Goliad Campaign - Background

Background

By 1835, about 30,000 Americans, mostly from the southern states, had emigrated to the Mexican province of Texas. The province had been opened to Catholic American immigrants (Mexico, like Spain, saw religion as part and parcel of citizenship) when Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821. Mexico became a Federal republic, like the United States, in 1824, and the province of Texas was joined with the state of Coahuila in 1827.

Many in Texas were working to get the Mexican Federal government to recognize Texas as a separate state within Mexico. They wanted their own legislature and local government. Some of these settlers had brought slaves with them to work on the ranches and expansive cotton fields (about 5000 slaves by 1835). When Mexico abolished slavery, a Tejano delegate to the legislature in Saltillo got a bill passed allowing Texas slave holders to be exempt from the law. As a result, a growing cotton economy flourished in Texas.

As Mexico sank into dictatorship under General Santa Anna, and the Federal Republic and constitution of 1824 were abolished, many Tejanos and Anglo Texians joined in a rebellion against the centralization of government power under Santa Anna. Some wanted a return to federalism and the restoration of the 1824 constitution. Others wanted independence for Texas. Still others wanted Texas to be joined to the United States. When the conflict began in 1835, settlers proceeded to seize key towns and forts, including the Alamo in San Antonio and the Presidio La Bahia in the town of Goliad.