Technically, the battle didn't kill 180 Texans. It killed some of them. But then Santa Anna ordered the massacre of the surviving prisoners, most of them wounded. That, plus the massacre of prisoners at Goliad, is why Mexico was whipped by the Texicans. Santa Anna thought brutality and terror would break the rebels.
Oops.
When news of the twin massacres got out, every Texican who could carry a rifle flocked to Sam Houston. The wonder is that Santa Anna wasn't summarily executed at San Jacinto. I guess some officers with their wits about them got to him first. Under the circumstances, Santa Anna thought it prudent to "negotiate" a surrender and recognition of Texas independence.
After the battle, he didn’t have a leg to stand on.
***”negotiate” a surrender and recognition of Texas independence. ***
A few years later Santa Anna reinvaded with an army led by Adroan Woll, 1842.
https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/1039
http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org/woll.htm
They have not given up on retaking Texas and the SW. A few years back my sister-in-law, working at a Dallas Hospital noticed all the little brown babies being born there. One Hispanic nurse said loudly “WE ARE TAKING TEXAS BACK ONE BABY AT A TIME!”
“The wonder is that Santa Anna wasn’t summarily executed at San Jacinto.”
The story goes that Houston found out Santa Anna was a fellow Mason.