| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Anglo | a white person of European descent. |
| colony | a country or area under the control of another country;a group of people living there. |
| constitution | a written statement outlining the basic laws for a state or country. |
| empresario | a person given a land grant by the Mexican government to make a settlement and recruit people to live there. |
| land grant | a contract that gives ownership of a plot of land. |
| massacre | a killing of many people. |
| militias | groups of citizen soldiers. |
| pneumonia | a serious lung infection that makes it hard to breathe. |
| republic | a political system in which people elect representatives to make laws for them. |
| revolution | an act of overthrowing and replacing one government with another. |
| tejano | a Mexican-born Texan. |
| Texians | people living in Mexican Texas between 1821 and 1836. |
| commerce | the buying and selling of goods and services. |
| conquistidor | a Spanish conqueror of the Americas in the sixteenth century. |
| convert | to adopt new religious beliefs. |
| hostile | very unfriendly. |
| mestizos | people of mixed American Indians and European descent living in Mexico. |
| mission | a religious and military outpost established by the Spanish during colonization. |
| missionaries | people who share their religious faith with others,usually in other countries. |
| presidio | a Spanish fort staffed by soldiers. |
| squatters | people who settle on land without rights or titles. |
| Western Hemisphere | the part of the world the include the continents North and South America. |
