The Republic of Texas (Spanish: República de Tejas), or simply Texas, was a short-lived sovereign country in North America from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas was bordered by Mexico to the west and southwest, the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, the two U.S. states of Louisiana and Arkansas to the east and northeast, and U.S. unorganized territory encompassing parts of the current U.S. states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming to the north. The Texas Revolution began when hostilities broke out on October 2, 1835, shortly before the regime of Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna adopted a new Mexican constitution known as the Siete Leyes that abolished the authority of the states under the federal republic and established a centralized government. The revolution lasted for over six months. On March 2, 1836, delegates in convention proclaimed the Texas Declaration of Independence. Major fighting ended on April 21, 1836, with the Treaties of Velasco that ended the fighting and secured Texas' independence.
The Mexican Congress refused to recognize the independence of the Republic of Texas, as the Treaties of Velasco were signed by Santa Anna under duress as prisoner, and the treaties were not approved by the Mexican Congress. Much of the territory claimed by the new republic was controlled and disputed by Mexico or the Comancheria; Mexico considered it a rebellious province during its entire existence. The Anglo-American residents of the area and of the republic were referred to as Texians, while Texans of Mexican descent were referred to as Tejanos.
Having gained independence following the revolution, Texas engaged in complex relations with various countries. European powers (France and the United Kingdom), along with the United States, hesitated to recognize the new republic, in deference to established relations with Mexico, but over time recognized Texas and adopted trade relations. Intermittent conflicts between Mexico and Texas continued into the 1840s.
Texas was annexed by the United States on December 29, 1845, and was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on that day, with the transfer of power from the Republic to the new state of Texas formally taking place on February 19, 1846. However, the United States inherited the southern and western border disputes with Mexico, which had refused to recognize Texas' sovereignty or to accept U.S. offers to purchase the territory. Consequently, the annexation led to the Mexican–American War.
History
Spanish Texas
During the late Spanish colonial era, Texas had been one of the Provincias Internas, and the region is known in the historiography as Spanish Texas. Though claimed by Spain, it was not formally colonized by the empire until competing French interests at Fort St. Louis were a catalyst for Spain to establish permanent settlements in the area.
The region was long occupied and claimed by the existing indigenous groups of Native Americans. During the period from the 1690s–1710s, sporadic missionary expeditions took place before the Spanish established San Antonio as a permanent civilian settlement.
Following defeats by the British in North America and Europe, in 1762 Bourbon France ceded to Bourbon Spain most of its claims to the interior of North America, including its claim to Texas, as well as the vast interior west of the Mississippi River, which became Spanish Louisiana. During the years 1799 to 1803, the height of the Napoleonic Empire in France, Spain returned Louisiana to France.
Following the loss of numerous troops and failure to suppress the revolution by slaves and free people of color in Saint-Domingue, Napoleon decided to abandon North America; he sold what became known as the Louisiana Purchase to the United States. The status of Texas during these transfers was unclear and was not resolved until 1819, when the Adams–Onís Treaty between Spain and the United States ceded Spanish Florida to the United States, and established a clear boundary between Texas and Louisiana.
Starting in 1810 with the outbreak of the Mexican War of Independence, New Spain sought a different relationship with the Spanish crown. Some Anglo Americans fought on the side of Mexico against Spain in filibustering expeditions. One of these, the Gutiérrez–Magee Expedition (also known as the Republican Army of the North), consisted of a group of about 130 Anglo Americans under the leadership of Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara. Gutiérrez de Lara initiated Mexico's secession from Spain with efforts contributed by Augustus Magee. Bolstered by new recruits, and led by Samuel Kemper (who succeeded Magee after his death in battle in 1813), the expedition gained a series of victories against soldiers led by the Spanish governor, Manuel María de Salcedo.
Their victory at the Battle of Rosillo Creek convinced Salcedo to surrender on April 1, 1813; he was executed two days later. On April 6, 1813, the victorious Republican Army of the North drafted a constitution and declared the independent Republic of Texas, with Gutiérrez as its president. Soon disillusioned with the Mexican leadership, the Anglo Americans under Kemper returned to the United States.
The ephemeral Republic of Texas came to an end on August 18, 1813, with the Battle of Medina, where the Spanish Army crushed the Republican Army of the North. The harsh reprisals against the Texas rebels created a deep distrust of the Royal Spanish authorities. Veterans of the Battle of Medina became leaders of the Texas Revolution and signatories of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico 20 years later.
After the failure of the expedition, there was no serious push for a "Republic of Texas" for another six years, until 1819. That year Virginian filibuster James Long invaded Spanish Texas in an attempt to liberate the region. The Americans were eager to gain territory where they could extend slavery for agricultural and other development.
Mexican Texas
The establishment of Mexican Texas in 1821 coincided with the Austin-led colonization, leading to animosity between Mexican authorities and the acceleration of American immigration to Texas. The First Mexican Empire was short-lived, being replaced by a republican form of government in 1823. In 1824, the sparsely populated territories of Texas and Coahuila were joined to form the state of Coahuila y Tejas. The capital was controversially located in southern Coahuila, the part farthest from Texas.
Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 had Texas become part of the newly formed Mexican state. During this period, Stephen F. Austin led a group of American settlers, known as the Old Three Hundred, who were granted permission to establish colonies in Texas. However, tensions between the Mexican government and these American settlers grew, fueled by cultural differences, economic disparities, and the issue of slavery. The Mexican government's attempts to restrict American immigration and enforce its laws led to increased resentment among the settlers, culminating in the Texas Revolution.
