Thursday, January 20, 2011

In 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of ____________.

The answer to this question is “Texas.”  In 1845, the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, making it into part of the United States, which it has been ever since.


In the 1830s, Texas had long been a part of Mexico.  However, it was in the extreme north of Mexico and was very lightly inhabited.  The Mexican government wanted the area to be more developed so that it would be more beneficial to the country.  Therefore, they invited Americans to come and settle in Texas and become Mexican citizens.  The Americans came and soon outnumbered the Mexicans.  The problem was that they really did not want to become Mexican citizens and instead wanted to remain as Americans.


In 1835, Mexico was in the middle of a rather long period of internal strife between people who wanted a strong national government and people who wanted the states to have more autonomy.  As part of this conflict, Texas rebelled against the central government.  Texas won the rebellion in 1836 and became an independent country.  It asked the US to annex it at that point, but the US did not want to because it did not want to cause trouble with Mexico, which still thought Texas belonged to it.  By 1845, the US no longer really cared about this and so it annexed Texas.  At that point, Texas stopped being an independent republic and became part of the United States.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 can be called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time in America’s short history that pow...