Fourteen years after Mexico won its independence from Spain, the Mexican Province of Texas sought independence from Mexico, after white settlers sought to merge Texas with the more economically vibrant United States.
On December 1835, caucasian soldiers occupied the Alamo, which was a former mission building established under Mexico’s Spanish rule that was converted into a fort. On Febuary 23, 1836, the Battle of the Alamo began when thousands of Mexican soldiers, under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, began a siege of the Alamo to repel the occupiers of the fort. Although vastly outnumbered, the Alamo’s 200 defenders, commanded by James Bowie and William Travis, were able to withhold the thousands of soldiers from entering the structure for thirteen days. Frontiersman David Crockett, was one of the many Texans to die in the battle, which would eventually symbolize Texan resilience to oppression.
Years after the Battle of the Alamo, the event was utilized as part of the justification for the United States to fight to capture land from Mexico in the Mexican-American War.
Hamilton Historical Records 