The Alamo

Greedy for greater land, the Americans wanted to colonize the vacant land of Texas. Moses Austin, in an attempt to start a colony in Texas, asked Mexico for permission, and they responded positively to his son Stephen Austin due to MosesЎЇ unfortunate death (Sanchez 16). Soon the AmericanЎЇs population rapidly grew into the tens of thousands and spread widely in the large frontier. However, Mexico, feeling apprehensive about such quick expansion, attempted to contain such growth. The Americans felt greatly unwelcomed and their distaste and dissatisfaction with the MexicoЎЇs law started to create a friction that would later bring about the Texas Independence.

The Americans were unused to the Mexican laws and the Spanish customs and had a different ideology about owning slaves, and thus conflict was bound to occur. The Americans abhorred the MexicanЎЇs centralized rules and simply refused to concur with them. Having been accustomed to the American democratic laws, the Americans had difficulties following the MexicanЎЇs laws (Frantz 55). Although, the Mexican government was really lenient to the Americans, this leniency quickly changed with Americans negative attitude toward the Mexican government. However, the Mexican government would not allow Texas to become an independent state blaming it on the fact that they had little population. Soon the government canceled the exemption of Americans paying tax, which really frustrated the Americans (McComb 37). To further the conflict, Bradburn from Mexico was arrested for not following the Mexican laws. This caused a small conflict between the Americans and the Mexicans in Velasco where Mexicans were forced to surrender with the exhaustion of their ammunition. Another conflict was over the issue of slavery. The MexicanЎЇ emancipated all the slaves during the Mexican Independence Day while the Texans, mostly coming from the slave state south, felt the slaves were vital. Another big issue that led to such conflict was the lack of good communication. The miscommunication led to misunderstanding, which caused the pressure to build up even more. The main problem, however, was that Santa Anna, a strict president of Mexico, was beginning to concentrate his power more greatly and demanded that Texans (or Americans) do as they were told (McComb 38). However, the Texans were unwilling to listen and this would cause the battle between U.S and Texas more evident and prominent.

Although there were several battles in the Texas Independence, the most famous battle was the Battle of Alamo, which can be the main representation of this independence. Though the Texans were whining about the strict rule of Santa Anna, they had an ill-prepared army and it seemed evident that the Texans would be easily crushed. Sam Houston was the main commander of the force with the assistance from Travis, leading the regular armies with Bowie commanding the heroic volunteers (McDonald 31).

When the Mexican army troops came to Texas to take over, the Texas citizens escaped the outnumbered troops into the abandoned mission of Alamo, hoping that the troops wouldnЎЇt attack the mission. However, they were strongly mistaken, the troops showed no mercy as they shot everyone dead including Davy Crockett. Many of the relatives of the Texans from America came to assist, but the two week long siege was easily won by the triumphant troops of Santa Anna. However, Houston and the fellow Texans didnЎЇt easily give up, and on the morning of April 20, Houston was in luck as Santa AnnaЎЇs troop was taking a rest (Bankston 37-38). When the Mexican troops were taking a quiet rest, Houston quickly attacked these troops and forced them to surrender. Although, cowardly Santa Anna attempted to conceal his identity, he was found out and captured (Bankston 38). The reason for Alamo being one of the most famous battles was because of heroism (McComb 42). The Americans were willing to work together as a union to defeat the virtual dictatorship of Santa Anna.

Finally after the disastrous war for independence, the Texans and the Mexicans were successfully able to come up with the peace treaty to end the war. The war started in 1846 and finally ended in 1848. The

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