The Mexican War for Independence

The Mexican War for Independence severed control that Spain had exercised on its North American territories, and the new country of Mexico was formed from much of the individual territory that had comprised New Spain.[1] On October 4, 1824, Mexico adopted a new constitution which defined the country as a federal republic with nineteen states and four territories. The former province of Spanish Texas became part of a newly created state, Coahuila y Tejas,[2] whose capital was at Saltillo, hundreds of miles from the former Texas capital, San Antonio de Bexar (now San Antonio, Texas).[3]
The new country emerged from the war essentially bankrupt. With little money for the military, Mexico encouraged settlers to create their own militias for protection against hostile Indian tribes. Tejas was very sparsely populated [Note 1] and in the hope that an influx of settlers could control the Indian raids, the government liberalized immigration policies for the region.[4] The first group of colonists, known as the Old Three Hundred, arrived in 1822 to settle an empresarial grant that had been given to Stephen F. Austin. Of the 24 empresarios, only one settled citizens from within the Mexican interior; most of the remaining settlers came from the United States.[5]