ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
American settlers and Tejanos in Mexican Texas chafed under Antonio López de Santa Anna's centralizing constitution; the siege of the Alamo and Goliad massacres radicalized rebels gathering under Sam Houston's command.
What happened
Texas declared independence on March 2, 1836, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, where delegates signed a declaration modeled on American revolutionary language while Santa Anna's army still marched east.
Why it still matters
Sam Houston's victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, captured Santa Anna and secured a republic that joined the United States in 1845; Texas identity—frontier myth, oil wealth, and Latino heritage—still pivots on that brief decade as a sovereign nation.
Background
Sam Houston's victory at San Jacinto followed.