Texan Santa Fe Expedition

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Texan Santa Fe Expedition (English: Texan Santa Fe Expedition ) was between 19./20. June and October 5, 1841 by a Texas force under the command of General Hugh McLeod (1814-1862) attempted to annex the area around the city of Santa Fe , which belonged to the Mexican province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México .

procedure

The Texan Santa Fe Expedition was initiated by the then President of the Republic of Texas , Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798-1859), in order to get the extremely lucrative trade on the Santa Fe Trail under Texan control. In this way, Lamar hoped not only to improve the financial situation of the young republic, but also to expand its territory to include the part of Mexico to which Texas was already claiming.

The total of 321 participants in the expedition, who were called the Santa Fe Pioneers , set out on June 19 or 20, 1841 from Kenney's Fort on Brushy Creek , about 20 miles north of Austin . A lack of local knowledge, attacks by the Comanches and Kiowa as well as a lack of water and provisions hit the expedition heavily during the march and quickly caused the morale of the participants to drop. In September 1841 a detachment of the Mexican army sent by the Mexican governor Manuel Armijo (1793-1854) succeeded in forcing the advance party of the expedition to surrender at Anton Chico . Soon afterwards, the Mexicans were also able to pinpoint the location of the main Texan armed forces, which had now come as far as Tucumcari . In view of the poor physical condition of the remaining men, which made a continuation of the mission hopeless, General McLeod decided on October 5, 1841 also to surrender to the Mexicans. In this way, without firing a shot, the entire main Texan force was captured without a fight.

While the Mexicans had initially promised to treat the completely exhausted Texans well, it soon became apparent that exactly the opposite was the case. The Mexican side finally decided to take the prisoners to Mexico City , treating them with ostentatious harshness on the long way there. Their fate not only led to aroused diplomatic activity between Mexico on the one hand and Texas and the United States on the other, but also to strong anti-Mexican public sentiment in both states.

The surviving participants of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition , who were held captive in various places in Mexico, were not released by the Mexican authorities until April 1842.

literature

  • A. Ray Stephens and William M. Holmes: Historical Atlas of Texas. University of Oklahoma Press 1989, Chapter 31: Texan Santa Fe Expedition , nos, ISBN 0-8061-2158-0 .

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Essentially, this was an area that would later form a large part of the US state of New Mexico .
  2. ↑ This number includes not only soldiers and officers, but also car drivers, civil commissioners , traders and "guests" who accompanied the expedition.
  3. ↑ The Handbook of Texas Online names the 19th as the date of departure, Stephens / Holmes (1989), chap. 31, but June 20, 1841.