Manuel de Mier y Terán was a minor Creole Spanish noble who studied engineering at Mexico City’s School of Mines before joining the Mexican insurgents in the Mexican Revolution (1910–20). Because of his skills in mathematics and engineering, Mier y Terán soon rose to a leadership position in the artillery corps. Earning a reputation as a man of honor and valor in the Revolution, Terán was elected in 1821 to represent the State of Chiapas in the First Mexican Congress, where he served on its committee for colonization of unoccupied territory. Earlier Spanish, and later Mexican, governments had used land grants initially as a method of incentivizing soldiers to remain on the frontier, and then to induce more expansive settlement of native and naturalized citizens through permanent and unencumbered land rights.