9. Texas, the Alamo, and the Mexican-American War
For young students the story of the Texas Revolution is that of the Alamo and San Jacinto; Davy Crockett and Sam Houston; and the Mexican dictator Santa Anna. For older students, the truth about the Texas Revolution reveals more information, beyond the ken of young minds. Texas was a state of Mexico, sparsely populated with Mexicans, and controlled by the Indian tribes, primarily the Cheyenne. To populate the region the Mexican government invited Americans and Europeans to settle there, offering vast tracts of land. Americans, for the most part from the slave-holding Southern states, flocked to the newly opened lands in numbers which forced the Mexican government to issue restrictions on further immigration.
When the new Mexican constitution banned slavery, the Americans, then called Texians, rebelled. The rebellion led to the siege of the Alamo and the subsequent defeat of the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto. The creation of the Republic of Texas left the border with Mexico ill-defined. Texas later accepted annexation and statehood with the United States, and American troops were stationed in the disputed border areas, leading to war with Mexico and American seizure of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, as well as parts of other states. As with the Louisiana Purchase, a detailed study of the American conquest of the Southwest should be increased over time, as students grow older, throughout their study of American history.