Final answer:
Mexico offered empresario contracts for Texas to populate the region due to a lack of Mexican settlers. The goal was to strengthen the area against Native American tribes and potential U.S. territorial ambitions.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mexico began offering impresario contracts for Texas primarily because too few Mexicans wanted to move to the region. The initiative aimed to increase the non-Native population in Texas, provide a buffer zone against Native American tribes, and serve as a bulwark against the potential American expansion into Mexican territory. Empresarios were given generous grants of land in exchange for bringing settlers to Texas.
One of the earliest and most notable impresarios was Moses Austin, who proposed to settle three hundred English-speaking Americans in Texas. After Moses's death, his son, Stephen F. Austin, took over the grant and continued the mission under the independent Mexican government which had gained freedom from Spain. This program resulted in thousands of Americans, many from slave states, moving to Texas, where they eventually outnumbered the Mexican residents, known as Tejanos.