Spanish Texas 1763-1819

Spanish Texas 1763-1819

Vocabulary

permission

Spain Closes East Texas Missions

Spain Acquires Louisiana

Nacogdoches Founded

Vocabulary

being allowed to do something

Treaty

balance

boundary

The Spanish government sent the Marques de Rubi, a Spanish officer, to investigate the need for missions. After more than 7,000 mile tour of New Spain, Rubi realized that there was a great difference between what Spain claimed and what it controlled. Spain had neither the wealth nor the power to defend its missions.

epidemic

The leader of the East Texans, Gil Ybarbo, pleaded for permission for the families to return to their former homes. The governor refused, but he did allow some of them to settle along the Trinity River.

Great Britain’s victory over France in the Seven Year’s War (1756-1763) suddenly changed the balance of power in the Americas. Under the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Great Britain gained Canada and all French land east of the Mississippi River, except New Orleans. Spain received New Orleans and all French land west of the Mississippi. With Spain controlling Louisiana, the boundary between Spanish and foreign territory became the Mississippi River. France was no longer a colonial power in North America. Spanish officials questioned whether the East Texas missions and presidios were still needed.

something that indicates limits

equal distribution of weight

A formal agreement between two states usually signed to end fighting

a rapid spread of disease

isolated

Awesome!

alliance

reluctant

abandon

During the next four years, the colony did well. Then crop failure, a smallpox epidemic, and conflict with the Comanches forced the colonists to move. In early 1779, Ybarbo, without government approval, led the settlers back into the East Texas timberlands. They built the town of Nacogdoches near the abandoned Mission Guadalupe.

all alone

Independent

To leave completely and finally

an agreement between two or more nations

unwilling; not wanting to

not influenced or controlled by others

Nacogdoches was deep in the Piney Woods. Some of its early settlers had once lived in French Louisiana. Because they were isolated, the French colonists in Texas developed a more independent way of life. Spain had little control over what the settlers did.

Rubi suggested that Spain abandon all its missions in Texas except those at San Antonio and Goliad. Then Spain could concentrate on forming alliances, or working agreements, with the Comanches. Both would fight the Apaches. He also recommended that Spanish settlers in East Texas should move closer to San Antonio for protection. Rubi also called for a line of 15 forts stretching across northern Mexico from near Laredo to the Gulf of California. His plan was adopted in 1772.

In 1773, the new Spanish governor of Texas, the Baron de Ripperda closed the three remaining missions in East Texas and ordered the 500 settlers in the area to move to San Antonio. The East Texans did so, but reluctantly. San Antonio was hotter and drier than East Texas and required irrigation for farming. The best land had already been taken by earlier settlers, leaving the newcomers only rocky soil to farm.

conflict

fund

a supply of money or resources

disagreement, clash

vocabulary

Spain Helps the American Colonists

The United States Buys Louisiana

Disagreements and Defeats

enter

wrestle

supply

support

recruit

When Spain entered the war against Great Britain in 1779, the governor raised an army of soldiers from Spain, Mexico, and Cuba. He also recruited African and Native American volunteers. The Spanish efforts kept New Orleans and the lower Mississippi Valley out of British hands.

Settlers Face Many Dangers

In 1800, Spain was forced to give Louisiana back to France. Three years later, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for about $15 million. The territory doubled the size of the United States.

Unrest Grows in Texas

a struggle

a new member of an army

to come or go in

to bear or hold up

to furnish or provide

After the American Revolution, British and American leaders signed a peace treaty in 1783. Great Britain recognized the United States as an independent nation. The new nation’s boundaries were set at Canada in the North, the Mississippi River in the West, and Florida in the South. Spain’s claim to Florida was reconfirmed, and both the United States and Great Britain were granted trading rights on the Mississippi.

