MEXICO WINS INDEPENDENCE

• 1821 Mexico wins independence from Spain• They are in the process of creating a new

government.

MEXICO NEEDS SETTLERS

• Spain had control over Texas for over 300 years with very little growth

• Spanish settlers did not want to live in Texas • No gold or silver• To get good paying jobs you needed to be in Mexico City • Farmers and cattle ranchers did not like the land • Native Americans were still a threat on the prairies of

Texas

• 1820 (just before Mexico is independent from Spain)

• First American get permission from the Spanish government to settle Americans in Texas.

• Died before he could complete his agreement

MOSES AUSTIN

• 1821

• Wanted to be a lawyer, but quit school after his father died.

• Had to go to Mexico city to regain his fathers original land grant from new Mexican government.

• Settled 300 American families in Texas.• Called the “Old 300”

• Our state capital is named after him

Known as the Father of Texas

STEPHEN FULLER AUSTIN

• Helped Moses Austin get approval from Spanish officials to settle American Colonist in Texas.

• Represented Texas in the Constitutional Convention after the revolution.

ERASMO SEGUIN

• He and his wife were Tejanos

• Brought 200 people to settle what is now Victoria

• He was the only successful Mexican Empresario

DON MARTIN DE LEON

• 1831

• An important Empresario who settled 166 families in the area present day Gonzalez.

GREEN DEWITT

OLD THREE HUNDRED

• The first 300 that Stephen F. Austin settled in Texas.• The actual number was 297

• They took all they had in covered wagons.

• Paid 12.5 cents per acre

Mr. Thomas Borden

AMERICAN COLONIST IN TEXAS

• In 1824 they settled between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers • Rivers were a primary

water source• Fertile soil, natural

resources, mild climate • There were no other

settlements in the area.

• “one of our group went hunting and killed the fattest deer I ever saw in my life. We started about nine 0’clock, continued a north course along the large body of timber which lay to our right. Prairies of the richest kind of black sandy land, intersected by branches and creeks of excellent water-heavily timbered, beautifully rolling”

MOVING TO TEXAS

• Received land grants from Mexico - Good farm land for a cheap price• 12.5 cents per acre

• There was more opportunity for people in Mexican owned Texas than in the United States.

• Had time to pay off land.

• Original Spanish agreement

• Men- 640 acres• Wives- 320 acres• Children- 160 acres• Slaves-80 acres • 1200 acres for $150

• New Mexican Agreement

• 4,605 acres per family no matter the size.

REQUIREMENTS TO LIVE IN TEXAS

• Must convert to Catholicism

• Must become Mexican citizens

• Must be of good moral character• “no drunkard, no gambler, no profane swearer, no idler”

MEXICAN FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF 1824

• Written after Mexico became independent of Spain.

• Named themselves: United Mexican States

• It was a representative Federal Republic

• Declared the official religion Catholic

STATE COLONIZATION LAW OF 1825

• Guidelines to colonization of Coahuila Y Texas

• Allowed Stephen F. Austin and other Empresario land grants.

• Page 197 in your textbook

ISSUE OF SLAVERY

• 1821- Colonist could bring slaves and buy land depending on the number of slaves brought

• Mexico- offered full citizenship to freed slaves. They were allowed to own land.