 When everybody thinks about Texas history this is the first and last thing they think about is what happened on March the 6th of 1836 here outside of the Alamo. In fact just across the street there is the cenotaph. This was commissioned in 1936 during the Texas centennial to represent the heroes that fell at the Alamo. But the real victory happened 220 miles away on the banks of the San Jacinto river where Santa Ana and his forces were defeated by Sam Houston and his Texian forces. And without this victory we wouldn't today be learning about Texas independence. The Texas revolution started in 1830. We tend to normally think about it starting at the Alamo but it actually had its origins before then. We talked in the last lecture about people who were moving into the Texas region from the United States brought along by people like Stephen F. Austin and other empresarios. If we look at the period 60 years before the Texas revolution you have the American revolution. And the American revolution this enlightenment ideology of people determining the government influenced other revolutions who all looked back at the American revolution as a starting point being the French revolution, revolutions in Mexico and other South American countries that we talked about a few lectures ago and certainly the Mexican independence movement. The Texas revolution was part of that revolutionary timeline. And here are some of the images of Texas that I mentioned earlier. The Cenotaph Pompeo Capini built this in 1936 to celebrate the centennial of Texas independence at the heart of the Great Depression and also the Alamo which is right across the street. But we have to go back further to look at the roots of the Texas revolution. I mentioned a few lectures ago about freebooters who were coming in filibusters who were coming in to try to take Texas the region that's now Texas away from Spain and later Mexico. One of those was the Fredonian rebellion. This happened around Nacodotus in 1826 where several brothers the Hayden Edwards and his brothers led a rebellion against Spanish rule. Stephen F. Austin actually came in and helped to put that rebellion down. He led the military force that came in to put the rebellion down. A few years later the Mexican army sent General Mayor Iterán to Texas in order to figure out what the boundary was. You remember back in 1819-1820 there was the Transcontinental Treaty the Adams and East Treaty that said the boundary between Spain at the time and later Mexico at the time would be at the Sabine River on the east and then the Red River. Well it's all one thing to say that. It's another thing to actually mark out that territory. In those days they didn't have GPS they didn't have satellite imagery so they actually had to go look and mark the land and record the territory. And that's what Mayor Iterán was doing in 1828 and he passed by through Texas and he saw various Anglo settlements and he reported back that the idea of them becoming Catholic and becoming true Mexican citizens didn't seem to be taking place. They weren't learning Spanish either. And so in April 6th of 1830 the Mexican government passed the law the Bustamante Decree that you'll find in your primary sources that began restricting further immigration from the United States. This led to a series of disturbances by recent immigrants who were upset at these and other regulations that were coming from Mexico. The troubles began in earnest at Fort Anahuac which is on the eastern side of Trinity Bay just east of Houston. And it was there at this fort this fort that was there to collect duties on imports and exports coming into the Texas region. A military garrison there captured two runaway slaves because the law in Mexico was against slavery they were going to free the slaves but people like William Barrett Travis and others were upset about this and demanded the slaves be returned to their owners. The Mexican commander was not willing to do that and so this caused a lot of problems that just continued to escalate and show the divisions between the centralist powers and the federalist powers in the regions around Mexico. The problems between the federalists and the centralists these two factions of Mexican political groups would further exacerbate the differences between white and Mexican settlers in Texas. At the turtle bayou resolutions were drawn up and these were protesting some of the actions of the Mexican government. And this led to two conventions one in 1832 and another in 1833. Your book will detail these more but it was a convention of 1833 that actually decided that the time to separate from Mexico was a possibility. And so this is a timeline of some of the events of about 1835 to 1836 and you see starting in August of 35 the Texas settlers began organizing committees of safety and correspondence much as had happened in the American Revolution. Mexico sent general cost to land at Copano Bay by Victoria to come in. One of his duties was to go to Gonzales and retrieve a cannon that had been loaned to Texan settlers there. And this starts the whole come and take it event. Between October and December of that year you had the battle for San Antonio and this was an attempt by Texians as they call themselves to gain control of San Antonio which for many years had been the seat of colonial authority away from the Mexican government there. A permanent council is organized and at the same time you have the consultation what it actually does start moving steps forward closer and closer to open rebellion. By January you have an expedition called the Matamoros expedition and this are a group of Texans who go down and invade Mexico and it ends disastrously. At the same time the