Chapter 9: Section 2

Question 1

What area was under Mexican control after the country achieved independence from Spain in 1821?

Answer 1

Texas

Question 2

Tejanos

Answer 2

Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Texas (Two main people groups in Mexico- Mestizos and Amerindians)

Question 3

Spanish-speaking inhabitants of Texas (Two main people groups in Mexico- Mestizos and Amerindians)

Answer 3

Tejanos

Question 4

Empresarios

Answer 4

People who arranged for the settlement of Texas in the 1800s, granted land to have others promise to bring settlers

Question 5

People who arranged for the settlement of Texas in the 1800s, granted land to have others promise to bring settlers

Answer 5

Empresarios

Question 6

Texian

Answer 6

An Amerian living in Mexico-owned Texas

Question 7

An American living in Mexico-owned Texas

Answer 7

Texian

Question 8

Stephen F. Austin

Answer 8

1st and most successful empresario (Austin, TX was named after him)

Question 9

1st and most successful empresario (Austin, TX was named after him)

Answer 9

Stephen F. Austin

Question 10

Sam Houston

Answer 10

Military leader of Texas, most remembered as a military leader but also had a political career, will serve in the fight against Mexico for the independence of Texas (would go on to be a US senator of Texas after it obtains statehood)

Question 11

Military leader of Texas and US senator of Texas; served in the fight against Mexico for the independence of Texas

Answer 11

Sam Houston

Question 12

Santa Anna

Answer 12

Dictator and military leader of Mexico during the Mexican-American War

Question 13

Dictator and military leader of Mexico during the Mexican-American War

Answer 13

Santa Anna

Question 14

Annexation

Answer 14

Becoming a part of the United States; before obtaining statehood, Texas was owned by Mexico

Question 15

Becoming a part of the United States; before obtaining statehood, Texas was owned by Mexico

Answer 15

Annexation

Question 16

What were some of the settlements established by Tejanos in the southern part of the area?

Answer 16

San Antonio de Bexar and Hidalgo

Question 17

Who lived north of the aforementioned settlements?

Answer 17

The Apache, Comanche, and other Native American groups

Question 18

What did Mexicans do when they couldn’t persuade people to move closer to Native American groups?

Answer 18

They decided to continue Spanish policy and invite Americans and other foreigners to settle there

Question 19

Mexico passed three colonization laws between 1823 and 1825. What did they do/say?

Answer 19

These laws offered cheap land to anyone willing to come and granted immigrants a 10-year exemption from paying taxes but required them to become Mexican citizens, live under Mexican law, and convert to Roman Catholicism

Question 20

What encouraged most American emigrants to head to Texas?

Answer 20

Empresarios (A Spanish word meaning agents or contractors)

Question 21

What did the National Colonization Act do?

Answer 21

It had Mexico give 26 empresarios large grants of Texas land. In exchange, the empresarios promised to fill the land with a certain number of settlers. The empresarios assigned a plot to each family and governed the colonies they established.

Question 22

Who founded the town of Washington-on-the-Brazos, and by the mid-1830s, had persuaded some 1,500 American families to immigrate?

Answer 22

Stephen F. Austin

Question 23

What did the government assume of the Americans that emigrated to Texas?

Answer 23

They assumed that the Americans would adopt Mexican customs and come to see Mexico as their own country

Question 24

The Spanish Catholic Church was alien to the
traditions of most American settlers…

Answer 24

…and only a few bothered to learn Spanish.

Question 25

Why did many Mexicans, in turn, distrust the new settlers?

Answer 25

Because of their American lifestyle and dismissal of Mexican ways

Question 26

What empresario increased Mexico's unease in 1826 and what did he do?

Answer 26

Haden Edwards's brother Benjamin; led a rebellion against Mexican authority

Question 27

Angry over disagreements about whether the Mexican government or the empresario controlled the region...

Answer 27

...Edwards declared that the settlements of Americans in Texas now constituted the independent nation of Fredonia.

Question 28

What did Mexico do in 1830 that infuriated the settlers?

Answer 28

Closed its borders to further immigration by Americans and banned the import of enslaved labor as well. Mexico also placed taxes on goods imported from foreign countries, hoping to discourage trade with the U.S

Question 29

What did the import tax mean?

Answer 29

Higher prices for goods they were accustomed to purchasing from the United States

Question 30

What was worst of all for the settlers?

Answer 30

The Mexican government was telling them what they could and could not do. They saw no reason to follow the order of a government they hardly considered their own

Question 31

What did Mexico’s colonization laws offer people willing to settle in northern Texas, and what did the laws require of these settlers?

Answer 31

Mexico's colonization laws offered people land but the laws required settlers to become Mexican citizens, live under Mexican law, and convert to Roman Catholicism

Question 32

Where did settlers meet in 1832 and 1833?

Answer 32

They met at two conventions in the Texas town of San Felipe

Question 33

Who did they choose to be president of the first convention and what did this convention do?

Answer 33

Stephen F. Austin; Asked Mexico to reopen Texas to American immigrants and to loosen taxes on imports

Question 34

What happened at the second convention in 1833 while Texas was a part of Coahuila?

Answer 34

The convention recommended separating Texas from Coahuila and creating a new Mexican state. It also created a constitution for the new state and designated Austin to travel to Mexico City to negotiate with the Mexican government.

Question 35

What happened in the fall of 1833?

Answer 35

Negotiations about the new Mexican state stalled and an irritated Austin sent a letter to Tejano leaders

Question 36

What did the letter say?

Answer 36

Texas should start peacefully organizing its own state government

Question 37

After sending the letter, Austin managed to persuade President Antonio López de Santa Anna to...

Answer 37

...agree to several demands, including lifting the hated immigration ban.

Question 38

What happened at the military post of Gonzalez, 75 miles east of San Antonio?

Answer 38

Mexican soldiers ordered the Texans to surrender their arms. Having no orders to attack, the Mexicans retreated to San Antonio, and the Texans followed them.

Question 39

Why did some American leaders oppose the admission of Texas?

Answer 39

Texas was a slave state

Question 40

Why were Santa Anna and his troops surprised by Houston's attack?

Answer 40

Santa Anna was confident that Houston would not attack in the afternoon so he let his troops sleep.