History sheds some interesting light on the controversial border between Mexico and the American Southwest. It’s important to understand this history as we deal with issues like immigration, language, and labor across the entire United States. First, some geographical background is in order. Adams-Onis Treaty Map
The U.S. signed the Adams-OnĂs Treaty in 1819, whereby Spain granted Florida — that Andrew Jackson had already invaded anyway — to the U.S., and the U.S. promised to never take the area south of the Red River (i.e. Texas). What’s now central Texas was called Nuevas Filipinas, or the New Philippines. It was a handy treaty from the American perspective because Spain then ceded independence to Mexico in 1821, and the U.S. didn’t feel it had to abide by the Texas promise since Mexico wasn’t the country it signed the treaty with. Regardless, Mexico encouraged American settlement in its northeastern-most state, renamed after the Caddo word Tejas, to further populate and develop the area. They sold cheap land to Americans. The early Mexican government was beholden to free trade ideals and encouraged trade with the U.S. It also wanted a buffer of settlers separating its valuable mines to the south from Apache and Comanche invaders who controlled the northern part of their country.
Stephen Austin & Dog, Painted in Mexico City, Artist Unknown, 1833, Texas State Library & Archives
Recipients of these Mexican land grants were called empresarios, among whom the most famous and important were Moses Austin and his son, Stephen. Empresarios would learn Spanish and pay the Mexican government around $30 U.S. dollars (~$700 today) after six years if they successfully developed the land. They parceled out their land, in turn, to other settlers — in the Austins’ case the Old Three Hundred between 1822 and 1828. Stephen extended the settlers’ new lands from the Brazos to the Colorado River.
Stephen F. Austin (left) appreciated Mexico’s generosity and encouraged his fellow settlers to learn Spanish and serve in the Mexican military. That was partly because he stood to gain more land from Mexico the more people he drew in. Most subsequent Americans didn’t come to acculturate as Mexicans, though, but rather to Americanize the region. It was the height of the Jacksonian Era and the U.S. was bursting at the seams with ambitions of western migration. And East Texas defined the western boundary of King Cotton. Many settlers were cotton planters who brought a dedication to states’ rights and slavery with them; only now, the national power in question was Mexico’s. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829 and made Catholicism their state religion — both affronts to slaveholding Protestants accustomed to religious freedom. To tame the independent-minded gringos, Mexico quit selling them cheap land and tried to cut off immigration from the U.S. in 1830. However, it was too late.
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