In 1845 Texas was the 28th state to ever join the United States. Before the region of Texas united, the French lived there from 1684 to 1689 and then the Spaniards gained control from 1690 to 1821. After Mexico gained their independence from Spain in 1821 from ten years of war, it controlled the Texas territory from 1821 to 1836. From 1836 to 1845 Texas separated from the Mexicans and called itself “The Lone Star Republic”. Mexico wanted Texas to become a part of their country again but the Texans had been treated badly and chose to join the United States, except that the sectional differences between the North and South started to grow bigger and bigger. The inhabitants of the U.S. knew that if Texas did join, it would become a slave state. …show more content…
The residents of Texas had a different plan. Mexico had made Texans change religion to “fit into” the their culture. The inhabitants had enough. The South wanted to add Texas because it would create another slave state but the North said that annexing this country would create a war with Mexico. The Mexican leader at the time even said that if President James Polk did go through with adding Texas as a state, it would be like declaring war on Mexico. Even though President Polk thought the border of Mexico and the U.S. was the Rio Grande but the president of Mexico complained it was the Nueces river. On April 25th 1846, Polk sent troops to the Nueces River to intimidate the Tejanos (or mexicans living in Texas at the time) and this is how the Mexican-American war started. In theory, the North was right. Adding Texas did create a war but it also helped the United States conquer Manifest Destiny. More and more people wanted to finish getting all of the West and South coast of the U.S. Another plus is that Texas added more land and increased the population of the U.S. At the end of this war, we had captured Mexico City in 1848 which forced the Mexicans to surrender. This created the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty stated that the Rio Grande was now the official border of the United States and Texas. With this, the treaty gave parts of what is now known as Arizona, California, Nevada, …show more content…
In the beginning, Spain, Great Britain and Russia claimed the territory, but then Spain ceded their territory to the U.S. Until June 15th of 1846, the two countries had shared this land evenly. In the beginning, Spain, Great Britain and Russia claimed the territory. The U.S. wanted the land all for themselves. Great Britain did not want to start a war with the U.S. so they gave their part of land up. One slogan from James Polk, a supporter of Manifest Destiny, was actually ”54 degree or 40 minutes fight”. Although, the U.S. now owned the land below the 49th parallel, and Canada was up above. At the time, Native-Americans, Americans, Britains and fur traders lived in the territory. America wanted this land because it would increase manifest destiny, a belief that the U.S. had the right to expand their land all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which made the population pleased. But the more land and the more people means more controversy. The annexation of Texas was also a part of manifest destiny as well as the Oregon Treaty. The U.S. started from 13 colonies and ended up with 50
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
James K. Polk was one of many that felt extremely strong about Texas joining the Union. Silbey uses direct quotes from politicians gives a deeper outlook into Texas annexation. “That there is a large majority who would be glad to see Texas, in some way or another, united to this country, there can be no doubt.” (Silbey 81) Shortly after this widespread idea of Texas joining the country Congress was overwhelmed with bills to make Texas’s entry accomplished.
On June 23, 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed to the U.S. as a slave state. Foley notes "the annexation of Texas as a slave state…became the great white hope of northern expansionists anxious to emancipate the nation from blacks, who, it was hoped, would find a home among the kindred population of 'colored races' in Mexico."(20) But rather than uniting as kindred races, discord between poor whites, African Americans and Mexicans resulted from competition for farmland as either tenant farmers or sharecroppers.
Later they wanted to annex it but Mexico said that any attempts to annex Texas would be an act of war. The Mexican War started in 1846, when Mexicans attacked a group of United States soldiers, under the command of Zachary Taylor, in a disputed zone on the border of United States and Mexico, killing about a dozen American soldiers. President Polk told the U.S. Congress that the “cup of forbearance has been exhausted” which means the Mexicans hit the last straw and it is time for war. President Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to Nueces River vs. Rio Grande to poke the Mexicans to shoot and they did. The Mexicans have shed “American blood upon American soil.” The United States wanted war with Mexico now they have a reason to declare war ( History.com
Even throughout continuously losing battle after battle, Mexico thought that Texas was theirs. Still, the United States was still justified in going to war with Mexico. Mexico thought that they were at Texas first and that, that meant that they had the right to call the land theirs but Americans counteracted that they were positive that Texas was theirs and God even tells them that it is destiny to have Texas.
Just before Polk's presidency Texas had freed itself from Mexican rule and desired American annexation. This desire came from thousands of former American citizens that settled in Texas in the 1820s. This was due to the Mexican government supplying huge land grants to entice new settlers to Texas and secure its northern border from America. The Mexican government failed to realize the true impact that their persuasion of Americans for settlement would cause. In 1830, Mexico finally put a freeze on all American immigration due to the large number of American settlers and their certain revolution. In 1836, The Republic of Texas was est...
