Looking at the Texas Revolution Through A Critical Lens
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It was the 2nd of March 1836. The place was a tiny, ramshackle town, which had sprung up around a ferry landing next to the Brazos River. A group of 59 men, nominally Mexican, sat in an unfinished frame building, to sign themselves free of Mexican control and to establish a free and independent TEXAS. This was the birth of the Republic of Texas.
The Texas Revolution, also called the War of Texas Independence, took place from October 1835 to April 1836 between Mexico and Texas colonists. It resulted in Texas’s independence from Mexico and the founding of the Republic of Texas (1836–45). Although the Texas Revolution initiated with the Battles of Gonzales and ended with the Battle of San Jacinto, armed conflict and political turmoil with Texians (Anglo-American settlers of the Mexican state, Texas) and Tejanos (Texans of mixed Mexican and Indian descent) against the Mexican government was ongoing since at least 1826.
The Texan revolution, and eventually the declaration of independence, is an event much talked about is seen as a defining episode of the nation’s history. The conversations involving the breaking away of Texas from the borders of Mexico to form its own republic have inspired intensely polarized feelings, with one side attributing Mexico's loss of her northernmost provinces to a conscious premeditated conspiracy by Anglo-Americans of the United States to pilfer Texas however they could.
At the other end of the gamut are those who blame Texas's misrule and the ruthless dictatorship of Mexican General, Antonio LĂłpez de Santa Anna, for triggering a fully warranted rebellion by Anglo-Americans and Tejanos.
Such extreme positions are far too black and white, to explain the controversial events of 1835-36. In truth, many valuable dynamics were at play before, during and after the Texan Revolution that massively influenced the political, cultural, and social climate of the warring sides.
While you may have read many versions of the revolt, in view of the upcoming Texan Independence Day, we aim to look at some of the factors that may have caused and aggravated the revolutionary situation in pre-independence Texas, a part of Mexico. The areas we will be looking into are
The Rapid Expansion of the United States of America
Post-Revolutionary Mexico and its Troubles
Differing Views About Types of Government
Cultural Issues and Complications
Racism and Slavery
Texas Revolution and its Contributing Factors
The Rapid Expansion of the United States of America
The Texas Revolution started on 2nd of October 1835 with the Battle of Gonzales and concluded on 21st April 1836, with the Battle of San Jacinto. However, it is impossible to propose set limits in terms of time and duration of military conflicts, cultural misunderstandings, and political differences that played a role in this seminal revolution. The seeds of dispute were planted during the last years of Spanish rule (1815–21), when Anglo Americans moved across the Neutral Ground and the Eastern Bank of the Red River into Spanish territory, squatted and populated Spanish Texas.
While most illegal residents only wanted to "settle and live," there were filibusters such as Philip Nolan and Jean Lafitte, who captured portions of the Spanish-Texan lands for personal and political gains. A filibuster was a person who would seek to enter a region and travel across it under the pretext of conducting business. Overtime, they would by dubious means, seize and claim ownership of unowned lands and property.
One of the leading reasons for the loss of Texas from Mexico's territory was the historic colonialism of The United States and its expansion that grew leaps and bounds even before the American Revolution.
Warring against the British, in The Revolutionary War (1775-83), also known as the American Revolution, Americans had conquered the Ohio River Valley, the Trans Mississippi West of Kentucky and Tennessee and portions of Louisiana Purchase territory. By the time Mexico was free of Spain's control (1821), Americans had already reached the new nation's border.
Was its virgin farmland what they wanted?
Or was it that they wanted to see the United States as a transcontinental nation stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
At the rate that the U.S had been occupying foreign territories, Anglo-Americans believed that the American acquisition of northern Mexico was inevitable.
Having just gained independence from Spain in 1821, the young Republic of Mexico wanted to gain control of its northern areas, which under the Spanish rule had functioned as an extensive and largely empty buffer area against invasion from French and British empires to the north.
