The Republic of Texas and Statehood

An 1835 skirmish between colonists and Mexicans over ownership of a cannon is generally considered the opening battle of the Texas Revolution; subsequently, a provisional government was established in 1836 when delegates adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2 (which remains a state holiday). Texas’s most famous battle occurred a week later with the 13-day siege of the Alamo [1]. Mexican troops led by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna eventually killed the remaining Texas defenders.

Later that month, about 350 Texan prisoners were executed by order of Santa Anna at Goliad. With these defeats in mind, the Texans, led by Sam Houston, defeated Santa Anna’s Mexican army on April 21 with rallying cries of “Remember Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” Houston [2] reported 630 Mexican troops killed, with only 9 Texan lives lost. The revolution’s end became official in May 1836 when both sides signed the treaty of Valasco.

A year later, the United States, France, and England officially recognized the new Republic of Texas, and plots of land were soon sold in the republic’s new capital, named for Stephen F. Austin, the state’s pre-eminent colonist. In 1845, Texas became a U.S. state after U.S. Congress passed an annexing resolution, which was accepted by the republic’s Texas Constitutional Convention and overwhelmingly supported by Texas voters.

From 1846 to 1848, Texas and Mexico engaged in a boundary battle known as the U.S.–Mexican War, which ultimately established the current international boundary. A decade later, the federal government moved Native-American tribes in west and central Texas to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).