The correct answer is "The Mexican government hoped to settle the unused territory legally to discourage Americans from taking the land."
The "empresario" system was important to the Mexican government in that "The Mexican government hoped to settle the unused territory legally to discourage Americans from taking the land."
The Mexican government hired "empresarios"(businessmen) or land agents in order to get people that wanted to move and settled in the Texas territory. The incentive was attractive. For every 100 families the land agent settle, the Mexican government gave him 23,000 acres. That is how the Mexican government try to populate the vast Texan territory and discourage United States citizens from taking the territory.
The other options of the question were a) the Mexican government did not have the resources to manage Texas, but wished to cede the unused territory to the United States, c) the Mexican government desired an alliance and offered Texas as an incentive to win the compliance of the United States, and d) the Mexican government wanted to collect taxes on the land in the Texas Territory and could only do so if the area was settled.
