In order to settle Texas in the 1820s, the Mexican government allowed speculators, called empresarios, to acquire large tracts of land if they promised to bring in settlers to populate the region and make it profitable. Moses and Stephen Austin contracted to bring "500 families on the vacant lands remaining within the limits of the colony already established." The contract stipulates that "The families which are to compose this Colony besides being industrious as he offers in his petition must be Cat[ho]lics, and of good morals." Stephen Austin established dozens of communities and brought thousands of settlers into the Mexican province of Texas. While Austin was loyal and committed to the Mexican Republic, by the early 1840s he was leery of the unstable Mexican government and advocated for the independence of Texas.
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