The correct answers are A; B; and D. The Mexican government´s attempts to assert control over the Texas territory included forcing American settlers to take a loyalty oath, built military posts and ended American immigration towards Texas. These actions were implemented during a rough time for the newly formed United States of México. This country had a hard time guarding the farthest northern part of Texas from the United States. During this time, the ideology of Manifest Destiny was making itself present, as the United States acquired more and more territory in many ways.
At the beginning part of Mexico´s history; after they had written their Constitution of 1810, the colonization of Texas became a problem for the Mexican government, both to populate and to keep control over. During this time, Mexico lacked the amount of people needed to populate and active soldiers and hence protect Texas. As a result, Mexico decided to invite European and American immigrants to settle in Texas, and were told they would defend the land against Indians and other foreign enemies, in return, the Mexican government would give them land for labor and cultivation. Moses Austin, of Missouri received a contract to establish a colony on the Brazos River. After his death, his son Stephen F. Austin inherited the contract. The National Colonization Law of August 18th, 1824 stated how Texas would be populated. It determined that whoever aspired to owning a colonization contract would have to make arrangements with the local legislatures, instead of the federal government.
The conditions for immigrants to colonize Texas was first, to take an oath, where they promised to obey federal and state laws and constitutions; worship according to the Christian religion and display moral principals along with good conduct. This gave the individual, the status of naturalized Mexican. Also, Spanish was taught as the national language.
Slavery was not prohibited. The Spanish legislation prohibited the importation of slaves into Spanish territory; regardless , whoever was already inside the territory as a slave, would remain with the same title; a slave, they didn’t prohibit slavery, as specified by the Secretary of State at Saltillo, Mexico, was that ¨What is not prohibited is to be understood as permitted. ¨
Although Spanish was not enforced as a national language, it was made aware the importance of the language, and the responsibility to learn it.
The Mexican government decided to end American immigration after it saw that the Anglo population was increasing and the oaths were not being respected; also, the Mexican government feared that an increment in American immigration would produce secessionist sentiments among the Anglo-Texan population. As for the military posts, they were built to monitor the population, their religious practices, promises, and responsibilities but also to be aware of any foreign enemies entering national territory. The military posts represented an extent of the government, since it was always making sure that the Mexican law was followed, and for the landowners, to make sure every person who had a colonization contract also had along with them their 100 families necessaries to maintain their land.
