Remembering The Alamo essays

Remembering The Alamo essays The 1836 battle for the Alamo has grown to mythic proportions, bolstered in posterity by those keen to liken the last stand of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis to the Spartan defense of Thermopylae two and a half millennia hence. Not a particularly shrewd or strategic military ploy, the defense of the Alamo was as much a miscalculation as it was a rebellious last stand. Nonetheless, the heroism and valor displayed by the small band of "Texians" during the siege on the Alamo remains today a source of pride for modern day Texans and Americans alike. Today, new accounts of the battle have surfaced, calling into question what have heretofore been regarded as incontrovertible historical facts. Also, Mexican-Americans have clamored for their place in the history books alongside Crockett, Bowie, Travis and company as opponents of the Mexican tyrant General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. As in all things throughout history, a true picture of the Alamo is hard to come by. Sifting through the legends, the lore, and the rumors, however, is an It was the Mexican independence from Spain in 1821 that truly set the stage for what was to become a mini-revolution in Texas. Established at this time as an independent state within Mexico, Texas became a beacon to fortune-seekers, visionaries, and adventurers from the United States and Europe (Grigg 35). In 1824, Stephen F. Austin and the "Old Three Hundred"a complement of three hundred familiesarrived in Texas to settle; around this time, Americans were learning that in Mexican-controlled Texas, slack rule was coupled with few constitutional protections (Grigg 36). By 1830, Mexico's central government was canceling land contracts, imposing a variety of taxes and duties, placing restrictions on coastal shipping, and stationing troops throughout (Grigg 37). In 1832, when Gener...