For many years adventurers from Spain and France had explored Texas. For about fifty years Spain had tried to civilize and Christianize the Indians in East Texas. Finally the Spanish government had abolished the missions and presidios. During the following fifty years, very little had been done toward colonization in Texas. In 1821, Texas was an almost uninhabited country, with the exception of savage Indians. The Anglo-Americans came and changed it into a great state. The East Texas Timber Region has been the gateway through which most of the settlers came to Texas. The settlers who stopped there did their part in establishing the present state of Texas. The East Texans did their part in helping to win freedom from Mexico so they could lay a foundation for American civilization there.

This dissertation provides a history of Spanish-Comanche relations during the era of Spanish Texas. The study is based on research in archival documents, some newly discovered. Chapter 1 presents an overview of events that brought both people to the land that Spaniards named Texas. The remaining chapters provide a detailed account of Spanish-Comanche interaction from first contact until the end of Spanish rule in 1821. Although it is generally written that Spaniards first met Comanches at San Antonio de Béxar in 1743, a careful examination of Spanish documents indicates that Spaniards heard rumors of Comanches in Texas in the 1740s, but their first meeting did not occur until the early 1750s. From that first encounter until the close of the Spanish era, Spanish authorities instituted a number of different policies in their efforts to coexist peacefully with the Comanche nation. The author explores each of those policies, how the Comanches reacted to those policies, and the impact of that diplomacy on both cultures. Spaniards and Comanches negotiated a peace treaty in 1785, and that treaty remained in effect, with varying degrees of success, for the duration of Spanish rule. Leaders on both sides were committed to maintaining that peace, although Spaniards were hampered by meager resources and Comanches by the decentralized organization of their society. The dissertation includes a detailed account of the Spanish expedition to the Red River in 1759, led by Colonel Diego Ortiz Parrilla. That account, based on the recently discovered diary of Juan Angel de Oyarzún, provides new information on the campaign as well as a reevaluation of its outcome. The primary intention of this study is to provide a balanced account of Spanish-Comanche relations, relying on the historical record as well as anthropological evidence to uncover, wherever possible, the Comanche side of the story. The research reveals much about the political organization of the Comanche people.

The idea of the Texas Revolution as an internal conspiracy cannot be eliminated. This thesis describes the role of a small minority of the wealthier settlers in Texas in precipitating the Texas Revolution for their own economic reasons. This group, made up of many of the leading figures in Texas, were, for the most part, well-to-do farmers, merchants, and professional men.. Most of them were slaveholders, and their prosperity depended upon the continued existence of this institution. In their minds, the entire economic growth and development of Texas rested upon slavery. When the Mexican government began to threaten the economic future of Texas by the passage of prohibitatory laws on slavery and commerce, many of the leaders in Texas began to think of freeing Texas from Mexican control. The threat to their own economic position and prosperity gave birth to the idea of Texas independence.

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The American movement to acquire the region known as Texas has "been the subject of countless monographs and journal articles. Although the literature on the Texas movement is voluminous, no historian has produced an interpretive synthesis based on that literature and the extant documentary sources. This work is intended "to fill that void "by offering speculative analysis as well as a chronological narrative on the total movement. The scope of this work is comprehensive. It traces the American government's handling of the Texas issue from 1819—-the year President James Monroe agreed to drop the American claim to Texas in the Adams-Onis treaty—through 1845—the year President James K. Polk signed a congressional resolution granting Texas statehood. Throughout these years the countervailing political forces of antebellum America had more influence on the government's Texas position than did diplomatic considerations. Consequently, the theme of this dissertation is that the American movement to acquire Texas was primarily a political movement. Indeed, the Texas Republic became an American state only when the annexation issue became inextricably linked with the party trammels and political philosophies of Jacksonian America.

The intent of this thesis is to convey the distinctiveness and the contributions of Tejano culture in Texas. It focuses on the traditions of governance employed by Tejanos as well as their contributions to industry, economy and defense that Texas benefited from and still enjoys today. .given by Spain and México to Tejanos in establishing their settlements affected the development of a distinct Tejano culture. Furthermore, this study will also examine Anglo-Tejano interaction and Anglo American intentions toward Texas. It will also outline how Anglo Americans made determine efforts to wrest Texas away from Spain and México. Finally, the thesis examines Tejano cultural perseverance whose indelible imprint still resonates today.