Texas is a unique place with a colorful history of legendary cowboys and tall tales. The state stretches over the middle section of the southern United States. Texas has experienced shifts in governmental control within the United States. French, Spanish, Mexican, and Confederacy, and all having once been in charge, not to mention the time Texas spent as an independent republic. Texas has had many battles and wars within its borders, resulting in seven different constitutions within a span of fifty years between each document.
Texas is included in the United States right now; however, it was once a part of Mexico. In 1821, Mexico was granted independence from Spain. Then Mexico was founded on a federal system of government, which also means some states were given lots of autonomy to control themselves; and Texas was once one of them. In order to improve Texas’ local development and population, Mexico’s government started a settlement program to encourage more and more people to come to Texas. One of the reasons why people liked to move to Texas was because the settlement program allowed foreigners to purchase their own land for a small price only if they have been living in Texas for at least ten years. Also, they had to regard Catholicism as their only religious
Narrative History of Texas Annexation, Secession, and Readmission to the Union. Texans voted in favor of annexation to the United States in the first election following independence in 1836. However, throughout the Republic period (1836-1845) no treaty of annexation negotiated between the Republic and the United States was ratified by both nations. When all attempts to arrive at a formal annexation treaty failed, the United States Congress passed--after much debate and only a simple majority--a Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States. Under these terms, Texas would keep both its public lands and its public debt, it would have the power to divide into four additional states "of convenient size" in the future if it so desired, and it would deliver all military, postal, and customs facilities and authority to the United States government.
Well before the beginning of the Civil War, Texas and some. of its surrounding territories were property of Spain just like its southern neighbor, Mexico. Soon after realizing their particular suppression by Spain, Mexico fought for, and won. independence from its mother country. Mexico now had control of their country and the territory of Texas.
Its breakdown in Mexican Statehood was caused by Gnereal Santa Anna’s centralized all power in Mexico City and limited U.S. trade, and the Battle of the Alamo was the final nail in the coffin. Then Texas was called the Republic of the Rio Grande, and the capital was Laredo. It was a small country that only existed in 1840, but it was never officially recognized. The second constitution was the Republic of Texas in 1836 to 1845. It was an independent nation that nearly copied the US Document. Texas mandated homestead protections, establish wife and community property rights, and legalized slavery. The Republic of Texas breakdown caused by the US Statehood in 1845. After, the Republic of Texas became the State of Texas in 1845. This breakdown when economic tyranny by the north and slavery. 1861 - 1865, the Confederate State of Texas replaced US with Confederacy in the documents of 1845 and banned the freeing of slaves. It breakdown caused by the lose of Confederacy in Civil War. The history of how Texas got to the current constitution can be compare to the Mexico history. As Texas gained their independence from Mexico, Mexico gained their independence from Spain.
13 October 1834 was the first revolutionary meeting of the American citizens who’d settled in Mexico, in the area soon to be known as Texas. The people attempted a movement that soon was laid to rest by the Mexican Congress. Attempts at independence were silenced for the time being and the elections of 1835 proceeded forward. With Santa Anna moving to control Mexico, and taxes increasing, Texans grew restless and rowdy.
In 1845 the U.S attempted to Annex Texas. Basically America wanted Texas to become one of the states rather then and independent nation by itself. At this time Texas was an independent nation that was not a part of America or Mexico. Mexico wanted to keep Texas neutral if not a part of its own country. When the U.S attempted to annex Texas Mexico became outraged, " In November 1843 Mexico had warned that if the United States should commit the 'unheard-of aggression' of seizing an integral part of 'Mexican territory' Mexico would declare war " (Bound for the Rio Grande, 62). Despite the warning the U.S attempted to annex Texas. In doing so Mexico retaliated by breaking off all diplomatic relations with the U.S. Mexico felt that the U.S was insulting them by not taking them seriously when they threatened with war. So at this point America showed a very large interest in possessing Texas. America was very close to actually acquiring Texas when they made their first mistake in the war.
Also the way Texas began in a way that said that they should be apart of the United States. In the end there were more important reasons for annexing Texas into the union, than to leave Texas the way she was. From the early days of pioneers and settlers, thousands of Americans began to move into what would become Texas. The Mexican government wanted to populate the Texas area to increase the economy. For a long period of time the Mexican government had placed many laws on the territory, but none that were deeply enforced.
It was not very easy for the United States to expand like they had in mind. The division of land had been a rising problem since the Revolutionary war. Two of the main issues during the time of the Articles of Confederation were the pricing and land measurement (Potter and Schamel 1). Throughout the course of over fifty years, the government had tried many different attempts to get people to want to expand to the west. They just didn’t really know the right way of how to go about it. Trying to sell the acres did not go over well, considering the price seemed outrageous for what they were getting. Untouched soil was very hard to start on and be successful from the beginning, which caused some problems with people not wanting to buy the land (Weiser 1). So again, a different political group tried a different approach.