Warm Up
• Define
Depression
Survey
Empresario
Militia
The
st
1
Empresario of Texas
Moses Austin
Moses Austin
• Born October 4, 1761 in Durham,
Connecticut.
• Was a very wealthy businessman/banker for
the first part of his life until 1819 when he
lost all of his fortune.
• In 1819, the United State’s Banking system
failed and many people lost every penny.
Moses Austin
• In 1820, Moses Austin traveled to the
Presido San Antonio de Bexar to meet
with the Governor of the Spanish Texas
area.
• His plan was to bring and settle Texas with
Anglo-American settlers.
• Because of filibusters attacking,
the Governor rejected his plan.
Moses Austin
• After being rejected, Austin met with
an old friend of his, Felipe Enrique
Neri, Baron of Bastrop (who also lived in
San Antonio).
• Felipe helped convince the Spanish to grant
Austin permission to settle with AngloAmerican settlers.
• In 1821, Moses Austin got permission to
bring 300 families to Texas.
Moses Austin
• On his trip back to the United States,
Moses Austin becomes sick (with
pneumonia) and eventually dies.
• His son, Stephen F. Austin takes on his
father’s work and begins to continue to
carry out Moses’ plan to colonize Texas.
Stephen F. Austin and the
Empresarios
Agenda
Warm Up
Lecture/Questions
Letter Reading Activity(if time allows)
United States
Spain (until 1821)
and Mexico
United States
Mexico
Towns already in
Texas when Moses
Austin showed up
• San Antonio
• Goliad
• Nacogdoches
• Saltillo (captial of CyT)
Why didn’t Mexico
have the Mexicans
move into Texas?
Why did they bring
in Americans?
• They would have
been too far from
Mexico City and
“civilization”
• The Natives were
hostile… it was safer
to stay home
Nacogdoches
San
Antonio
Saltillo
Goliad
Empresarios – The Beginning
The Spanish word for a land agent
whose job it was to bring in new
settlers to an area.
Moses Austin
(Stephen F.
Austin’s Father)
Ok Dad… I’ll
carry out your
plans for settling
Texas.
Stephen F.
Austin
•
The first Anglo American to get permission from Spain to bring American
settlers to Texas
•
Lived in Missouri until a depression hit the U.S. and he lost all his money
•
Went to Texas to ask the Spanish government if he could have a contract to
bring Americans to settle Texas
•
The Spanish were suspicious that Austin was really there to grab land until
Baron de Bastrop convinced the Spanish officials otherwise
•
Then… Moses Austin died
How It Worked…
Stephen F. Austin was the first to get his contract
approved by the Spanish (and then the Mexican)
government… so he was the first EMPRESARIO (he
was also the most successful)
Each empresario would sign a contract with the
government of Mexico whereby they promised to
settle a certain number of families (in Austin’s
first contract he was supposed to settle 300
families)
How It Worked…
REQUIREMENTS FOR SETTLING IN TEXAS:
•You had to become a citizen of your
new country (Spain, and later
Mexico)
•You had to become
Catholic
•You had to be of good moral character
Each settler paid Austin $0.12 an acre
After securing his contract with Mexico, Austin
traveled around Texas and found what he
thought was the best land for settling
What are some things that make land good for settling?
The deal that Stephen F. Austin worked out with
Spanish (and then Mexican) officials included the
following:
•Every man who came to Austin for land would
receive 640 acres for himself
•320 acres for his wife
•160 acres for each child
•80 acres for each slave
Austin’s First Colony
Austin’s choice for his first
colony was between the
Colorado and the Brazos
Rivers
Austin’s colony included a port
because he knew he would
need it to get settlers and
supplies to the colony
Austin’s First Colony
Austin got a ship, the Lively to take
people and supplies to the new
colony from New Orleans
Everything went well until 1822:
• In 1822, the Lively shipwrecked and Austin lost a lot of
supplies and colonists
• Mexico won it’s independence from Spain in 1821… so now
Austin had to get permission to colonize Texas from the new
Mexican government
Major Empresario Grants
Empresario
Location
Capital
Problems
Stephen F.
Austin
(Father of
Texas)
Between the
Colorado
and Brazos
Rivers
San Felipe
de Austin
Drought
Tonkawa & Kawakawa
Lively shipwrecked
Disputes over boundaries
Mexican gov’t revoked
right to settle
Green
DeWitt
West of
Austin’s 1st
Colony
Gonzales
Native American Settled 166 families
2nd in number to Austin
Raids
Martin De
Leon
South of De
Witt along the
GuadalupeNear the
coast
Victoria
Native American
Raids
Forced to leave TX
because of antiMexican sentiments
Did a lot to promote the
cattle industry in Texas
Victoria important center
for trade between Mexico
and Texas
Power and
Hewetson
South of De
Leon along
the Gulf
Coast
Refugio
Native American
Raids
Irish
Refugio was built on the
site of an old Spanish
Mission
McMullen
and
McGloin
Along the
Gulf Coast
San
Patricio
Farming
Successes
Convinced Mexican gov’t
to let him settle
Father of TX – 1st colonize
Americans
Settled nearly 300 families
Irish
Population BEFORE
Empresarios: 7,000
Population AFTER
Empresarios: 22,000
Towns established
after the Americans
came
• San Felipe
• Gonzales
Nacogdoches
• Victoria
• Refugio
San Felipe de Austin
• Galveston
• Bastrop
San
Antonio
• San Patricio
• And many more…
Saltillo
Gonzales
Goliad