Anglos

The Colonial Era

Anglo-Americans formed the economic and political elite very early in the colonial era. Nonetheless, early America was ethnically and culturally diverse. There remained a sizable Dutch population in New York and New Jersey, for example. However, though the terms Anglo and Anglo-Saxon had yet to gain prominence, ethnic, national, and sectarian tensions were long present between Anglo citizens and non-Anglo citizens. Roman Catholic migration was not encouraged by northeastern Anglo Protestants; they instead settled in Maryland and Philadelphia. Later, there were incidents of English mobs rising against Irish and Scots-Irish immigrants.

English became the primary language in virtually every colony by 1775. In 1790, when the first American census was conducted, it is estimated that 75 percent of the population was of an Anglo background, with the majority of this population tracing their lineage to England. These English Americans formed 48.3 percent of the total population of America, but they held numerical sway only in the northeast. In the mid-Atlantic and the south, they were a minority, although still influential as a political and social class.

The New Frontier and Texas

As the frontier expanded in succeeding decades, some areas were settled by nonwhite ethnic groups while other regions, such as Spanish-settled Florida and French-settled Louisiana, possessed an existing non-Anglo majority. By 1820, Anglo settlers had crossed through Louisiana and into the region then known as the internal province of Texas, a part of the Empire of New Spain. It was here that Anglos first encountered its Spanish-speaking, Catholic citizens. Over the next two decades, interactions between Anglo settlers and Tejano and Mexicano residents would shape culture, history, and national boundaries on both sides of a shared borderland.

Anglo-American migration increased after 1821 when Texas became part of the new nation of Mexico, now independent of the Spanish Empire. The political leaders of this region initially encouraged trade with the burgeoning Anglo community in order to bolster its own economic development. This was true not only of Texas, but also of the other northernmost areas of this country, including future New Mexico and California.

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