The Texas Revolt Against Mexico
The Economy, Santa Anna Abriged Version: It’s the Economy, Santa Anna On March 2, 1836, Texans signed a Declaration of Independence from Mexico. While often portrayed as a simple anti-Mexican conflict, the causes of the Texas Revolution were more complex. After Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, the nation debated whether power should be centralized or shared with the states. People in outlying regions, including Anglo settlers and Tejanos, favored a federal system with strong state autonomy. They were known as Federalists. Those in central Mexico supported a strong national government and were called Centralists, led by Antonio López de Santa Anna. Historians often describe the Texas Revolution as a Federalist-Centralist political struggle, but the deeper cause was economic. Texas had become economically connected to the United States and, through it, to global trade. Settlers shifted from subsistence farming to producing crops for U.S. markets and relied on American go...