If you remember from last time, Texas gained independence but was still having trouble with Native American and Mexican attacks on the settlers. They also had a lot of debt, or money owed, to other people and countries. For these reasons, the colonists of Texas were agreeable to becoming a state of the United States of America.
However, there are a couple of reasons why not all people in the United States were excited about allowing Texas to become a state:
- Texas allowed slavery, and the country was already at odds about slavery. Abolitionists (people wanting to get rid of slavery) did not want to annex another state where slavery was allowed.
- Texas was still battling Mexico and people in the US didn’t really want to fight another war.
Eventually, U.S. President Polk decided that gaining all of the land of Texas was more important than the problems of slavery and a war with Mexico and he approved the annexation (or adding) of Texas as a U.S. State.
Once Texas became a U.S. state, the relationship between Mexico and Texas became even worse. Not only did they not like each other, but Mexico claimed that the border of Texas was the Nueces River, while Texas declared the Rio Grande the border of Texas.
–Take a look at this map and find the Nueces River and the Rio Grande River. If the border was the Nueces River, what modern-day cities would be in Mexico rather than Texas?
-Now let’s pull out our North Amerca Through Time booklet and look at the map for 1845. What event(s) happened to make the map look the way it does? The blue and green striped area means that the ownership of this territory is unclear. (Remember to flip back to the previous page if you need a reminder of how things have changed.)
President Polk sent troops to Texas to help defend the Texas border, and the Mexican-American War started on April 25, 1846. After nearly two years and many sieges and battles, the U.S. captured Mexico City and demanded that the government surrender and sign a treaty.
On Feb. 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, making the Rio Grande (not the Nueces River) the U.S.-Mexican border. Mexico also agreed to accept the U.S. annexation of Texas as a state, and agreed to sell California and the rest of its territory north of the Rio Grande for $15,000,000!
-Go back to your North America Through Time booklet and look at the map for 1848. Write down the events that caused the changes in the map between 1845 and 1848.
-It’s time to fill out our timeline with these big events from section 8 of the Lone Star Junction Timeline: The annexation of Texas to the U.S. and the Mexican-American War.
Now head over to your Texas History Writing Assignments and complete the questions for section 11.
Just for fun: Can you match the Texas-related words with the right sentence?
Free Fun Texas History 