Texas Almanac, 1976-1977 Page: 31
672 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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1MILLERMORE, an ante bellum home, is one of many historical structures at Old City Park, one of
Dallas' projects for the U.S. Bicentennial celebration. Photo by Walt Sisco.
TEXAS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The following article was written for the Texas Almanac by the late R. Henderson Shuffler, writer, editor, his-
torian and executive director of the Institute of Texan Cultures, University of Texas-San Antonio.For nearly 300 years after its discovery, the New
World was merely a chessboard for the power plays of
European rulers. Spain coming first, late in the 15th
Century, took her choice of lands on both continents.
Then, Portugal staked out a huge area of South Amer-
ica, called Brazil. Early in the 17th Century, England,
France and Holland began a drive to share in control
of the new hemisphere and Russia established a preca-
rious foothold on the Pacific Coast. The latecomers
took what was left of the land, usually the least desira-
ble.
Once established, England and France sought to ex-
pand their holdings, usually at the expense of Spain.
Throughout the middle 18th Century, wars raged in
both the Old World and the New, with American lands
changing hands as the prizes of the victors.
Then, on July 4, 1776, the British colonies on the At-
lantic Coast of North America declared their independ-
ence from England. Nothing, thereafter, was quite the
same. What we call the American Revolution was sim-
ply the first stage of the revolution of the Americas.
Within 50 years, the greater part of the Western Hemi-
sphere was free of European rule and most of the
newly freed countries were launched on grand experi-
ments at self-government, generally in the pattern of
federal republicanism pioneered by the former British
subjects.
Texas was affected directly by the American Revo-
lution and the course of its history for centuries to
come was shaped by its outcome. In 1776, it would have
been difficult for anyone to have foreseen this.Texas in 1776 was a sparsely settled, poorly de-
fended border subprovince of New Spain. It lay on the
northern frontier of Mexico, between the rich lands of
Spanish Louisiana and the long-settled province of New
Mexico. Of the approximately 2,000 people who lived in
her four scattered towns and her missions and presi-
dios, very few were concerned with what those crazy
Englishmen might be doing half a continent away.
They were too busy with their immediate problems of
making a living, fighting Indians and dealing with their
own remote and erratic government. But Spanish offi-
cialdom, including that in Texas, was concerned with
anything which promised to weaken their old enemies
and aggressive neighbors, the English.
Since 1762 when, at the end of the Seven Years War,
Spain had forced France to cede Louisiana to her, Eng-
land had become her most-feared rival in the Ameri-
cas. The long border on the Mississippi between Span-
ish Louisiana and the British holdings, and another
between Spanish Florida and British West Florida,
were constant sources of trouble.
English traders were even more persistent and ad-
ept at infiltrating Spanish lands to trade with the Indi-
ans than the French had been. An English trading post
had been set up in Arkansas, in the heart of Spanish
holdings, and English ships were landing frequently on
the Texas Gulf Coast. They traded guns and ammuni-
tion to the Indians for horses which the Indians stole
from Spanish settlements. They stirred up trouble con-
tinually, making it impossible for the Spanish to estab-
lish the lasting peace with the wild tribes which they so
desperately needed.~ . a
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Texas Almanac, 1976-1977, book, 1975; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113813/m1/35/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.