USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Stephen F. Austin (1821) – first American to recruit and settle Americans in Texas/Mexico. He settled 300 families known as “the Old Three Hundred” in his first Texas colony. Known as the most important empresario.

Detailed explanation-2: -Empresarios worked to bring settlers who would develop Texas for the Mexican government. In exchange, those settlers would receive title to land – a resource that was abundant.

Detailed explanation-3: -Moses Austin, founder of the American lead industry and the first man to obtain permission to bring Anglo-American settlers into Spanish Texas, son of Elias and Eunice (Phelps) Austin, was born in Durham, Connecticut, on October 4, 1761.

Detailed explanation-4: -Hoping to recover from bankruptcy with a bold scheme of colonization, Moses Austin meets with Spain authorities in San Antonio to ask permission for 300 Anglo-American families to settle in Texas.

Detailed explanation-5: -Ever the schemer, he developed a plan to establish an American colony in Spanish Texas. In 1820, he traveled to San Antonio, where the Baron de Bastrop convinced the Spanish governor to approve Austin’s plan. Austin soon received a land grant in what is now the state of Texas.