That northern region became the state of Coahuila and Texas under the federal system created by the Mexican constitution of 1824. It was sparsely populated by Mexicans and mostly by the Apache and Comanche Native American peoples. Because most Mexicans were reluctant to move to Texas, the Mexican government permitted Americans and other immigrants to settle there. This was already happening, albeit at a slower pace, as Spain had opened the area to Anglo-American settlement in 1820. Mexico took it a step further by exempting specified taxes for the immigrants for seven years under the Imperial Colonization Law of January 1823. Additionally, though slavery was banned in Mexico since 1829, it allowed American slaveholders to continue using the labor of enslaved people.
Moses Austin (the city’s namesake) was one of the very first Americans who readily took advantage of this policy, and upon reaching an agreement with the Spanish governor, received a hefty commission to bring over 300 families and establish a colony. His son, Stephen Austin thus became the first empresario in Texas. Many Americans found Mexico's giveaway of large portions of land to settlers in exchange for becoming law-abiding citizens of the Republic, an irresistible offer.
This however, far from proves a premeditated scheme by the American government to snatch Texas from Mexico in the decade between 1826-36. Although allegations were made in both the United States and Mexico during and after the revolution, such a collusion - much less that it was responsible for events in Texas - has never been proven.
Even so, without a multitude of Anglo-Americans in Texas (who missed their old country and its government) a revolutionary war would not have broken out in Texas in 1835.
Post-Revolutionary Mexico and its Troubles
Due to nationalist movements and Napoleonic disturbances in Europe, the political situation in New Spain was mostly unsettling. The Peninsular War of Independence (1807-14), fought by Spain and Portugal against the invading forces of France, left it beaten and weak. This ultimately led to the end of the Spanish rule in Mexico (1821), after the Mexican War of Independence.
The preoccupation with internal conflicts and disputes in the immediate aftermath of Mexico’s own struggle for independence was another reason that led to her loss of Texas. Between 1821 and 1835 while Mexicans were figuring out how to create a government that all of her citizens could live with, Texas drifted away.
Political turbulence, and internal revolts are not unique to any nation trying to find its own separate identity. If we go back to the pre-independence era of 1776 to 1788 in American history, we see that it was a time of great unrest. The economy was in shambles from each state circulating its own form of money, and there were lingering British troops that did not seem to want to go back. Law holders bickered over the kind of government they wanted to create and run. Imagine if Americans, having just gained independence, would have to defend a vulnerable state on its borders? This was exactly the political situation that Mexico found itself in.
While those in central Mexico fought over issues like the role of the military and church, monarchists and Republicans, centralists, confederalists and federalists; the Anglo-American Texans and Tejanos carried on living without much governance from Mexico City. Texas was so remote from Mexico City, that the Anglo Americans were able to get away with practically anything. When Mexico finally turned around to focus on the rising disturbances in Texas, it clamped down hard on restraints in order to try and regulate the deteriorating situation. In response, Anglo Americans resisted and revolted.
Texas’ physical seclusion from both the Mexican and American central governments was also a key reason why there began an uprising. Even if it didn't have internal struggles going on, Mexico would have had a tough time trying to keep control over Texas. The United States would have had an equally difficult time to rein in the Anglo Americans in Texas. Part of the reason why the immigrants got used to living by their laws was that no government was effectively controlling the isolated province.
Differing Views About Types of Government
The most immediate trigger of the Texas Revolution was the refusal of many Texans, both Anglo and Mexican, to accept the governmental changes authorized by "Siete Leyes", or the Seven Laws (a set of constitutional laws that altered the organizational structure of Mexico) which gave almost complete power to the Mexican national government and Mexican military general and politician, Antonio LĂłpez de Santa Anna.
Most of the settlers in Texas came from the Deep South, a region swept by the Jacksonian Democracy – a 19th century political ideology that believed that governmental authority should be held primarily by local and state governments. Many Texan residents-Mexicans included, felt the same too.
