Republic of Texas 1836–60

The Republic of Texas came into being through the revolution of 1835–36 against the Mexican government. Mexico refused to recognize its independence, nor its subsequent annexation and granting of statehood by the United States in 1845. In 1848 Mexico was defeated in the ensuing US-Mexican War, and Texas, confirmed as part of the USA, was soon attracting substantial migration. The period 1837–44 had seen a collapse in both cotton and land prices, causing many plantations in Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia to fold. Settlers moved west to Texas, becoming small farmers and sharecroppers. 1848 saw a series of revolutions in Europe, provoking a wave of emigration to America. So many came to Texas they became known as ‘forty-eighters’. These were mainly German, encouraged to settle by the Adelsverein Society of Mainz. A second wave of internal migration was triggered in the late 1850s as civil war loomed, and settlers moved west to avoid conflict.