack against Santa Ana and his about 1,300 troops were camped there. And in the battle, 700 Mexican troops are captured, among them Santa Ana himself, and on May 14th, 1836, uh Santa Ana signed a treaty recognizing Texas as its own independent country. Now, immediately upon getting independence, Texas wanted to join the United States. But there's one big issue here, the issue that's been the issue all along. It's going to throw off the balance between free and slave states in the Union. So, the United States puts them off and says, no. All right, Southerners, they were big time in favor of Texas joining the Union, because they knew it was going to be a slave state. Northerners of course, were very opposed to it, because they knew it was going to be a slave state and they did not want it to be added. So, from 1836 to 1845, Texas basically functioned as an independent country. And it wasn't until 1845 that it was annexed, uh as a slave state and then the following year Iowa was admitted as a free state that Texas was able to come in and join the Union. But we're already beginning to see here a lot of fighting over, you know, these free and slave states, a lot of sectionalism growing here, especially as we have westward expansion. Okay, so, hopefully you learned something there and thanks for watching.