so-called runaway scrape begins. This is when settlers are beginning to fear hostilities and to begin to flee western parts of Texas. This is around San Antonio and move further and further east toward the Louisiana border in case outbreaks of war do occur. Houston at that time also orders destruction of the Alamo. Of course we know that didn't happen. William Travis decides to take Fort Anahuac in June of 1835 and then you have these other problems that occur these other situations that occur. You have the siege of Beja. This is a battle for the Alamo and you have war and peace parties going on in Texas. Some American settlers want peace others want war and want independence. The siege of Beja. This is in San Antonio this was laying siege to the Alamo and the surroundings. In the events of 1836 on the timeline we again see in February Travis arrives at the Alamo and then you have the battle of the Alamo in early March. Soon thereafter there is the massacre at Goliad where James Fanon and about 325 people are killed after failing to retreat and then finally in April you have the battle of San Jacinto. Right before the battle of the Alamo, Texas assigned the Declaration of Independence and one of the great ironies is the people of the Alamo had no idea Texas had actually declared independence by this time. A lot of what we know about the Alamo is Hollywood legend and myth. So we don't really know what they did if there was a line drawn in the sand or any of these other Hollywood conventions we often see in portrayals of the Alamo but we do know that they were fighting to maintain that piece of territory. Houston is appointed commander of the army and the Texas Constitution is adopted. Finally the battles the fighting ends at the battle of San Jacinto just to the east of Houston where the San Jacinto and Buffalo Bayou come together. Afterwards we have the Treaty of Velazquez there's actually two treaties and the runaway scrape comes to an end. Going back to the Alamo, the Alamo is really a battle that should have never have happened. Sam Houston as commander of the military forces had ordered the evacuation of Texans from San Antonio. However once Bowie got there, Jim Bowie got there and was ordered to destroy the Alamo he decided not to and Travis arrived later on and they both decided to stay and fight. Later when Davey Crockett and others come in they too decide to stay and fight to preserve the Alamo. Once Santa Ana arrives in San Antonio and lays siege he offers them several times the ability to surrender and to leave but they refuse to take it and thereafter he does order their the overrunning of the Alamo and their execution. Fan at the same time takes La Bahia which is today we call it Goliad outside of Victoria and the mission and fortress there and he too refuses to leave. And so the death of these people at the Alamo and at Goliad these soldiers these Texians led to these two battle cries remember the Alamo remember Goliad. The government declared independence as I said earlier on March the 2nd and the battle of the Alamo happens on March the 6th. Houston receives word later on from some survivors some of the women and children and slaves who were held up in the Alamo and hiding were allowed to leave after the battle was over and they ran ahead and people ran ahead and told Sam Houston. Fan and surrendered on March the 20th to Eurea's forces and although they pled for the lives of these Texas soldiers Santa Ana ordered Eurea to execute them and this is the site of the so-called Goliad massacre. While the Alamo shouldn't have been defended in the first place and they should have retreated those who stayed and fought actually gave Houston time to train his troops and to get them prepared for battle. They trained up around Hymstead at a place called Gross's Plantation and then they started moving towards Harrisburg in south Houston near Harris Elementary around April the 12th in order to prepare for battle. Houston wanted to draw Santa Ana further and further east there was a hope maybe that US forces would intervene and also that he would stretch out his supply lines and Santa Ana took this bait and moved toward Harrisburg hoping to catch the Texan government. He encamped upon the San Jacinto River and once Houston learned of this he moved in close. The battle of San Jacinto took place on April the 21st Houston attacked and the Mexicans were routed in a matter of minutes many of them were killed. Houston only lost a handful of men. What ends the war are the Treaty of Velazquez. There's actually two treaties and the governor of the time David Burnett and Santa Ana met near Freeport Texas to sign these treaties. The Mexican government rejected the treaty which had called for recognition of Texas independence and land to the Rio Grande largely because Santa Ana was a prisoner of war at the time he signed it. So their argument was that international law did not recognize the head of a government being held as prisoner to sign treaties that he was signing under duress and so it was seen as illegitimate and Mexico did not accept this treaty. So at the end Texas remains according to Mexico still a part of Mexico while Texians believe that they are independent. This is a painting that hangs in the capital of Santa Ana's surrender and you see Sam Houston laying there injured after the battle at San Jacinto and the painting is meant to capture the glory of the surrender. A few days after the war was over two New York land speculators the Allen brothers bought land here and very quickly they would name the settlement after the hero of the war Sam Houston. Today Houston is a monument to the work of the Allen brothers and it's part of Texas history.