Antonio López de Santa Anna

He is quite the character, he really is.

[whimsical music] Antonio López de Santa Anna was a former president and military general who, two years before the Pastry War, had returned home to Mexico in disgrace.

He was a, he was a fallen hero, one who was waiting for a chance to redeem himself.

So how does this guy go from being a national hero to a political outcast? Well, remember how I said way back at the beginning that Mexico had fought for its independence from Spain and won it back in 1821? Well, Texas was part of Spain's colonial empire, and when Mexico won its independence from Spain, Texas became a Mexican territory, right? But then, just stay with me on this, then in 1836, Texas fought for its independence from Mexico, and it all came down to this final decisive battle.

General Andrew Jackson, hero of the War of 1812, fought numerous brutal campaigns of expulsion against native peoples.

In 1828, Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States and turned expulsion from expedience into policy with the 1830 Indian Removal Act.

What resulted was the mass expulsion, or to give it its proper name, ethnic cleansing, of tens of thousands of indigenous peoples from their native lands, a tragedy remembered by Native Americans as the Trail of Tears.

The government in Washington struggled to legally define Native Americans.

Mexico in the early 19th century was a land in near constant state of anarchy, and the settler's cultural and economic links ran east and north, not south and west.

Soon rebellion broke out in Texas.

the Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna advanced at the head of the Mexican army to reassert Mexican authority and teach the American settlers a lesson.

But the Texans were made of stern stuff.

He didn't actually provide reinforcements.

He could have come up on Santa Ana's rear.

Some of you guys know about that.

Could have gotten there.

You know, also, do you know who won the Battle of San Jacinto? Former Tennessee Governor Sam Houston.

Look it up.

Sam Houston kicked Santa Ana's ass.

Santa Ana tried to flee, dressed up as a Mexican private.

Austin, joined by some Tejano elites, demanded greater autonomy and the right to use slave labor.

Thinking the better of it, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna decided to assert control over the rest of territory with an army, turning the elite's demands for autonomy into a full-scale revolt for independence.

On March 13, 1836, Santa Anna defeated the American defenders of the Alamo, killing 187 or 188 Americans, including Davy Crockett.

The Texas rebels would remember the Alamo and come back to defeat Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, and Mexico was forced to recognize Texas' independence.

So Texas became the Lone Star Republic and quickly decided that it would be much better to be a less lonely star and join the United States.

So in 1837, Texas's Congress called for union, but all they heard back was, not so fast, Texas.

Henry David Thoreau was in fact thrown in jail for refusing to pay taxes in protest of the war and wrote on civil disobedience in his defense, which many American high schoolers are assigned to read and expected not to understand lest they take the message to heart and stop doing assignments like reading on civil disobedience.

Another critic was concerned about the increase in executive power that Polk seemed to show, saying, That critic was none other than noted peacenik Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to do more to expand executive power than any president in the 19th century except maybe Andrew Jackson.

The Alamo

and the Battle of San Jacinto and Santa Ana.

I don't know.

Wow.

It's the land of the Alamo.

Once again, if we can't hold Texas, it is, you know, Santa Anna and his men are coming over the ramparts, my friends, and we're toast.

So you gotta hold.

I, I love the Santa Anna reference.

I wasn't anticipating that.

Um, by the way, Crockett Coffee dominating.