Editing History of Mexico (section)

===Texas Independence===
{{See also|Texas Revolution}}
[[File:FalloftheAlamo.jpg|thumb| "The [[Fall of the Alamo]]" by [[Robert Jenkins Onderdonk]]]]

After the Mexican War of Independence, the Mexican government, to populate its northern territories, awarded extensive land grants in [[Coahuila y Tejas]] to thousands of families from the United States so that the settlers convert to Catholicism and become Mexican citizens. The Mexican government also forbade the importation of enslaved people. These conditions were largely ignored.<ref>J. Mackay Hitsman, "The Texas War of 1835–1836." ''History Today'' (Feb 1960) 10#2 pp 116–123.</ref>

A key factor in the government's decision to allow those settlers was the belief that they would (a) protect northern Mexico from Comanche attacks and (b) buffer the northern states against US westward expansion. The policy failed on both counts: the Americans tended to settle far from the Comanche raiding zones and used the Mexican government's failure to suppress the raids as a pretext for declaring independence.<ref name=pekka/>

[[File:SantaAnnaSurrender.jpg|thumb|right|''Surrender of [[Antonio López de Santa Anna|Santa Anna]]'' by [[William Henry Huddle]] shows the Mexican president and general surrendering to a wounded [[Sam Houston]] in 1836.]]

The [[Texas Revolution]] or Texas War of Independence was a military conflict between Mexico and settlers in the [[Mexican Texas|Texas]] portion of the Mexican state [[Coahuila y Tejas]]. The war lasted from October 2, 1835, to April 21, 1836. However, war at sea between Mexico and Texas continued into the 1840s. The animosity between the Mexican government and the American settlers in Texas, as well as many Texas residents of Mexican ancestry, intensified with the [[Siete Leyes]] of 1835 when Mexican President and General [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]] abolished the federal [[1824 Constitution of Mexico|Constitution of 1824]] and proclaimed the more centralizing [[1835 Constitution of Mexico|1835 constitution]] in its place.

War began in Texas on October 2, 1835, with the [[Battle of Gonzales]]. Early Texian Army successes at [[Goliad, Texas|La Bahia]] and [[San Antonio]] were soon met with crushing defeat at the same locations a few months later. The war ended at the [[Battle of San Jacinto]], where General [[Sam Houston]] led the [[Texian Army]] to victory over a portion of the [[Military history of Mexico|Mexican Army]] under [[Antonio López de Santa Anna|Santa Anna]], who was captured soon after the battle. The war's end resulted in the creation of the [[Republic of Texas]] in 1836. In 1845, the U.S. Congress ratified Texas's petition for statehood.