The identity of the American emigrants in the Texas Republic

Abstract

2021 marked the 200th anniversary of the year when Stephen F. Austin received a land grant from the government of the newly independent Mexico to establish the first Anglo-American settlement in Texas. The American emigrants who left their mother-country in search of economic opportunities became Mexican citizens, but their language, culture, and collective mentality remained American. When in 1835 the Mexican president, Antonio López de Santa Anna led a centralist turn that endangered the prospects of self-government and economic prosperity for Texas, the inhabitants (Anglo Americans as well as liberal Mexicans) revolted against him and established the Republic of Texas. In my paper I propose to examine the consequences of the Texas Revolution focusing on the transformation of identities. Based on primary sources – official documents, private letters and newspaper articles – I explore how people’s lives and attitudes changed when the American Congress acknowledged the independence of Texas in 1837, but refused to annex it into the Union. The main emphasis is on the intertwining aspects of immigration and citizenship that characterized the transitional period that led to the annexation of Texas to the USA in 1845.