today on the day of the Bowery were taking a look at Texas Independence
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so Texas Independence if we think about Texas we actually got to go back aways back to 1803
when we had the Louisiana Purchase so I'm always gonna 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 Adams onís treaty this is settled in
actually United States basically backs off on its 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 convert to Catholicism become Mexican
citizens and follow Mexican law which of course among that was pay taxes to Mexico you're welcome
to come live here in Texas alright so by 1830 Americans far outnumber of 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're 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 the Americans
that were living there in Texas begin to protest against these you know actions being taken by
the Mexican government so 1835 the dictator of Mexico a guy named Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna sent an army into the Texas area to put down these protests well Texans and Mexican army began
to fight first at Gonzales which is considered be the First Battle of the 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 just back towards
San Antonio with an army of between 1,800 to 6,000 troops and when he hits their course
he encounters famously about a hundred and eighty to two hundred 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 thirteen days these hundred and eighty defenders of the Alamo held off this
you know army of thousands of Mexican troops but from February 23rd to March 6 they fought this
battle but eventually it was just too much for them to stand and the Mexican troops were able
to get in all of the defenders of the Alamo were killed except for a few women and children but in
the meantime while that was going on at the Alamo about 150 miles to the east at Washington on the
braises 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 and 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 massacre of the Goliad
Massacre where Santa Ana ordered the execution of 300 unarmed Texas soldiers and so now the
rally tried to keep not only remember the Alamo but also remember Goliad and what happened there
the war culminated at the Battle of San Jacinto near present-day Houston Texas were on April 21st
1836 Sam Houston and about 900 Texas and Texans launched a surprise attack against Santa Anna 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 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 gonna 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 a big time in favor of Texas joining the Union because they
was gonna be a slave state northerners of course were very opposed to it because they knew it was
gonna be a slave state and they did not want 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 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
you