/HFWXUH 6DQ-DFLQWR²0H[LFR¶V%LJ/RVV
x A section roughly equivalent to modern Texas and the state of
Coahuila in Mexico was administratively organized into a region
known as the province of Coahuila and Texas. The Mexican
government was eager to increase population in this province and,
thus, encouraged immigrants from the United States to settle there,
even granting them Mexican citizenship. This policy proved so
successful that 20,000 new American immigrants soon poured into
the province, heavily outnumbering the Mexicans settled there.x In October 1832, the Texan leaders met in a convention and
drafted a series of demands to be sent to the Mexican government.
The main ones were that the law closing the border to American
immigration should be repealed and that the status of Texas within
Mexico should be upgraded to full statehood.x Stephen Austin was dispatched to Mexico City to carry the
convention’s demands to the Mexican government. By now, Santa
Anna was trying to consolidate his dictatorship and suppress revolts
against his seizure of power. Austin was accused of treason and
thrown into prison. Released three years later in 1835, the former
SDFL¿VWPDGHKLVZD\EDFNWR7H[DVGHFODULQJWKDWZDUZDVWKH
Texans’ only option.x These feelings were strengthened when it was announced that Santa
Anna planned to personally lead a military force into Texas to
punish any rebels. Up to this point, Houston had not played much of
a role in politics in Texas, but the threat from Mexico prompted him
WRFDOOIRUYROXQWHHUVWR¿JKW6DQWD$QQDDQGKHRIIHUHGKLPVHOIDV
the commander of this force.x The next phase of the campaign is well-known. Santa Anna marched
an army of about 6,000 men into Texas, toward San Antonio.
Rather than withdrawing—as they probably should have done—
the local commanders, William Travis and Jim Bowie, decided to
stay and oppose the Mexicans, basing their forces in a decrepit
Spanish mission called the Alamo. There, a group of around 180