Spanish Texas - End of Spanish Control

End of Spanish Control

In May 1808, Napoleon forced the Spanish king and his son to abdicate the throne. Joseph Bonaparte was appointed King of Spain, to violent protests from the Spanish citizens. The uprisings continued for the next six years, until his abdication in 1814. During the time, there was little oversight of the New World colonies. A shadow government operated out Cadiz during Joseph's reign, operating under the Spanish Constitution of 1812. The constitutional government included representatives from the colonies, including Texas and New Mexico. When King Fernando VII resumed his throne, he refused to recognize the new constitution or the representative government. He was forced to change his mind in 1820 as the only way to avert a military coup.

During this time of turmoil, it was unclear who actually governed the colonies: Joseph, the shadow government representing Ferdinand VII, the colonial officials, or revolutionaries in each province. The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 at the instigation of Miguel Hidalgo. Fearing that the revolution would reach Texas, governor Manuel María de Salcedo ordered the Texas borders closed to all foreigners. He was soon reversed by his uncle, the Commandant General. Revolutionaries soon overthrew and imprisoned Salcedo, and a new government was established in Texas. Salcedo persuaded Ignacio Elizondo (his jailer) to return to the royalist cause and the two organized a counter-coup. Hidalgo was captured and executed in 1811.

Although officially neutral during the Spanish civil wars, the United States allowed rebels to trade at American ports and much of the weaponry and ammunition used by the rebels came from the United States. Americans also provided manpower for the conflict, with Natchitoches serving as a launching point for several expeditions into Texas. In 1812, Mexican insurgent Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara led a small force of Americans into Texas. Indians from the eastern part of Texas quickly joined the insurgency. Calling themselves the Republican Army of the North, the group captured San Antonio in 1813, assassinated the governor, Manuel María de Salcedo, and proclaimed Texas an independent nation. The death of the governor caused many of the Anglo-Americans to desert the cause, but on April 17, 1813, the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition members composed Texas's first constitution, which provided for a centralized form of government. Spanish forces recaptured the province later that year at the Battle of the Medina, and killed 1300 and executed any Tejanos accused of having Republican tendencies. Within 2 weeks almost 400 rebels were executed and their wives and daughters were imprisoned for 2 months. Royalist soldiers even chased many of the women and children who had fled San Antonio, killing 200–300. Captured Americans were given an opportunity to take an oath of loyalty to Spain, and those who refused were escorted back to the United States. Fearing that the Comanche would still constitute a threat, Spanish general Arredondo ordered all ranchers to move temporarily to San Antonio to help defend the city. When they returned to their ranches several months later, they found that the Comanche had slaughtered all of the livestock, leaving most of the carcasses where they fell. The Spanish army looted the rest of Texas too, and by 1820 fewer than 2000 Hispanic citizens remained in Texas. According to historian Gary Clayton Anderson, "Spanish Texas, or what remained of it, had become a desolate, unprotected land that could not feed itself."

Another revolutionary, José Manuel Herrera, created a government on Galveston Island in September 1816 which he proclaimed part of a Mexican Republic. A group of French exiles in the United States attempted to create their own colony on the Trinity River, known as Le Champ d'Asile. The exiles planned to use the colony as a base to liberate New Spain and then free Napoleon from St. Helena. They abandoned the colony shortly and returned to Galveston.

On February 22, 1819, Spain and the United States reached agreement on the Transcontinental Treaty, which ceded Florida to the United States in return for the United States relinquishing its claim on Texas. The official boundary of Texas was set at the Sabine River (the current boundary between Texas and Louisiana), then following the Red and Arkansas Rivers to the 42nd parallel (California's current northern border). For the next two years, until early February 1821, Spain delayed ratification of the treaty, using it as leverage to prevent the United States from formally recognizing one of the rebellious Spanish colonies as an independent nation. During this period many Americans spoke out against the treaty and the renunciation of the claim to Texas. An essay in the City of Washington Gazette denounced the treaty, claiming that "'a league'" of the land in Texas was worth more to the United States "'than the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains'".

In 1819, James Long led an expedition to invade Texas. He declared Texas an independent republic, but by the end of the year his rebellion had been quashed by Colonel Ignacio Pérez and his Spanish troops. The following year Long established a new base near Galveston Bay "to free Texas from 'the yoke of Spanish authority. . . the most atrocious despotism that ever disgraced the annals of Europe.'" His basis for a rebellion was soon gone, however. On February 24, 1821, Agustín de Iturbide launched a drive for Mexican Independence. Texas became a part of the newly independent nation without a shot being fired.