Blog category: Mexican History
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San Antonio in the Early 1800s
May 27, 2022
When Napoleon fictionally arrives at San Antonio in Napoleon in America, he finds an insecure and impoverished outpost in the sparsely-populated Mexican province of Texas. In the early 1800s, San Antonio was made up of the military presidio of San Antonio de Béxar, the civilian town of San Fernando de Béxar, and the religious-Indian settlements of several Franciscan missions. What follows is a look at how San Antonio appeared to early-19th-century visitors and residents. But first, some background.
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Christmas in Mexico in the 1800s
December 24, 2021
In the years after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, many visitors arrived from Europe and the United States hoping to establish profitable diplomatic and commercial relations with the new country. Here are glimpses of some of the Christmas celebrations they encountered.
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A Sailor’s Easter in California in 1835
April 2, 2021
In 1834-35, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., sailed as a merchant seaman from Boston to Alta California, which was then a province of Mexico. The ship’s arrival in Santa Barbara coincided with the Easter holidays. Dana left a vivid description of the festivities on shore, including activities not usually associated with Easter.
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The Wreck of the Schooner Lively
October 16, 2020
The Lively, a schooner that many 19th-century Texans believed had been lost with all its passengers, did meet its end in a shipwreck, but not with loss of life. Here’s how events got conflated in early Texas folklore.
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Medical Advice for Travellers to Mexico in the Early 19th Century
February 21, 2020
Scottish physician James Copland provided medical advice to British collector William Bullock, who travelled to Mexico for six months in 1823.
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Advice to Texas Settlers in the 1830s
February 7, 2020
In 1823, Stephen F. Austin received permission from the Mexican government to establish a colony in Texas between the Colorado and Brazos Rivers. By 1828, Austin’s colony contained about 8,000 inhabitants. In 1831, Austin’s widowed cousin, Mary Austin Holley, visited Texas with a view to settling there with her family. She was 47 years old, cultured, well-educated and adventurous. Austin described her as “this very superior woman.” Here is some of her advice to prospective Texas settlers.
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Joseph Bonaparte and the Crown of Mexico
May 25, 2018
When Joseph Bonaparte was King of Spain, he was also, by default, the ruler of Mexico, or New Spain as it was called at the time. The Mexicans didn’t like him. Did they then offer Joseph a crown when he was in exile in the United States and they were seeking independence from Spain?
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The Texas Hurricane of 1818
September 1, 2017
In September 1818, a hurricane struck the coast of Texas. It destroyed pirate Jean Laffite’s settlement on Galveston Island and visited fresh horrors on the Bonapartists who had taken refuge there after abandoning their attempt to establish a colony beside the Trinity River. Though Spaniards had reported hurricanes along the Texas coast as early as the 16th century, the 1818 Texas hurricane was one of the first to be recorded in detail.
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Felipe de la Garza, the General who Captured Iturbide
August 26, 2016
Felipe de la Garza was the most important military figure in Nuevo Santander (present-day Tamaulipas, Mexico) during the 1820s. He spent the early part of his military career in Texas. De la Garza led a failed revolt against Mexican Emperor Agustín de Iturbide. He later led Iturbide to his execution.
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José Antonio Díaz de León, the Last Franciscan Missionary in Texas
July 29, 2016
Father José Antonio Díaz de León, the last Franciscan missionary in Texas, was an ardent defender of the Spanish mission system. In the 1820s, he waged a long campaign against secularization of the Texas missions. Brave and pious, Father Díaz de León came to a bloody end. Was he murdered or did he kill himself?
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Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Anglo-American Texas
June 17, 2016
Stephen F. Austin led the Anglo-American colonization of Texas, paving the way for the state’s independence from Mexico, although this was not something he initially wanted.
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Presidio Commander Francisco García
June 3, 2016
Captain Francisco García was the military commander of Presidio La Bahía (present-day Goliad, Texas) from 1821 to 1823. In 1821, American filibuster James Long captured La Bahía while García and his men slept.
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Texas Pioneer Josiah Hughes Bell
April 8, 2016
Josiah Hughes Bell, the founder of East and West Columbia, Texas, was one of Stephen F. Austin’s original colonists and Austin’s trusted friend.
