Probably "D". Read below and you decide:
Written below by Tanner Hendrick, Texas.
After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, it became its own independent country and was named the Republic of Texas. During the years 1836-1846 immigrants moved here from various countries in Europe hoping to find a better life in the Republic in Texas. These immigrants took a chance and left their homes and countries to start a new life in a beautiful place with lots of land, rivers and mild climate. In areas where they settled in the Republic, you can still see evidence of their culture, hear their different languages being spoken and see their influence on the area they chose to settle.
Life was different back in those days. The capital was located in Houston. There was not much money in the Republic because so much money had been spent on the war. There were not many roads to get from one town to the next and there were still attacks from Indians and Mexican troops near the border. The Republic wanted new people to move here to build towns, schools and roads for our new country. Our new government wanted people to move here from Europe to start new lives here. To help attract European immigrants to Texas, the empresarial system was used to designate colonies and bring immigrants here.
Three of the most famous empresarios were Henri Castro from France and two Germans named Henry Fisher and Burchard Miller. In 1842, Henri Castro persuaded 600 families and men to move from their homes in France and come live near San Antonio, Texas. They started a colony called Castroville named after Henri Castro. Castro hired 27 ships and brought over 2,000 farmers from France to start new lives in Texas. In return for the French people leaving their homes, friends and country, Mr. Castro gave them a ship ride over to Texas, 320 acres, a house and tools to start their first farm. All of this only cost $240.00. In return, Castro gave all his colonists approximately 300,000 acres of land. The ship ride was very difficult and would take months to get to Texas from France. They would land in Galveston, Texas and take horses and buggy rides from Galveston to their new community and the trip was long and hard and would take many weeks. Back then, a horse and buggy could only travel about 10 miles a day.
