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Battle of the Alamo Essay

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Introduction The siege, fall and ensuing massacre of nearly two hundred Alamo defenders at the hands of Mexican General, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de Lebron’s army of over five thousand was a defining moment in both Texan, and American history. For 13 days against insurmountable odds, a small, but very determined Texan garrison force fended off an equally determined Mexican Army ordered to capture it. I’ll discuss the events and political climate leading up to the siege, key historic figures involved on both sides, the siege itself, along with events immediately following the battle. The iconic phrase, “Remember the Alamo!” would later go on to become a rallying cry at the Battle of San Jacinto. On that fateful …show more content…

Moses Austin would not live to see it come to fruition as he was attacked my highway men and died shortly thereafter. That would fall on his son, Stephen F. Austin, who is often referred to as the “Father of Texas”. Austin and the other settlers were drawn to the territory by grants and deferred taxation provided by the Spanish government; however, in 1821 Mexico declared independence from Spain. Austin was concerned that the new independent Mexican government would not recognize the previous arrangements made with his father. He would have to travel all the way to Mexico City to make his case, and in 1823 the Mexican Congress confirmed Austin’s grant. In 1824 the Mexican government ratified the country’s first Constitution, but in doing so split the country into two diametrically opposed political ideologies. On one side you had the centralists, who favored the central government possessing much of the authority. The other was the federalists, who were in favor of states rights. In 1834, Santa Anna emerged as a military dictator and overturned the Constitution of 1824. In October 1835 the centralist congress dissolved the state legislatures and transformed the former states into military departments. When the federalists resisted the centralist coup, Mexico descended into civil war. December 1835 marked the first major victory of the Texan militia in open

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