Texas independence and battles leading up to the civil war is the topic of a history book called "Lone Star Nation. H.W. Brands says pretty much the paving the way of land stolen from Mexico lead to eventually the same stubbornness and rule of the people type mentality that brought the American Civil war. The people in the Confederacy felt and acted pretty much the same way early American settlers in Texas and interestingly slavery was a major reason for the Mexican and Texas dual wars as it was in the civil wars. Slavery was a very key institution the American immigrants refuse to give up moving to Mexico and this lead to eventual hostilities. The early Texas pioneers often made claims about Santa Anna and how Mexico was becoming a dictatorship and this tactic is disseminated to this day by right wingers. The real dictators of course were these settler slave holders whose twisted IDE of liberty meant the freedom to have humans as chattel along with the animals they owned. Cheap land made a fortune for many of these early Texas migrants who made pact with Mexico and swore loyalty while plotting to leave it as soon as they could. This book goes into the first clashes and how a small rebellion would lead to quick victory and temporary independence while Americans argued and debated the legality of taking this land for a new state.
It was the fear of England and Texas making strategic economic alliances and new cotton deals that untimely made Americans willing to wage war for Texas and more lands. Cotton was a staple part of the economy of the day whose importance can be compared to oil for today. The likes of Sam Houston, Stephan Austin, Santa Anna, and the Comanche power base is explained thoroughly in this book.
This book also covers extensively frontier fighters Jim Bowie, David Crocket, and William Travis and basically the paths that lead them to that fateful suicide fight that would glamorize them for generations instead of them being considered fools like General George Custer. these three backwoods hicks received too much praise for their stellar defense of the Alamo when it actually was of no tactical importance. They legacy should of been more virulent by historians for not leaving when they had a chance to fight later in the war. Of course many say it was the determination after this battle and the massacre at Goliad that prevailed but in reality it was to far and costly for Mexicans to win these lands after demographic imbalances had been so altered. This book goes through countless Mexican commanders and generals that have long been forgotten but whose own failures were another reason for easy Texas victory. Texas was basically a police "ranger state following their war for I dependence and was not economically sustainable until the United States bailed them out them out making them the southern most state in the union.
No comments:
Post a Comment