Transcript

In 1821 Mexico gained its independence from Spain and became a new nation on the southern border of the United States. At that time, what became Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were the northern provinces of Mexico. They were sparsely populated and underdeveloped. And so, the new Mexican government in the 1820’s and 1830’s, headed by a general named Santa Anna, decided to aggressively recruit Americans to settle in the northern provinces of Mexico so as to generate new communities, new economic revenues, and also to “pacify the Indians living in the area.”

Hundreds and then thousands of Americans, most of them from the southern states, began migrating to Texas, which was owned by Mexico. Many of the southerners brought their slaves with them and tried to recreate in Texas the cotton economy that dominated the southern states in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

By 1835, however, the Mexican government had grown concerned that too many Americans were migrating into Texas and so they decided to cut off the flow of immigrants. Their doing so triggered a reaction among the Americans who had already moved to Texas and soon, in 1836, fighting had erupted between the Americans in Texas and the Mexican forces. That civil war ultimately resulted in the Americans gaining independence for Texas from Mexico. That then posed a very controversial question for the United States government. The new independent Republic of Texas requested annexation into the United States. Why was that controversial?

By the 1830’s, the political balance between the non-slave states of the north and the Midwest, and the slave states of the south, had become very fragile. Northerners were very concerned that the addition of Texas as a new slaveholding state would tip the balance of political power in the United States in favor of the slavery states.

Initially, Andrew Jackson and his successor, Martin Van Buren, avoided the issue of annexing Texas because it was so volatile and combustible. But during the 1840’s the new presidents, John Tyler and James K. Polk, were ardent southern expansionists who aggressively promoted the annexation of Texas. Their doing so created great political controversy and ignited the debate over slavery that would not end until the secession of the southern states and the onset of the Civil War.

Thus, Texas in some respects became a powerful catalyst for ultimately the division of the union, the secession of the southern states, and the outbreak of the Civil War.

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