Few settlers chose to journey to the economically stagnant northern frontier, leaving provinces like Spanish Texas and Alta California chronically underpopulated.
[2] Several months later, at the urging of Mexican delegates, the Spanish Cortes granted permission for foreigners to live on public lands along the northern frontier of the colony.
[3] The lack of a formal policy had not stopped many immigrants – a number of people had left the United States to settle in the Mexican northern provinces.
Local officials were not eager to expel potentially productive settlers who could help improve the colonies, and the squatters were generally left alone.
The most vulnerable was Texas; early in 1821 the town of Goliad had been captured by American filibusters as part of the Long Expedition.
[4] Some believed that their own countrymen were not suitable colonists, and most agreed that the system of missions and presidios did not work well for settling the frontiers.
This would satisfy multiple objectives, including boosting economic growth, increasing the size of the military, and bringing new capital and skills into the country to replace those lost during the expulsion of many Spaniards.
[10] The new law allowed residents, including Christianized natives, to claim title to any land they inhabited, cultivated, or used for grazing.
Empresarios often claimed land that was already inhabited by people who had not sought legal protection forcing the existing residents from their homes.
[10] Many of the traditional hunting grounds of the native tribes were considered public land and given to empresarios to settle foreigners.
The attitudes of the immigrants culminated in the Fredonian Rebellion's failed secession attempt in 1827, which alarmed Mexican officials.
[11] The Law of April 6, 1830 rescinded all empresario contracts that had not been completed, and it prohibited Americans from settling in any Mexican territory adjacent to the United States.