 "Remember the Alamo!"
In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain and established a Mexican Republic with a Federal Constitution.
In 1833, Santa Anna was elected President of Mexico, but he decided the
people were not capable of democracy, so he rejected the Constitution,
demanded higher taxes, seized the people's guns, dissolved the
Congress, then declared himself dictator and used the military to
defeat his opponents.
Santa Ana wrote to the U.S. minister to Mexico, Joel R. Poinsett:
"A hundred years to come my people will not be fit for liberty...a
despotism is the proper government for them, but there is no reason why
it should not be a wise and virtuous one."
 Santa
Ana punished States not submitting to his centralized government, such
as: San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Durango, Guanajuato, Michoacán,
Yucatán, Jalisco, and Coahuila y Tejas.
In Zacatecas, Santa Ana defeated Francisco Garcia, took 3,000 prisoners and let his army ransack the city for two days.
Federal General José Antonio Mexía marched from New Orleans to Tampico,
but Santa Ana defeated him and executed every prisoner, as he later
executed more than 350 prisoners at the Goliad Massacre.
The
New York Post editorialized that if Santa Ana "had treated the
vanquished with moderation and generosity, it would have been difficult
if not impossible to awaken that general sympathy for the people of
Texas which now impels so many adventurous and ardent spirits to throng
to the aid of their brethren."
The Battle of the Alamo began FEBRUARY 24, 1836, when General Santa
Ana's 3,000 troops attacked 189 Texans and Tejanos at San Antonio.
In 13 days, all defenders were killed, including William Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.
Only Susanna Dickenson, her baby, and Travis' servant survived.
The Texas Declaration of Independence stated
"General Antonio Lopez Santa Ana...having overturned the constitution
of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either abandon
our homes...or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny...
He denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates of our own conscience." |
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