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Mexican Independence - 1821

Mexico, after being under the stronghold of the Spanish dictators who had ruled since Cortex, had struggled and gained her freedom from Spain on August 24, 1821. The final push for independence resulted from Mexican reaction to revolutionary events in Spain that undermined the last vestiges of Spanish authority in the colonies.

In January 1820 an army assembled in Cádiz for an attempt to raconteur Argentina mutinied and sparked rebellion among other army units throughout Spain. Joined in revolt by liberals, radicals, and anyone opposed to Ferdinand's absolutist rule of the previous six years, the rebellious military forced the king to restore the Constitution of 1812. Once seated, the constitutional Cortes proved unwilling to address American grievances or to extend equal standing to colonials within the new order. Political tensions between reform-minded Mexicans and colonial authorities led Agustín de Iturbide, a royal officer with a record of success against earlier rebels, to come to terms with the leading Mexican insurgent at the time, Vicente R. Guerrero. Together, on February 24, 1821, they proposed a blueprint for independence called the Plan de Iguala. The plan offered three guarantees-preservation of the Catholic Church's status, the independence of Mexico as a constitutional monarchy, and equality of Spaniards and criollos. Although viceregal authorities tried to resist, the plan met with widespread approval both in civilian and military quarters. By the end of July 1821, when Juan O'Donoju arrived to take over the reins of colonial government, the loyalists controlled only Mexico City and Veracruz. Recognizing that all was lost, O'Donoju met with Iturbide at the town of Córdoba, where on August 24, 1821, he signed a treaty granting Mexico independence.

The James Long Expedition - 1821

The James Long expedition (Second Republic of Texas) occupied the presidio in October 1821 and held La Bahia for three days. On the fourth day they were captured by the Mexican army and sent to San Antionio and finally to Mexico City as prisoners. James Long was accidently shot and killed by a guard, but it was possible that the guard had been hired to kill Long by Jose Felix Tresplalacios, nominal commander of the Long expedition.

The Constitution of 1824

The Constitution of 1824 (signed into power on October 24, 1824), the first of the newly independent Republic of Mexico, was the document under which DeWitt Colonists were invited to emigrate to the Republic. It was this document under which the colonists assumed they were protected and the one they swore to defend.

The constitution defined Legislative power: House of Representatives, Senate, formulation of laws, Supreme Executive Power of the Nation: President and Vice-President, restrictions of the President, Secretaries of State, Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, District Courts, Rules to which all the States and Territories in the Federation shall conform in the administration of Justice, individual government of the States, obligations of the States, and Restrictions of the Powers of the State.

Upon assuming dictatorial powers in 1834, Santa Anna promptly annulled Gómez Farías's reforms and abolished the constitution of 1824. The authoritarian principles that underlay Santa Anna's rule were subsequently codified in the constitution of 1836, also known as the Siete Leyes (Seven Laws). Under the constitution of 1836, Mexico became a centralist regime in which power was concentrated in the president and his immediate subordinates. The states of the former federal republic were refashioned as military districts administered by regional caudillos (head of a political party, chieftain) appointed by the president, and property qualifications were decreed for congressional officeholders and voters.

The nationalist and authoritarian style of the new centralist regime soon brought it into conflict with the loosely governed lands of Mexico's northern frontier. Santa Anna's efforts to exert central authority over the English-speaking settlements in the northern state of Coahuila-Tejas eventually collided with the growing assertiveness of the frontier population that described itself as Texan.

When President Santa Anna declared the Constitution of 1824 void in 1834, the loyal Texas colonist and many Tejano's began to speak of revolting (not a revolution) to have the Constitution re-enstated. When it was realized that the Constitution of 1824 would not be re-enstated, the colonist along with some of the Tejano's would begin a revolution of independence.

Name of La Bahia Settlement Changed To Goliad - 1829

The fort is the site where Goliad history began. The location of the fort had been an occupied site long before Spain arrived in the New World. Strategically located on a high elevation overlooking the surrounding area, the Spanish arrived here in 1749 and found evidence of an Indian Village in the area they named Santa Dorotea. A permanent settlement by Spain began, the town of La Bahia grew up around the protection of the fort. This town was the original Goliad, the name being changed by petition of Rafael Antonio Manchola from La Bahia in 1829 as an anagram for Hidalgo, in honor of the patriot priest of the Mexican Revolution, Father Miguel Hidalgo, who sounded the famous "Grito de Delores" in 1810 for Mexican Independence from Spain. This town became the second largest populated settlement in Spanish Texas.

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The painting above by Marilyn Key depicts what a local house of entertainment (Madame Garcia's) may have looked like prior to the Texas Revolution. Located just outside of the southeast bastion of the presidio walls. Madame Garcia's had a bridge linking the bastion and the roof of Madame Garcia's. Click the above painting to learn more about Madame Garcia's.

After the Texas Revolution, the town of Goliad moved north across the San Antonio River to its present day location.

Presidio La Bahia

Goliad, TX

Mexican Republic