In October 1835, General Antonio LĂłpez de Santa Anna triumphed with the enactment of "Siete Leyes". This move:
discarded the federalist Constitution of 1824,
abolished all state legislatures including that of Coahuila y Tejas, and
replaced states with "departments" headed by governors and appointed councils selected by and serving Santa Anna.
There was military resistance in response to this and many citizens saw it as an all-powerful government headed by President General Santa Anna.
Cultural Issues and Complications
The American and Mexican cultures were quite different from each other and this difference was clearly felt when the Anglos were expected to make tremendous changes to their lifestyle if they wanted to fit well in their new homes.
Once they settled in, the Anglos, who had agreed to learn and use the Spanish language as part of the admittance agreement, complained about the usage of Spanish for all official business in Texas. Soon after, they began pushing for an exemption for Anglos Texans whereby the official language could be English, instead of Spanish.
The Anglos had also consented to practice Roman Catholics as the church was the official religion for all of the Republic of Mexico. Even if most immigrants had made the promise in good faith, they found it complicated after arriving in Texas. Since most of them came from the Deep South, they were either Southern Baptists or Methodists. Relations between these fundamentalist groups were stretched to the extent that each thought of the others as infidels. And so, many Anglos continued to practice their Protestant faiths while living in Texas. This exacerbated the urge to demand a change.
Another cultural shock came to the Anglo Americans when they tried to understand the judicial system with which the Mexicans operated. While the former considered a person innocent until proven guilty based on the English common law, the latter presumed the guilt of a transgressor, until proven otherwise, as per the Napoleanic Code. Needless to say, judicial proceedings were rife with allegations of tyranny.
Racism and Slavery
Unfortunately, the role of racism in the Texas Revolution is not explored enough and to ignore it as one of the factors, is naive. Both sides felt racially superior to the other. Racial prejudice made each misread and misinterpret the actions and attitudes of the other.
Anglo hate towards Texas Native Indians and people of color was, to say it mildly, at its worst. Anglo Americans justified violence against Native Indians and conjured a 'self-defense' ideology that legitimized violence against Indians for generations to come.
There is even lesser notable mention of what happened to the Indians or Blacks after the Texas Constitution legislation of 1836. The document not only encouraged the internal slave trade but also codified slavery into the law. This meant that no free African American could live in Texas. What ensued was an influx of slaves that skyrocketed through 1845, after Texas annexed to the United States. There is no talk of the free Black men and women who lived in Spanish Texas for decades before Stephen F. Austin landed there. Nor does the “Old Three Hundred”, a nickname used to refer to the initial 300 families who migrated to Texas, disclose anything about the numerous enslaved Africans that white Southerners brought with them from Missouri, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee in the early 1820s.
While there are countless explanations for either side of the Texas Revolution, still missing from the debate is an authentic and comprehensive African American interpretation and a perspective of what the Black American experienced during the revolution.
At the end of it all, in early March 1836, a group of 59 delegates, all men, all white, except for three; one Mexican liberal, Lorenzo de Zavala and two Tejanos, - José Antonio Navarro and his uncle, José Francisco Ruiz, met in Washington-on-the-Brazos and declared their independence from Mexico. There were no women, African Americans or Indigenous peoples who attended this convention. This was par for the course (unfortunately) at this time for almost any event, historical or otherwise. But the fact that the Texas we know today was framed largely without the input of its majority of population should be acknowledged.
The Texas Revolt was a significant nineteenth century historical event, with consequences not only for Mexico and the United States, but particularly for both countries’ indigenous populations.
This year, as we celebrate another year of our state being free and independent, our diverse history is reflected in the present-day Texas we live in-multi-cultural and varied. It is important that in our celebrations, we be supportive of the past that has been largely sidelined but had an equally important part to play in our gaining independence.
Want to know some cool evens happening this year for Texas Independence Day? Check them out here!
