SPANISH TEXAS

1
SPANISH TEXAS

• Texas was attractive to many people
• Cattle raising provided new opportunities
• New start for people from other provinces
• Relative lack of racial barriers
• Lack of central authority and taxation
• Available land
• Yet Texas never had the population resources of
  the rest of New Spain
• Disease --gt depopulation
• Lack of immigration (lack of ports)
• Labor shortage --gt hard to manage the help
• Lack of concern by Madrid
• Spanish take-over of Louisiana --gt de-emphasis on
  Texas as buffer
• Hostile Plains tribes (especially the Comanche)

2
SPANISH TEXAS LIFE IN EL NORTE

• Missions
• Crown subsidies to support patronato real
• Church owned everything but the land itself
• Rigid life designed to turn natives into
  Spaniards (Catholics)
• Source of needed officiants for other Catholics
• Owing to rural nature of many settlements,
  religion in Texas became less formal

3
SPANISH TEXAS LIFE IN EL NORTE

• Presidios
• The military aspect of the Spanish experience in
  Texas
• Employment opportunities
• Adjunct to mission work enforcement
• Most of the soldiers were not professionals
• Commandantes doubled as ranchers privates worked
  on nearby ranches
• Mustered out, they would settle in the nearby
  settlements

4
SPANISH TEXAS LIFE IN EL NORTE

• The initial major industry in Texas (aside from
  mission
• work) was the ranching industry
• Longhorns, mesteños, and other critters
• Missions, located near water, were also bases of
  the early cattle trade (and frequently themselves
  competed with independent ranchers)
• San Antonio an early center also the mission
  near modern Nacogdoches
• Ranch life sparse, functional, egalitarian
• Ranching influences Texas contact with areas on
  the outside
• Ranches frequent targets of Comanches

5
SPANISH TEXAS LIFE IN EL NORTE

• Large-scale farming was more difficult
• Best land already occupied by ranchers
• Those pesky Comanche (and others)
• Water and climate
• Access to markets
• Access to labor
• Most farms remained subsistence-level enterprises

6
SPANISH TEXAS LIFE IN EL NORTE

• The Four San Antonio, Nacogdoches, La Bahia, and
  Laredo
• Based on the missions
• Separate from the ecclesiastic and military
  systems
• In a sense, similar to the English colonies
• Local elected councils (ayuntamietos)
• Alcades
• Not much supervision from central government
• Urban culture?
• Hazards
• Lack of population
• Disease the town-killer
• Again with the Comanche!

7
SPANISH TEXAS MESTIZAJE

• Texas did grow slowly during the 18th century
• Mostly immigration from New Spain (Mexico)
• Half the population, however, were from other
  sources
• Mestizos, Africans, Canary Islanders
• Christianized Indians
• While stratified, Spanish Texas not nearly as
  segregated as New Spain
• Peninsulares, criollos, mestizos
• Slavery? Not much
• Difficulty of transport
• Cost
• Spanish regulation

8
SPANISH TEXAS TEJANAS

• Women were in more egalitarian circumstances
  owing to life on the frontier
• Demands of ranching and farming
• Lack of urban genteel culture
• Spanish legal system gave specific rights to
  women, especially the right to own property and
  to bring suit
• Nevertheless, women faced special concerns owing
  to the frontier experience
• Social isolation
• Childbirth and disease

9
DECLINE OF THE NATIVES

• Some groups, like the Coahuiltecans, assimilated
  into Spanish society for the most part
• Trade
• Culture
• Protection from other tribes
• However, many groups resisted and even actively
  resisted Spanish control
• Karankawas
• Jumanos opportunists
• Caddos more closely linked with the French in
  Louisiana
• Ultimately, native numbers declined for two main
  reasons disease and attacks by aggressive groups
  (Comanches)

10
CHANGES IN SPANISH GOVERNMENT

• Changes in Spain meant changes in Texas
• War for Empire Louisiana becomes Spanish
• Bourbons replace Habsburgs
• Enlightenment impact
• Galvez sent to New Spain
• Increasing resentment by criollos
• Rubis report
• Abandonment of East Texas
• Alliance system vs the natives
• Los Adaesanos --gt re-establish Nacogdoches in the
  end
• Provincias Internas
• American Independence and its impact
• Missions --gt secularization
• Decline of missions in Texas

11
MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE

• Part of larger movement in North and South
  America against overseas Spanish rule (cf. Simon
  Bolivar)
• All the way back to Cortes son!
• Resentment of new Bourbon dynasty
• Conspiracy of the Machetes (1799)
• Napoleonic Wars and their impact
• Treaty of San Lorenzo France regains Louisiana
• 1803 Louisiana Purchase gives it to U.S.
• Philip Nolans expedition
• Aaron Burr and Gen. Wilkerson
• Ferdinand VII
• Fr. Hidalgo and the Grito de Dolores (1810)
• Congreso de Chilpancingo (1813)
• Impact in Texas
• Las Casas assault on Bexar
• Gutierrez-Magee Expedition
• Battle of the Medina River
• Iturbide and Mexican independence
• Coup in Span --gt revolution in Mexico
• Plan de Aguala Iturbide (and others) switch
  sides!