While the Spanish were wrestling with problems in Texas, Americans east of the Mississippi River were fighting for independence from Great Britain. During the American Revolution, both France and Spain supported the colonists. The governor of Spanish-held Louisiana; opened the port of New Orleans to American ships and supplied weapons, clothing, money, and medical supplies to American troops.

migrate

occupy

force

purchase

recognize

to make happen

to buy

To go from one region , country, or area to another

to acknowledge or accept formally

to dwell or live in

vocabulary

Disputes About Boundaries

Americans Migrate to Texas

Vocabulary

smuggle

controversy

compromise

insist

haven

In 1819, the United States and Spain signed the Adams-Onis Treaty, settling the boundary dispute. Spain transferred Florida to the United States and agreed to the Sabine River as the eastern boundary of Texas. In return, the United Staes surrendered all claims to Texas. The Neutral Ground was now in U.S. territory.

official

elected

appointed

resounding

any place of shelter and safety

quarrel

to import or export (goods) secretly, in violation of the law, especially without payment of legal duty.

contention, strife, or argument.

a settlement of differences by mutual concessions

to be emphatic, firm, or resolute on some matter of desire, demand, intention,

For several years, Spanish and American authorities argued about the boundary. Finally, the two nations made a compromise. Neither Spain nor the United States would occupy the area between the Sabine River and the Arroyo Hondo-Calcasieu line. This territory became the neutral ground. Between 1806 and 1819, no nation governed the neutral ground. It soon became a haven where smugglers and fugitives from both Spanish and American territories could escape the law.

Peter Bean was only one of many Americans who migrated into Spanish Texas. Some were farmers and traders. Other Americans who came to Texas were adventurers. Some of these plotted to seize control of Texas from Spain.

Arrendondo executed settlers in San Antonio and East Texas whom he suspected of helping Gutierrez de Lara. Other settlers were forced to leave Texas. As a result, the towns of Goliad and Nacogdoches were virtually deserted.

Hidalgo Calls for Independence

Gutierrez-Magee Expedition

fugitive

seize

transfer

surrender

spy

Vocabulary

There was a controversy between the United States and Spain about the boundary between Spanish Texas and Louisiana. The United States insisted that the American territory extend at least to the Sabine River and possibly include Texas. Spain claimed that the eastern boundary was a line from the Arroyo Hondo to the Calcasieu River in Louisiana.

Soon, however, trouble swelled within the Republican army. The Americans and Mexican quarreled over the nature of the new government for Texas. The Americans favored a government with elected officials, like that of the United States. The Mexicans preferred a government with appointed officials, much like New Spain’s. Gutierrez de Lara also wanted Texas to remain a part of Mexico. American leaders pushed for Texas either to become independent or become part of the United States.

an angry dispute or altercation

chosen by vote, as for an office

impressively thorough or complete

a person appointed or elected to an office or charged with certain duties.

by, through, or as a result of an appointment

In August 1813 the troubled Republican army fought its last battle near the Medina river, about 20 miles south of San Antonio. Spanish forces won a resounding victory. Most of the Republican army troops were killed on the battlefield. Others surrendered and then were executed. A few survivors made their way back to the United States.

reserve

to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another

liberation

to take hold of suddenly or forcibly; grasp

independence

a person who is fleeing, from prosecution, intolerable circumstances, etc.; a runaway

executed

rebels

to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress

a person who keeps close and secret watch on the actions and words of another or others.

to keep back or save for future use

One of Hidalgo’s followers, Juan Bautista de las Casas, seized San Antonio and other Texas towns. Forces loyal to the Spanish government, led by Juan Zambrano, captured Casas on March 2, 1811. Soon after, Spanish control over Texas was reestablished.

“My children: a new dispensation [order of things] comes to us today. Will you receive it? Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the land stolen 300 years ago from your forefathers?...We must act at once…Will you not defend your religion and your rights as true patriots?”

For a time, Hidalgo’s forces did well in battle. Their failure to capture Mexico City doomed Hidalgo’s cause. He was captured in 1811 and executed.

to be killed

freedom from the control

to free (a nation or area) from control by a foreign or oppressive government.

a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country.

Many Mexicans became unhappy with Spanish rule. The best jobs in Mexico were reserved for men sent from Spain as administrators. Spain increased Mexican taxes to help pay for wars in Europe. This and other acts greatly increased Mexican unhappiness with foreign rulers. On September 16, 1810, Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla issued a call for freedom from Spain. Hidalgo and his followers believed that the people of Mexico should govern themselves. In his call, or grito, for independence, Father Hidalgo appealed to the people:

lieutenant

jubilant

establish

capture

Goofiest person ever

Hidalgo’s death did not stop the movement for independence. Rebels sent one of Father Hidalgo’s supporters, Bernardo Guutierrez de Lara, to the United States for money and supplies. After Hidalgo was defeated, Gutierrez de Lara decided to invade Texas to free it from Spanish rule. Gutierrez de Lara began recruiting soldiers to help in the liberation, or freeing of Texas. A Young lieutenant, Augustus Magee, resigned from the American army and joined Gutierrez de Lara. Together, they planned to establish a government in which voters would choose people to represent them. Because such a government is called a republic, their forces were called the Republican Army of the North.

