The territory of Texas was first owned by the Spanish, and then it became Mexican after Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821. It was not included in the Louisiana Purchase, through which the United States bought vast territories in the west from France. However, Mexico encouraged Americans to colonize Texas, which was very sparsely populated. Stephen Austin led a large band of settlers into Mexican territory in Texas, and soon the American colonists in Texas outnumbered Mexicans.
Rebelling against the Mexican government, American Texans declared their independence and formed their own country. The Mexicans won a victory at the Alamo, but later military commander Sam Houston won battles against Mexican forces that caused the Mexicans to withdraw.
Although the Texans elected Sam Houston as their first president, their intention was always to join the Union as a part of the United States, and they voted for annexation. What complicated and delayed this process in this volatile era just before the US Civil War was the issue of slavery. Abolitionists opposed the annexation of Texas as a slave state. For 10 years, the admission of Texas to the Union was delayed while Congress debated this topic. Finally, on December 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to the United States as a slave state. Soon afterwards, a border dispute set off the Mexican-American War.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Texas-state/History
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/texas-enters-the-union
Texas was originally part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, an expansive colonial possession of the Spanish empire in North America. The establishment of an independent state in New Spain in 1821 took Texas out of Spanish territorial control, making it part of the newly sovereign Mexico.
Hoping to populate the spartan territory, Mexico introduced liberal immigration policies, resulting in a large number of American and European settlers coming to Texas. The Texas Revolution of 1835 saw the new Euro-American majority in the territory wrest control from the distant, increasingly autocratic government in Mexico City.
Over the next ten years, Texas operated as a sovereign nation-state. Ongoing harassment by Mexico forced the fledgling nation to devote ever-larger portions of its budget to military expenditures, bringing it to the brink of bankruptcy.
A complex process of negotiated annexation by the United States was Texas's salvation. This intricate compact resulted in the larger nation absorbing Texas and assuming its huge debt in exchange for Texas ceding to the federal government the territory now known as Oklahoma. The process became more complicated still due to opposition among abolitionist politicians in the United States, which forced the act of annexation to occur through a constitutionally dubious congressional joint resolution.
American possession of Texas brought with it responsibility for the uncharted border with Mexico. This set the stage for military confrontation with the southern republic leading directly to the Mexican-American War of 1845, a momentous moment for American political life.
After winning independence from Mexico in 1836, the Republic of Texas petitioned the United States for annexation. Most of the Anglo settlers of Texas were originally from the United States and wanted the protection of the country against the possibility of reconquest by Mexico. However, it was up to the U.S. Congress to pass a bill to annex Texas. This would prove a very contentious matter that would take nine years to settle.
There were two major issues concerning allowing Texans into the Union that proved politically contentious. First off, Mexico still did not recognize the independence of Texas. The Mexican government had made it clear to the United States that the annexation would lead to war. Many representatives in Congress considered it territorial theft to annex Texas. They worried that such an action could irreparably hurt relations with neighboring Mexico and that a war with that country would be costly. In the end, annexation was one of the leading causes of the Mexican-American War.
Perhaps an even more contentious issue had to do with slavery. Many settlers in Texas were slave owners. It was clear that Texas would be a slave state once admitted into the United States. For decades a delicate peace existed between free states and slave states. Great efforts had been made to preserve the representational balance between free and slave states in Congress. Adding a new large slave-holding territory threatened to upset this balance. Worried that annexation would embolden anti-slavery members of Congress several President Martin Van Buren rejected Texas' petition for annexation. Several other petitions were rejected in Congress along similar lines of thinking.
When John Tyler became president in 1841 he pursued an aggressive expansionist agenda. He had recently been expelled from the Whig party and was looking to Texas to salvage his image. He partnered with John C. Calhoun, a pro-slavery advocate, to negotiate the annexation. In April of 1844, Calhoun negotiated an annexation treaty with Texas which he delivered to the Senate. This treaty was rejected as northern states voted not to allow another slave state into the country.
In order to side-step the need for approval by two-thirds of the Senate, Congress then held a joint-resolution for annexing Texas. This required a simple majority of Congress to approve of the resolution. Such a move was unprecedented and raised debates as to whether it was even constitutional. However, the resolution passed and was quickly signed by President Tyler.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/texan04.asp
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/treasures/earlystate/annex-01.html
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