On December 29, 1845, Texas was officially annexed by the United States of America. The annexation followed nine years of lobbying by the citizens of Texas to join the union. Texas was the 28th state to join the Union.
In April 1836, the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto. The citizens of Texas voted in Sam Houston as their president and immediately began looking to join the United States. However, disputes about Texas joining the U.S. as a state that legalized slavery caused disputes in Congress. Additionally, Mexico had threatened to wage war against the U.S. if they annexed Texas. When President James Polk took office, one of his main objectives was to accomplish “Manifest Destiny,” which is the idea that the U.S. was destined to stretch from coast to coast. Shortly after his election, Congress agreed to annex the state of Texas.
When Texas joined the Union, about 30,000 of its 125,000 residents were enslaved people. Only 16 years after becoming a state, Texas voted to secede from the United States and joined the Confederacy over the cause of slavery.
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