History

In terms of area and population, Texas is the second largest state in the United States of America. Texas joined the US in the year 1845 and it became the twenty eighth state. This led to a set of events such as the Mexican American war.  During the American civil war, Texas joined the confederate states of America. After the war Texas was restored into the union again.

Discussion
Texas was initially a province in Mexico. Americans began to move beyond their countrys borders in the early 1800s.This was according to a request made by the Mexican government so that the sparsely populated lands could be populated. During this time Mexico was a colony of Spain. The three hundred American families were led by Stephen Austin. The main aim was to start a permanent settlement. In their year 1821, Mexicans managed to win their independence from Spain. Some of the conditions that these settlers had to put up with were that they had to convert into Catholicism and that they had to become citizens of Mexico (Fehrenbach 263- 269).

The Anglo Americans were not very receptive to the Mexican rules. This is because most of these Americans had migrated with their slaves and the Mexican government had outlawed slavery. The Anti slavery law by the Mexican government was put in place in the hope that the Americans would be discouraged and move back to the US. It was as a result of this move by the Mexican government and other reasons that Texas declared its independence from Mexico. This resulted to a war between Texas and Mexico. The war ended in the year 1836 and Sam Houston was elected as the first president of Texas based on the platform of annexation of Texas to the United States. An annexation proposal was submitted by the Texas ambassador to the Van Buren administration in the year 1837.The administration though that if it accepted this proposal then it would lead to war with Mexico and hence the proposal was declined.

In the year 1838, Mirabeau Lamar was elected as the president of Texas and was against the annexation of Texas and hence Texas withdrew its proposal. In the year 1843, president john Tyler was in full support of the annexation of Texas and began negotiations with the republic of Texas with regard to an annexation treaty. President John Tyler presented the treaty to senate in the year 1844 and unfortunately it was unable to meet the two thirds majority required for ratification (Federal Writers Project 206-212).

In November 1844 James Polk who was a democrat in favor of territorial expansion, was elected. The Tyler administration and president Polk decided that the best way to go about the annexation of Texas was through a joint resolution. According to this resolution Texas would become a state so long as it met some conditions. Some of the conditions outlined were that Texas was supposed to split itself into four states upon admission and approve its annexation by January 1 1846.This joint resolution was approved by the senate and presented to President Jones Anson of Texas. The American annexation offer was endorsed by Texan congress in 1845 and they started writing a state constitution. The annexation ordinances as well as the constitution were approved by the Texas citizens. In October 1845, these documents were signed by President Polk and Texas was formally integrated into the USA on December 1845 (Fehrenbach 263- 269).

The Mexican American war broke out after Texas had been annexed. The annexation of Texas destroyed Mexicos diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States stressed that the Texas state extended to the Rio Grande while Mexico insisted that it was the Nueces River. Since Texas was unable to enforce it border claims, the United States used its political will and military strength in order to accomplish this. In the year 1846, the Mexican American war broke out. The battles that were fought in Texas included Battle of Resaca de la Palma, Fort Texas siege and Battle of Palo Alto. The United States was victorious in these battles and was finally able to invade Texas and end the fighting. This two year war was ended by the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the US was given total control of Texas by Mexico. Texas borders were established at the Rio Grande. Texas was later engaged in the American civil war where it made great contributions in terms of soldiers and equipments (Winders, 41-50).

Conclusion
Texas became a state in the year 1845. This resulted from the decision to annex Texas. There were several political factors that played a part in the inclusion of Texas into the union. The Mexican American war and the American civil war were some of the battles that broke out when Texas joined the US.