Why did Mexico hire empresarios?

Answer 1

When Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, all the territories it possessed included Mexico, most of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica) as well as today's US States of California, Nevada, Utah, Texas and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Due to the extremely low population for such territorial extension (estimated at 12 million during 1824), Mexico relaxed its Immigration policies, thus allowing American settlers to help populate the northern territories.

Answer 2

The adoption of slavery. This eventually led to frictions with the Mexican government -- which banned slavery in 1833 -- and was the main reason Texas split up from Mexico in 1835. This in turn led to a strain in Mexican-American relations, and when Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, it led to the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Finally, as the adoption of slavery in Texas renewed the slavery question, it didn't take too long for this to become the reason for pro-slave states to secede from the Union, thus starting the American Civil War (1861-1865).