The purpose of this research is to examine geopolitical aspects of the 1836 battle between armed forces representing the nations of Texas and Mexico, respectively. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context of the events that unfolded at the Alamo and then to discuss the political positions that each side was defending, with a view toward identifying certain intersections in popular imagination as well as in public policy between nationalism, imperialism, and revolutionary behavior that operated at the time.
Although the Alamo has romantic resonance in the history of the American frontier, the facts surrounding the war for Texas independence from Mexico in 1836 reveal a situation in which the attribute of heroism was confined to a few personalities but almost completely absent from the motives and behavior of the various institutional entities that had acquired a stake in the outcome of events on the ground. Reasons for that go to the geopolitical motives that informed the opening of Texas to settlement and development and the motives that informed those who engaged in the settlement and development. Equally important was the inchoate social and political environment of Texas at the time, with different groups of actors bringing with them significant differences of ethos and worldview. These various features of experience combined forcefully in 1836 to make history. In that connection, one historian comments that the Texas War for Independence was at once small war as such things go . . . a short one too, lasting only about seven months. And it was certainly fought in what was at the time one of the most obscure corners of the world." Even so, it assumed such "legendary" status that even those who know nothing in of its particulars are likely to have a sense of its importance and may even feel that they are informed about what happened at the Alamo in 1836.
To be sure, some of the key actors at the Alamo in 1836 h...