The Texas Revolution ran from October 1835 to April 1836 and was a rebellion against Mexico's centralist government by Anglo-American immigrants and Hispanic Texans. Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829 but exempted Texas, and centralisation under President Santa Anna stripped the province of its autonomy, which angered settlers. Texian forces and volunteers from the United States drove out the Mexican garrisons by December 1835, and in March 1836 a convention declared independence. Santa Anna led a force north, and his troops took the Alamo, killing almost all its defenders. Later that spring Sam Houston's army surprised Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, routing the Mexican troops. Santa Anna was captured and signed the Treaty of Velasco. Mexico never recognised the Republic of Texas, and Texas was annexed by the United States as its 28th state in 1845, which led directly to the Mexican-American War.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.