Both Coahuila and Texas seceded from Mexico because Antonio López de Santa Anna attempted to collect taxes, end slavery, and centralize the government, and groups of rebels, led primarily by immigrants and slave-owners, were unwilling to obey the laws of the rest of Mexico.

Coahuila joined with Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, to form the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande.

He knew that Texas's small population and insufficient resources made the region ill-prepared to be an independent state, and that the federal government had an obligation to assist territories.

The representative from Coahuila, Miguel Ramos Arizpe, was likewise concerned that his region was ill-equipped to become an independent state.

To convince the Texans to join forces with Coahuila, Ramos Arizpe wrote to the ayuntamiento in Bexar to warn the political leaders that a territory would lose its ownership of public lands to the federal government.

[11] The federal government had little money to spare for the military, so settlers were empowered to create their own militias to help control hostile native tribes.

[15] Only one of the twenty-four empresarios, Martín De León settled citizens from within Mexico; the others came primarily from the United States.

[22] As the number of Americans living in Texas blossomed, Mexican authorities became apprehensive that the United States might wish to annex the area, possibly using force.

[23][24] On April 6, 1830, the Mexican government passed a series of laws restricting immigration from the United States into Texas.

[23] Implementation of the new laws angered colonists in Texas, and in June 1832 a group of armed settlers marched on the military base at Anahuac, and deposed the commander, Juan Davis Bradburn.

[25][26] The small rebellion coincided with a revolt led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna against the centralist policies of Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante.

As fighting erupted, residents in Saltillo declared that Monclova had been illegally made the state capital and selected a new governor.

Texans in Saltillo recommended establishing a provisional government in Bexar during the unrest to strengthen the autonomy of Texas.

Juan Seguin, political chief of Bexar, called for a town meeting to create a government but was forced to postpone it when Mexican troops advanced in the direction of Texas.

[31] The federalists, including Agustín Viesca, the governor of Coahuila y Tejas, were afraid that Santa Anna would march against Coahuila after subduing the rebels in Zacatecas, so they disbanded the state legislature on May 21, 1835, and authorized the governor to set up an office in a different part of the state.

[30] In October 1835, Santa Anna abolished all state governments, replacing them with administrative divisions from Mexico City.

The choice of capital city was controversial; Saltillo was located in the extreme south of the state, more than 300 leagues from the northernmost part of Texas.

In 1826, Coahuila y Tejas and the nearby states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León were placed under a single military commandant general, who was stationed near Laredo.

[37] According to the regulations, each of the garrisons in Texas (at the Alamo Mission in Bexar and at Presidio La Bahia in Goliad) should have 107 soldiers, not including officers.

[39] The bulk of the rest of the army remained in Mexico City, in large part so its leaders could curry political favor.

[45] Although both the federal and state constitutions established the Catholic Church as the official religion, the frontier areas often disobeyed the rule.

Wild game was abundant, and many families survived by hunting, keeping a few head of livestock, and subsistence farming.