Tejano History

Texas In The Age Of Mexican Independence

Tejanos |

       TEXAS IN THE AGE OF MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. The nineteenth century opened with the western world at war and Texas once again about to become a bone of contention between Spain and rivals who would dismember the Spanish empire. Called upon to resume its early role as an international border region, Texas underwent a series of upheavals during the first two decades of the 1800s that left it ill-prepared to face the challenges of being one of the least developed parts of the Provincias Internas at Mexican independence in 1821. Foreign encroachments, Indian warfare, and insurrectionary activity all contributed to demographic and economic collapse. In the end, desperate Spanish authorities authorized Anglo-American colonization in an effort to bolster the province and so produced a new set of problems for the Mexican authorities who soon replaced them.

 

Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online

   Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.