| A | B |
|---|
| Stephen Austin | led 300 Americans into Spanish Texas to establish a colony |
| Tehanos | Texans of Mexican descent |
| Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna | overturned Mexico's democratic government and established a dictatorship |
| dictatorship | one-person rule |
| Alamo | Former Catholic mission that became the location of a battle between Mexican forces and Anglo-Americans |
| siege | an attack in which one force surrounds a city or fort |
| "Remember the Alamo" | Rallying cry of Texans that inspired them to victory over Mexican forces at San Jacinto |
| Sam Houston | led Texan forces at the Battle of San Jacinto and became President of Republic of Texas |
| San Jacinto | Battle between Texans and Mexican forces in which Santa Anna was captured securing Texan independence |
| annex | to add on |
| James K. Polk | "dark horse" candidate who won the Presidential election of 1844 |
| "Fifty-four forty or fight" | slogan used by Polk that expressed his desire to secure the Northern border with the British |
| Rio Grande | river set as boundary between Texas and Mexico in the treaty signed by Santa Anna |
| Nueces River | claimed by Mexico as the border between Mexico and Texas |
| cede | to give up land |
| John C. Fremont | helped secure California under American control during Bear Flag Rebellion |
| General Zachary Taylor | U.S. commander during Mexican-American war won battles at Monterrey and Buena Vista |
| General Winfield Scott | Completed the American victory by defeating Santa Anna at Chapultepec and securing Mexico City |
| Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo | formally ended the Mexican-American War, and granted the U.S. the Mexican Cession |
| Gadsden Purchase | the U.S. paid Mexico $10 million for land including present day Arizona and New Mexico |
