1828—The United States accepts Mexico’s contention that the Sabine River shall be the boundary in the south between the two nations.
1829–1830—Alarmed by the increase of settlers from the United States, Mexico passes several laws much restricting immigration and the rights of colonists.
1832—The American colonists support General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who aspires to supplant the unfair Anastasio Bustamante in the presidency of Mexico. They rise against the Mexican commandants at Nacogdoches, and at Anahuac and Velasco on the Gulf, and expel them.
1832—October 1 the “people of Texas” meet in first general convention at San Felipe, and ask for a state government separate from Coahuila.
1833—Santa Anna becomes president of Mexico.
1833—Hoping now for aid from Santa Anna, on April 1 the Texans meet in another convention, and draw up a plan for separate state government. Stephen Austin bears the petition to Mexico. He is arrested.
1834—Coahuila, with which Texas is still linked, is torn by quarrels between its Mexican factions, in which Texas is little concerned except as an outsider. Santa Anna grants an audience to Stephen Austin, the prisoner, but decides that Texas cannot be separated from Coahuila, and that 4000 Mexican troops should be sent in, to preserve order.
1835—The local revolution in Coahuila continues, and Santa Anna appoints a governor of his own making, for Coahuila and Texas. The Americans in Texas are much incensed at such dictatorship, and Mexican officials, driven out by Santa Anna’s policies, join with the colonists.
1835—June 30 Captain William B. Travis, of the Anglo-Texans, leads a party against the port of Anahuac, where import duties were being collected. The Mexican officers there are expelled.