'For the Hills of Santa Fe': The Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 and the Southwest Market Economy

This thesis examines the ill-fated Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 to analyze the state of a lucrative market network in the Southwest. Cut off from Santa Fe, the hub of the network, Texas struggled economically as an independent nation. Commercially isolated and dealing with near- worthless paper money, Texans hoped that trade with the people of Santa Fe would divert wealth into their nation. To justify the expedition, Anglo-Texans used the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny and turned the trek into a liberation mission. Moreover, Texans desired an overland route to Santa Fe to attract merchants to their otherwise inactive ports. Texans invested much into the expedition both economically and culturally; however, the Texan Santa Fe Expedition ended in utter failure and convinced many Texans that annexation to the United States was the wiser path to take.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Department dc:contributor.department

History

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Saionz, Matthew K.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Thorp, Daniel B.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Ewing, E. Thomas
• Hidalgo, Dennis R.

• Santa Fe
• Southwest
• Expedition
• Market
• Texas

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05122011-121933

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/32672