showing great joy

a person of rank in the military

to found or create

to take by force; take prisoner

cargo

pirate

pardoned

legend

deserted

a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.

a nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.

without inhabitants

the lading or freight of a ship

a release from the penalty of an offense

From the first settlements at Jamestown in Virginia, and Plymouth in Massachusetts, settlers in the English colonies had been moving westward. By the 1760s, they occupied all the area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains. During the Revolution they migrated over the mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. With the purchase of Louisiana, Anglos pushed across the Mississippi toward Spanish-held Texas.

One adventurer was Philip Nolan, who had come to the United States from Ireland. Nolan made his money as a mustanger—capturing and selling wild horses—often in Texas. Then Spaniards, however, suspected that Nolan was a spy, working for General Wilkinson, the American military commander in Louisiana. Spanish officials warned Nolan not to come back to Texas, but he ignored the warning.

In the fall of 1800, Nolan and a party of 27 again entered Texas. They spent the winter in Central Texas trapping horses. In March 1801, Spanish soldiers surrounded their camp on the Brazos River and demanded their surrender, Nolan refused. Fighting broke out, and Nolan and another man were killed. Upon surrendering, Nolan’s men were marched to a Mexican prison. Peter Ellis Bean is one member of the Nolan party known to have survived and gained freedom.

Revolutionaries and Pirates

Aury returned to Galveston Island only to find that another pirate, Jean Laffite, now controlled it. Aury sailed on to Florida where he joined British adventurers trying to seize that area from the Spanish.

Spain tried to colonize Texas throughout the late 1700’s, but conflict with the Apaches and Comanches interfered. The governor was anxious to make the province safe for settlers but did not have the troops to do this. Spain was losing its hold on Texas, and by 1778, many people agreed with the governor when he said:

The revolutionaries secured the aid of the French pirate Louis Michel Aury, who sailed the Gulf waters. Mexicans who favored independence from Spain appointed Aury as commissioner of Galveston. For several months Aury captured Spanish vessels along the coast of Texas. Then in April 1817, he transported an expedition of rebel troops along the Mexican coast under the command of Fransisco Mina.

Jean Laffite had aided the American army against the British during the War of 1812. For this service President James Madison pardoned Laffite for previous crimes, and the pirate moved his base to Galveston Island. Laffite said he was fighting for Mexican independence, but he was really more interested in capturing Spanish vessels for their valuable cargoes. When some of Laffite’s pirates attacked American ships, the United States Navy stopped them. Laffite abandoned Galveston Island and sailed southward into the Caribbean. According to legend, Laffite buried a treasure of gold and silver on one of the islands along the Gulf Coast, but the treasure has never been found.

In August 1812 the Gutierrez-Magee army, including Tejanos, Native Americans, and Anglo Americans, crossed the Sabine River and easily captured Nacogdoches. Soon other recruits joined, and the army—now 300 strong—moved toward Goliad.

The Republican army captured Goliad in early November. A larger Spanish force laid siege to Goliad for three months. Magee died in February 1813. His place as commander of the troops was taken by another American, Samuel Kemper.

In February the Spanish troops, suffering heavy losses, retreated from Goliad toward San Antonio. Kemper’s forces chased the retreating Spanish troops and defeated them in battle on March 29. Spanish officials surrendered San Antonio to the jubilant Republican forces. The leaders of the Republican army issued a declaration of independence for Texas.

Even though the movement to free Texas from Spanish rule had failed, revolutionaries continued their activities in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast. A few of the survivors of the Gutierrez-Magee expedition found safety on Galveston Island. The island was an idea base for operations against the Spanish fleet sailing the Gulf of Mexico.

“There is not an instant by day or night when reports do not arrive from all these ranches of barbarities and disorders falling on us. Totally unprotected as we are, they will result in the absolute destruction and loss of this province.”

In the 1790’s, Spain stopped funding the Texas missions. The Spanish government insisted that the churches support themselves. In the government’s view, the missions had already succeeded in transforming the mission-based Native Americans into “good citizens.”