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The Charmingly Deceptive Baron de Bastrop
March 11, 2016
Felipe Enrique Neri, the Baron de Bastrop, was a prominent resident of Texas in the early 19th century. Charismatic and enterprising, Bastrop brought some pioneers into northern Louisiana and encouraged the Anglo-American colonization of Texas when it was part of Mexico. He also lied about his past and left a trail of litigation involving questionable land titles that lasted for over 20 years after his death.
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Texas Priest Francisco Maynes
February 5, 2016
Francisco Maynes was a Spanish-born Catholic priest and occasional military chaplain who served in Texas in the early 19th century under Spanish, and then Mexican, rule. Maynes proved successful in petitioning the San Antonio town council for land that belonged to the former Spanish missions, thus establishing a precedent for local clergymen to become land speculators.
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Texas Revolutionary José Francisco Ruiz
January 22, 2016
José Francisco Ruiz was a Mexican soldier who fought for Mexico’s independence from Spain and later supported Texas’s struggle for independence from Mexico. He is most noted for being one of only two native-born Texans to sign the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence, even though he was “horrified” by the idea.
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Texas Governor José Félix Trespalacios
January 8, 2016
José Félix Trespalacios, who fought for Mexico’s independence from Spain, became the first governor of Texas in newly-independent Mexico in 1822. He established the first Texas bank, negotiated an agreement with the Cherokees, supported Stephen Austin’s colony, and introduced the first printing press to Texas.
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Cherokee Indian Chief Bowles (Duwali) and his Tragic Quest for Land
December 18, 2015
Cherokee Indian Chief Bowles (1756-1839), also known as Duwali or Di’Wali, led his tribe into Texas, where he repeatedly tried to secure land for them.
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Caddo Indian Chief Dehahuit
December 4, 2015
Dehahuit was the great chief of the Caddo Indians who lived in what is now southwest Arkansas, western Louisiana and eastern Texas in the early 19th century. As his tribes were positioned on the disputed border between Spanish-held Mexico and the United States, Dehahuit became a shrewd diplomat, skilful at playing the Spaniards and the Americans off against one another.
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Texas Entrepreneur Ben Milam
October 23, 2015
Ben Milam is known for his role in the Texas Revolution, particularly the capture of San Antonio in 1835. His earlier adventures in Texas are even more interesting.
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Jim Bowie Before the “Gaudy Legend”
August 7, 2015
Before Jim Bowie became one of the most mythologized figures in American history, he was a con artist. One of his partners in crime was the pirate Jean Laffite.
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George Schumph and the Death of Pierre Laffite
April 17, 2015
George Schumph, who meets with Napoleon in Charleston in Napoleon in America, is one of those shadowy historical figures about whom little is known. A native of Quebec, he is remembered in the historical record because of his association with the New Orleans-based pirates, Pierre and Jean Laffite. Thanks in part to Schumph’s testimony, we have the details of Pierre Laffite’s death.
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Narcisse & Antonia Rigaud: Survivors of the Champ d’Asile
June 27, 2014
Narcisse-Périclès Rigaud and his sister Antonia were the children of General Antoine Rigaud, one of Napoleon’s officers. They joined their father in the 1818 Bonapartist attempt to form an armed colony in Texas called the Champ d’Asile (Field of Asylum).
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General Charles Lallemand: Invader of Texas
May 16, 2014
Charles Lallemand was a soldier, adventurer and conman who had a distinguished career as a Napoleonic officer. He was a member of Napoleon’s inner circle in the days following the Emperor’s 1815 abdication. Under a French death sentence and unwilling to settle for a quiet life, Lallemand turned to Texas filibustering, Spanish insurgency and a Greek ship-building fiasco before eventually becoming governor of Corsica.
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Jean Laffite: Mexican Gulf Pirate and Privateer
April 4, 2014
Jean Laffite could have been a model for Pirates of the Caribbean. Variously called the “gentleman pirate,” “the terror of the Gulf” and “the Hero of New Orleans,” his life is shrouded in myth. Here is some of what’s known about him.
We must confess that fate, which sports with man, makes merry work with the affairs of this world.
Napoleon Bonaparte