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A War for Slavery and Theft
Three hundredyears ago, Spain claimed Texas as part of its empire. Spain ruled Texas through its authorities in Mexico City.

In 1718, the Spanish colonists established a fort and a Catholic mission in what became San Antonio. They called it "The Alamo"-- and it was part of a plan to "civilize the Indians and take over the new world."

The resistance of the Native Americans, especially the Comanches, proved too much for the Spanish. Out of 25 garrisons built in Texas in the 18th century, the Spanish could only hold onto three. The Alamo was one of these.

Beginning in the early 19th century, Anglo settlers from the U.S. began illegally crossing into Texas--setting up farms and plantations on Mexican land. The slaveowners in the Southern U.S. constantly needed new land to expand into. Northwest Mexico (what is now the U.S. Southwest) looked very promising to them. The northern capitalists were also eyeing this area for opening trade to the western region of the continent and as a source of minerals.

duck's sake already stop duckin immigration?????????

In 1821, the Mexican War for Independence severed Spain's control over its North American territories. A new country, Mexico, was formed from much of New Spain, including Spanish Texas. Mexico officially adopted a constitution in 1824, based on the constitution of the United States of America. Texas became part of a newly created state, Coahuila y Tejas. The new state covered the boundaries of Spanish Texas but did not include the area around El Paso, which belonged to the state of Chihuahua and the area of Laredo, which became part of Tamaulipas.[2] The capitol of Texas moved from San Antonio to Saltillo.

Because the new Mexican government was bankrupt and had little money to devote to the military, settlers were empowered to create their own militias to provide protection from hostile Indian tribes. Texas faced raids from both the Apache and Comanche tribes, and with little military support the 3500 settlers in the region needed help. In the hope that an influx of settlers could control the Indian raids, the government liberalized its immigration policies for the region, and settlers from the United States were permitted to immigrate for the first time. The first group of colonists, known as the Old Three Hundred, arrived in 1822 to settle an empresarial grant that had been given to Stephen F. Austin by the Spanish. Twenty-three other empresarios also brought immigrants to Texas. Of these, only one of the empresarios settled citizens from within Mexico; the others came primarily from the United States.

President Anastasio Bustamante implemented several measures in 1830 to make immigration less desirable for Americans, including a prohibition on immigration to Texas from the United States, although Americans would still be welcome in other parts of Mexico. The ban and other measures did not stop U.S. citizens from migrating to Texas by the thousands. By 1834, it was estimated that over 30,000 English speakers lived in Texas, compared to only 7800 of Spanish heritage.

In 1835, President and General Antonio López de Santa Anna abrogated the Constitution of 1824 and proclaimed a new constitution that reduced the power of many of the provincial governments and increased the power of the presidency. Since the end of hostilities with Spain ten years before, the Mexican government, and Santa Anna in particular, had been eager to reassert its control over the entire country, and control of Texas was seen as particularly important as Santa Anna rightly perceived the province to be vulnerable to the westward expansion of the United States.

Originally posted by Lone Star Patriot
reply to post by jamiros

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That's a nobel thought; however - just like with this thread - I'm a Texan debating with two mexicans. Nothing I say will make them see my view.