What if Texas Was Divided?

the first few decades of the state known as texas were as turbulent as a twister and just as destructive from mexico to its own nation to a war zone to the united states to the confederates to a war zone again and finally back to the united states all in the span of 30 years imagine if your home changed allegiances five times since 1991 okay well fair enough afghanistan you you don't really need to imagine but still texas had quite the start and in some ways had things gone differently it could have been a quick end texas is big and so here's the question what if texas not big yeah think about it all right so before getting into this a disclaimer most of the information i could even find on this proposed division of texas came from only a few sources and even those sources are based on like two books both i can only get through hardcover so while i'm confident that the information i've used to research this was correct i usually like to have more concrete sources but i'm gonna stick with it because i have a feeling this is all the information we're ever going to get now getting back on topic there were many proposals after the war on what to do with texas unlike california where there was an election to divide the state that actually passed only to die in dc because you know the multiple and yes i mean multiple plans to divide texas never took flight there was no election no popular movement to split an area away instead these plans existed as proposals by politicians that never made it out of committee the plan that had the closest to ever getting picked still died in convention yet the plan was actively discussed and considered among the reconstructionists holding power in texas after the war the only reason these plans failed is simply due to nobody agreeing on the specifics so it's the best plan we got it's an alternate 1868 a constitutional convention is called to discuss the many policy decisions for the future of the state with the government largely under federal control radical changes were proposed that would have fundamentally altered texas in this scenario the republicans fully unite around a single plan a plan to split texas into three states east texas south texas and just texas i'd imagine those names would be temporary but if they're not then we might have a dakota situation on our hands eek lines on the map are drawn everything east of the trinity river would be in the new state of east texas or perhaps it'd be called something else an alternate name like trinity for the river but also in reference to the holy trinity i could also imagine freedonia since that was a failed republic but i think trinity has a better ring to it everything south of the colorado river not the one you're thinking of would become south texas there was a previous plan to split south texas off and call it a new state called lincoln but who knows how far they take it perhaps it would also just be called rio grande while also this would pay homage to the failed republic of the rio grande the one that couldn't escape and then well i guess everything in the middle of these two rivers would be the real texas had the state congress actually gone through with this plan it spark rioting and violence in the streets of every city and as is the story of reconstruction there was a lot of violence in the south when certain decisions were made it would have caused such an overwhelming violent backlash across texas that more federal troops would be sent into the state to quell the uprising this really doesn't inspire confidence amongst the republicans of the tangibility of the plan however if there was a time to reshape the south this would be it and even with the backing of the united states military occupying the state the reconstruction government would still struggle to enforce a division of the lone star state into three parts such a vote and process needs to be backed up by armed military force which could happen for a while as federal forces remain throughout the south yeah who's to say how long these lines on the map last once the military leaves reconstruction ends and the state is once again left to itself texas at the end of the day would not want to be divided it had it been such a division is only used as propaganda to fuel the rhetoric of the carpetbagger coming down to exploit the south such a decision sends shockwaves that reverberate across the south causing only more headaches for the union army this political situation could explode further as each side goes a step further the violent response to the decision across texas leads to union retaliation with more occupation forces violent action and rioting only cements the decision of the republicans that texas shouldn't ever be that big of a state again this only leads to an entrenchment that widens an already deep divide following the civil war but who's to say if we would actually see this for one main reason why would federal republicans wish for texas to be divided into three states sure for that decade of reconstruction there might be a few republicans sent from east texas but that is only an if so why deal with the headache the main question here is would texas be willing to die for greater congressional control and the answer is no probably not so really for both sides this whole experiment would have failed smack dab in the middle of reconstruction or at least the state would have voted to reunite as soon as the union troops left so realistically this would be the end of the scenario it'd become an interesting part of reconstruction history the texas debacle or how texas was briefly divided following the civil war maybe even briefly being three states admitted into the u.s but let's go further say there are some unforeseen events that occur from this or perhaps the division is more permanent than any of us could even imagine what if texas remained divided into these three states into the modern day instead of that distinct outline we all know and love instead texas is a land between rivers split between its two neighbors trinity and rio grande texas as a state does technically still exist it's just a lot smaller the geography of the state is pretty much what you imagine the stereotypical texas landscape looks like the wide open plains primarily ranching lots of cows and the main economy of the state would reflect it in our timeline texas has a vast supply of oil and natural gas which in turn helped keep the state tied to its own power grid one that might have to deal more and more with frequent snow storms and shovels don't exist so you have to use a frying pan sorry sorry uh yeah i had flashbacks but had this decision stuck these resources are now awkwardly divided the oil system is split between texas and rio grande and it's a situation far more beneficial for rio grande than for texas rio grande primarily is made up of desert and wasteland its major population centers are san antonio and loreto this would be the least populated of the three states yet would have a tremendous oil and natural gas resource whether or not this profit is reflected in the quality of life in the state i cannot say since we're dealing with a century and a half of alternate timeline here who's to say what policies and decisions might have been made that might shift the economics of the state perhaps it invests its oil and natural gas wealth to create better infrastructure and quality of life for its smaller population or it could be easily plagued by corruption between these two states they would still contribute a third of the us petroleum supply while culturally smaller texas would hold on to its historical spirit and identity the other two over the last century gradually become more similar to their neighboring states which brings us to trinity east texas today is already a different region and feeling than the rest of the state you'll find no flat plains instead rolling hills and deep forests and while in our timeline east texas shares the economic prosperity of the rest of the state such a division early on in its history would have resulted in a different story you probably are thinking oh well at least the east would have houston houston is the largest city in the state so it'd have at least some economic and population center yeah you'd think so wouldn't you houston however is west of the trinity river oof trinity despite its relatively denser population compared to the west and despite houston being so close to east texas by the drawings of a line on the map would not nearly have the advantage that the other two states would have this plan would have split austin in half resulting in two separate cities like a saint paul minneapolis situation east texas with this division wouldn't really have anything its largest city and de facto capital would be beaumont and second closest is tyler and i could imagine it'd be viewed as a cultural crossroads between all of them it wouldn't really have much of an industry to survive on and it wouldn't really have a core population center trinity would be the poorest of the three while geographically it'd be beautiful it just wouldn't have the population nor resources to do anything the state would have been stunted before it ever began simply due to the lines on a map as you might be imagining this would have some weird do-data read to the elections of the last 150 years yet it wouldn't be until the most recent demographic changes especially in south texas where we might see any electoral shift actually occurring by the 1990s rio grande would primarily be a blue state voting much like how new mexico does in our own timeline meanwhile texas and trinity remain firmly republican and even that tiny change could dramatically shape the results of a few close call elections george w bush had he even come to prominence being the governor of a drastically smaller texas would have lost to gore due to the rio grande votes that watched his drive and trump probably would have lost in 2016. so yeah those in themselves have pretty dramatic ramifications for global history more than we'd even know today but unlike california whose entire culture changed throughout the 20th century texas even if it had been divided and at its greatest extent the greatest change would be that we'd simply have three relatively smaller and pretty similar southern states at the end of the day the largest ramification in this timeline is that i don't get a damn emergency alert whenever something happens 10 hours away on the other side of the state [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: What if Texas Was Divided?, Texas, Texas news, Texas congress, Texas supreme court, texas 2021, texas snowstorm, what if texas had been divided, texas history, texas alternate history, alternate history, alternatehistoryhub, alternatehistoryhub texas, reconstruction, reconstruction history, rio grande texas, texas boycott, texas alternatehistoryhub, texas divided, texas independence

Id: 8MVIp48XBDY

Length: 11min 37sec (697 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021