Following Austin's lead, additional groups of immigrants, known as Empresarios, continued to colonize Mexican Texas from the United States. A spike in the price of cotton, and the success of plantations in Mississippi, encouraged large numbers of white Americans to migrate to Texas and obtain slaves to try to replicate the plantation business model. In the Law of April 6, 1830, Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante outlawed American immigration to Texas, following several conflicts with the Empresarios over the status of slavery, which had been abolished in Mexico in 1829, but which the Texians refused to end. Texians replaced slavery with long-term indentured servitude contracts signed by "liberated" slaves in the United States to work around the abolition of slavery. Angered at the interference of the Mexican government, the Empresarios held the Convention of 1832, which was the first formal step in what became the Texas Revolution.
Texas Revolution
By 1834, American immigrants in the area greatly outnumbered Mexicans. Following a series of minor skirmishes between Mexican authorities and the immigrants, the Mexican government increased its military presence in Texas throughout 1834 and early 1835. Mexico created a new constitution formalized under President Antonio Santa Anna, called Siete Leyes, and began to strengthen the central government. American immigrants described it as restoring pre-enlightened forms of governance, depriving them of their rights and liberties. They objected to mandatory Catholicism and, when Santa Anna began enforcing anti-slavery laws, many feared religious coercion could be next.
In 1835, the central government split Coahuila y Tejas into two separate departments. The Texian leadership under Austin began to organize its own military, and hostilities broke out on October 2, 1835, at the Battle of Gonzales, the first engagement of the Texas Revolution. In November 1835, a provisional government known as the Consultation was established to oppose the Santa Anna regime (but stopped short of declaring independence from Mexico). On March 1, 1836, the Convention of 1836 came to order, and the next day declared independence from Mexico, establishing the Republic of Texas. The influences of English, Mexican, and American revolutionary traditions were embedded into the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Independent republic
Politics
In March 1836, David G. Burnet became the interim president of Texas, and appointed Lorenzo de Zavala as vice president at the same time, following a vote where Burnet won among convention delegates. Burnet declined to run for reelection, thereafter Sam Houston was elected as the new President of the Republic of Texas on September 5, 1836, with Burnet resigning. The second Congress of the Republic of Texas convened a month later, in October 1836, at Columbia (now West Columbia). Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, died December 27, 1836, after serving two months as Secretary of State for the new Republic.
In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia), before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. The next president, Mirabeau B. Lamar, moved the capital to the new town of Austin in 1839.
The first flag of the republic was the "Burnet Flag" (a single gold star on an azure field), followed in 1839 by official adoption of the Lone Star Flag.
Internal politics of the Republic were focused on two factions. The nationalist faction, led by Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans, and the expansion of Texas to the Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful coexistence with the Native Americans where possible. The Congress of the Republic of Texas even passed a resolution over Houston's veto, claiming The Californias for Texas. The 1844 Republic of Texas presidential election split the electorate dramatically, with the newer western regions of the Republic preferring the nationalist candidate Edward Burleson, while the cotton country, particularly east of the Trinity River, went for Anson Jones.
Armed conflicts
The Comanche Indians, whose territory included northwest Texas, furnished the main tribal opposition to the Republic, manifested in multiple raids on Mexican, indigenous, and European settlements. In the late 1830s, Sam Houston negotiated peace between Texas and the Comanches. When Lamar ascended to presidency in 1838 he reversed the Houston administration's policy towards the Native Americans. War soon resumed with the Comanches and Lamar ordered an invasion of Comancheria itself. In retaliation, the Comanches attacked Texas in a series of raids. After peace talks in 1840 ended with the massacre of 34 Comanche leaders in San Antonio, the Comanches launched a major attack deep into Texas, known as the Great Raid of 1840. Under command of Potsanaquahip (Buffalo Hump), 500 to 700 Comanche cavalry warriors swept down the Guadalupe River valley, killing and plundering all the way to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, where they sacked the towns of Victoria and Linnville. The Comanches retreated after being pursued by 186 rangers and were caught at the Battle of Plum Creek, in which they lost the plunder they had taken. Houston became president again in 1841 and, with both Texians and Comanches exhausted by war, a new peace was established.
The newly-founded Republic of Texas had ambitions to increase its territory, including the annexation of eastern New Mexico, and to control and plunder the trade along the Santa Fe Trail from the United States to New Mexico. In 1841, to those ends, President Lamar unofficially supported the Santa Fe Expedition. Texas merchants accompanied by 320 soldiers invaded New Mexico. The expedition failed; the participants were captured and imprisoned, although eventually released to return to Texas. In 1843, Texans, with the support of their government, conducted two large raids on New Mexico and commercial traffic on the Santa Fe Trail. Both raids failed. The raiders killed several Mexican citizens and soldiers, but were defeated by New Mexican ciboleros to end the first raid and forced to surrender to the U.S. army on the second.
On its part, Mexico refused to recognize Texas's independence. On March 5, 1842, a Mexican force of over 500 men, led by Ráfael Vásquez, invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They soon headed back to the Rio Grande after briefly occupying San Antonio. About 1,400 Mexican troops, led by the French mercenary general Adrián Woll, launched a second attack and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. A Texas militia retaliated at the Battle of Salado Creek while simultaneously, a mile and a half away, Mexican soldiers massacred a militia of fifty-three Texas volunteers who had surrendered after a skirmish. That night, upon their defeat, the Mexican Army retreated from San Antonio, back to Mexico, while being pursued by Texas soldiers. The Texas Army took the city of Laredo, at which point they were given official orders from Sam Houston to return to San Antonio. Several soldiers ignored this order, and launched a failed battle to retake Ciudad Mier.