One of the most iconic events in American, and especially, Texan history, began on the 23rd February 1836, when Mexican Centralist forces under the personal command of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna arrived at San Antonio de Bexar in Texas and laid siege to the fortified mission just outside called the Alamo;



The siege would last 13 days until Mexican forces stormed the defences in the early morning of 6th March 1836.

Infuriated by the rebellion, Santa Anna had already decreed that no prisoners were to be taken. A fact emphasized by the flying of a red flag and the playing of the "Deguello" or throat cutting song.

This video has the Hollywood version of the Deguello and the original version as it would have been played in 1836;

Triceratops,
thank you very much for all this. Where do you find it all...?
No time to expand. So busy on the French fora...
If you have some more on the real historical event and the context...John Wayne for instance.... No serious, something else than the Wikipedia...
Kind regards and with esteem,
Paul.

Paul,

I've got a couple of books about the Alamo, A Time to Stand by Walter Lord and the Osprey Campaign book The Alamo and it's from them I've taken the following.

The story really begins in 1820 when Moses Austin of Connecticut contracted with the Spanish Colonial Govenment to settle 300 American families in Texas. Moses died leaving the role of emprasario [immigration agent] to his son Stephen.The newly independent state of Mexico agreed to honour the contract and American immigration to Texas began. A short lived Empire under Agustin I, formerly General Iturbide, was replaced by a liberal constitution in 1824 [ one of the officers involved in Iturbide's overthrow was Santa Anna, at this time a liberal] based on the US constitution of 1787.

Laws of 1824 and 1825 further encouraged immigration to Texas, $30, an oath of allegiance to Mexico and at least nominal acceptance of Roman Catholicism would buy a family 4,428 acres.And immigrants were exempt from taxes and duties for 10 years. By 1830, 75% of the population of Texas were immigrants.Fearing they were losing control, the Mexicans suspended all unfulfilled immigration contracts, stopped duty exemption and began stationing troops to help enforce tax collection and anti-slavery legislation [which American southerners had ignored]

In Mexico City, there were two factions vying for power, the Federalists and the Centralists. In 1833, Santa Anna was elected as President having defeated a Spanish invasion at Tampico. The supposed liberal made a deal with the Centralists and in 1834 overturned the Constiution of 1824, saying that Mexico was not ready for democracy. The following year the state legislatures were dissolved and former States transformed into military departments. When Federalist forces resisted,civil war broke out in Mexico; Zacetecas [rebellion crushed] and Texas [became independent] being the principal war zones.

The flag of the Matamoros Battalion of the Mexican Army, the "Permanente" designation, means this was a regular army unit.



The Matamoros Battalion was at the Alamo and San Jacinto.

A brief overview of the Mexican Army;

http://hotx.com/alamo/mexarmy.html

The Flag of the Alamo



Every depiction of the Alamo, depicts the flag of 1824 as the flag flown.The truth, is we do not know which flag the Alamo defenders fought under, as no description was made at the time and it was never enquired about later. It is however, highly unlikely to have been the 1824 flag. For while it is true that the original flag as decreed by the Provisional Government of Texas was the Mexican tricolour with the date 1824 replacing the eagle in the centre panel,by the winter of 1835/36 attitudes had hardened and Mexican based flags had fallen out of favour. The Declaration of Independence on 2nd March only confirmed what the majority of the Texian combatants already believed. The volunteer companies from the United States were fighting expressly for independence, few, if any were still fighting for the restoration of the 1824 constitution.

One flag we do know was flown at the Alamo, was the flag of the first company of the New Orleans Greys, as this flag was captured and sent back to Mexico City. Currently on display at the museum in Chapultepec Castle;

Triceratops,
thank you so much for all this.
You can't believe what you all brought about on me...
After reading your links I started to look for the history of New Spain...and how it disintegrated during the revolutions...in Google a lot about New Spain but little about how it disintegrated and in what parts...you have to start from the new entities as Mexico, Venezuela and all that...I tried with Latin America but had only South America including the Portuguese empire...and also less commented as a whole....I tried with Spanish America...but that gives also not "that" much...then starting from the history of Mexico I came by the links on this history more to the evolution of both New Spain and the audienca of Peru in the South...and with Mexico and New Spain I found also the links with the Phillipines....
Have to say after a whole evening research on the internet I know something more about the history of "Spanish America"
Thanks again for your interesting contributions.
Kind regards and with esteem,
Paul.
PS: If you look at the status of colonisation in 1800 just before Napoleon...I have the impression about land surface that Britain and France had still to start...?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Colonisation_1800.png

Paul, this is just from wiki but it is about the only thing I can find re the wars of independence in Spanish America;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_American_wars_of_independence

Triceratops,
thank you very much for your further investigation.
Kind regards and with esteem,
Paul.

A virtual tour of the Alamo compound;

Before dawn on the the 6th March 1836, the Mexican Army attacks and storms the Alamo;