In what is now Southwestern United States there were several settlements of Mexicans and Indians on both sides of the Rio Grande as early as 1750. These people held no title to their land. They had assembled for reasons of economics and security.
Agents of the King of Spain finally arrived in the New World in 1767, surveyed the river lands, and issued titles. With the exception of Laredo, there was little colonization until 1815, when the Spanish governor began to feel the French encroachment on the east. Before then, Spain’s main effort had been directed toward the erection of missions, which required constant support and defense, rather than toward establishing civil settlements that could defend and support themselves.
Thus, the vast area of the Southwest was sparsely populated and lay as a wilderness to American settlers who had pushed to its borders from the United States. A grant to colonize was made to Moses Austin in January, 1821, to settle 300 families in Texas; this was the first deviation from the Spanish policy of maintaining a predominately native population.
Later in 1821, the Spanish yoke was thrown off by Mexico, and the Mexicans continued the policy of granting land to Americans. A liberal colonization policy brought an immediate and widespread response. By 1835 it is estimated that there were over 30,000 people in the Texas colonies—people who had come to Texas not as adventurers or speculators, but to establish new homes. The fourteen-year period had wrought many changes. Texas was no longer a complete wilderness. Many areas had been cleared and turned into small agricultural districts where the people were both industrious and self-reliant.
Because of the differences in the background and heritage of the Anglo-Americans and the Mexicans, it was inevitable that conflicts would develop. Differences in political views, religion, language, and mode of living all served to kindle and feed the flames of the Texas Revolution.
At the very beginning of hostilities, Texans closed the colonial land offices and assumed control of the land problems under one agency. This was the foundation and beginning of the General Land Office, as it is known today.
In separating from Mexico, Texans recognized the valid titles to land which had been made by Spain and Mexico, but all vacant land within the borders of the new republic became the property of Texas. These borders were defined by the Congress of Texas in an Act of December 19, 1836, and included all land within the present boundaries of the state (and out to three marine leagues in the Gulf of Mexico), more than half of the present State of New Mexico, and parts of Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. The first commissioners of the General Land Office, who were given the momentous task of administering this huge domain, were John P. Borden (who served from 1837 to 1841) and Thomas Wm. Ward (whose tenure of office was 1841 to 1848). On December 29, 1845, the Republic became a state.