Why Texas can Divide Itself into Five New States...

as of now there are 50 states in the us the second largest both in area and population is texas it's home to 29 million people and occupies more land than countries like the united kingdom uganda and romania other than california there is perhaps no other u.s state which dominates american culture society and economy like texas it was an independent nation for nine years before joining the united states texan oil is imported around the country in the world giving the state the 10th largest economy on earth or it independent and its unique food music accent and culture is familiar to everyone just as california is a center for liberal and progressive politics texas has long been its conservative counterweight although it is increasingly going from a red to a purple state with all this in mind it is no surprise that like california there is often discussion of the possibility that texas could become independent while it could certainly function on its own secession in the united states is very much illegal making it extremely unlikely that texas would try to leave the united states however there is a strange old law on the books one that applies just to texas and not any other u.s state that would give texans outsized influence in the american government hello and welcome to that is interesting i'm your host carter today the strange law that lets texas split into five different states interestingly enough i had actually planned for this to be the first ever video posted on this channel but for whatever reason i never got around to finishing until now and so instead it will be the 59th video on that as interesting anyways i hope you all enjoy texas has perhaps one of the most unique histories of any american state as like i mentioned earlier it was once an independent country i go into more detail about this at the very beginning of my part 1 video on presidents with the least political experience so if you want to learn more about it you can there but long story short many american settlers moving west crossed illegally into mexico giving the state of tejas icoila a majority american population unhappy with the rule of president antonio lopez de santa anna these americans led by former tennessee governor sam houston declared independence from mexico and went to war emerging victorious houston was elected president and built a close relationship between texas and the u.s which recognized the new country the people of texas wanted to join the us and after nine years an annexation deal was reached mexico never recognized texas's independence and considered the annexation illegal seizure of mexican territory the two countries went to war and the us was victorious winning much of what is now the western united states but before that when texas and the us were negotiating annexation texas was in the unique position of having some bargaining power most of the existing american states had joined the country after declaring independence from britain or were created by breaking down the enormous swath of land bought from france and the louisiana purchase but texas was an independent country that was offering to join the united states something the u.s wanted to take them up on the two countries had a good relationship and texas wasn't in any rush to be annexed it would offer them military protection from mexico but they just successfully waged a war of independence against that very country and could certainly hold their own the us meanwhile was hungry for new land and annexing texas would not only give them one new state but potentially many more as it would provoke war with mexico because of all this the u.s was willing to give texas a lot of say in the annexation deal specifically they left in a clause that permits texas to divide it into a maximum of five different states other states can do this as well but they need approval from congress which is why state borders haven't changed in a very long time texas is unique in that it doesn't need congressional approval it can divide itself up whether the rest of the country likes it or not acting on this clause has been proposed several times before in 1850 texas which was once much larger got its current borders during a compromise over whether new states added after the mexican-american war would permit or forbid slavery one of the plans put forward would have given the panhandle to new mexico and divided the rest of the state into two along the colorado river of texas interestingly enough this would have cut the texan capital of austin into two different cities with the northern state containing the city center and state house and would have made it along with trenton new jersey one of just two state capitals to border another state in 1869 congress voted no on a proposal to create a new state called the state of lincoln which would similar to the 1850 proposal take up all of the state south of the colorado river 65 years later texas state legislature voted no on the creation of the state of jefferson which confusingly has the same name as another proposed state and would have basically consisted of the texas panhandle a rural and sparsely populated region that felt ignored by the state government at the time prompting the vote due to the agreement in the annexation deal if it had passed in the state legislature it would have become a state 20 years later in 1935 a new state was proposed called texlahoma taking parts of the texas and oklahoma panhandles which felt underrepresented in their respective states it would have been much more complicated to create as the inclusion of parts of oklahoma meant that its creation would require approval of not just the texas state legislature but that of oklahoma and the u.s congress as well why would texas ever want to split up well it would give him a lot more political power each state gets two senators meaning california and texas have the same power in the upper house of congress as states with significantly fewer residents like wyoming and vermont if texas broke up into five new states the maximum the agreement allows for its people would go from having just two senators to ten two for each state the electoral college as well would gain eight new delegates this would in theory give republicans who hold the majority in text and politics a political advantage giving the idea some popularity among conservatives in america i wouldn't be so quick to say that it will change the balance of power in favor of republicans that much however in 2016 texas voted for trump over hillary by a 9 margin california seen as texas political opposite had nearly twice as many people vote for hillary than voted for trump with a margin of 30 percent each election texas votes republican by smaller and smaller margins and in 2018 democrat beto o'rourke was incredibly close to ousting republican incumbent ted cruz in the senate shockingly many people believe that texas could be a swing state in the 2020 election with trump holding a slim 2 lead over biden there because of all this several of the senators in these new states will likely be democrats although republicans probably will still hold a majority if this were to happen how would texas then be split up just for fun let's look at one potential way to define the state and the thought personally i think the best way would be to split it along geographic regions each containing a different one of texas's five largest cities dallas houston san antonio austin and el paso the first state i'd create is texlahoma this name is a nod to the proposed state of comprised parts of both texas and oklahoma while this new state doesn't match the borders of the old texas lahoma its borders put it directly south of oklahoma making it look almost like an extension of the existing state it only seems right that at least one of these new states names would pay tribute to previous proposals for dividing the state texas lahoma would center around the cities of dallas and fort worth which make up an enormous urban area that is the sixth largest in the country this would give the new state a large population and a strong economy geographically it is mostly flat plains and farmland but part of the state towards the east would include part of a heavily forested region called the piney woods it would border three of the other new states as well as oklahoma arkansas and louisiana the most of any of these new states the next state i'd create is llano i named the large state taking up much of the panhandle and big bend region of west texas after one of the most prominent geographic features there the jano estacado an enormous plateau taking up much of texas and new mexico whose name is spanish for the staked plains although the spanish pronunciation of the word is yano texans typically produce it llano instead so that is the word i will use for this new state bordering oklahoma and new mexico as well as two new states in the mexican states of chihuahua and kowila it would be a sparsely populated and oil-rich region home to the flat plains of the panhandle in the deserts and mountains of the big ben region its largest city would be el paso it would include other smaller cities like odessa midland lubbock and amarillo as well the next state i'd make would be called new germany consisting of the region known as the hill country new germany would be a hilly forested state home to plenty of rivers in south central texas it would border every single one of the new states as well as the mexican state of coahuila having a small border on the rio grande i would also include the city of austin the modern texan capital the name comes from the region's notable german heritage while many americans have german roots most are concentrated in the northern part of the u.s giving the south relatively fewer the texas hill country however is a notable ethnic enclave one of few parts of the south where german americans are the largest ethnic group outside of the dakotas in montana the hill country has one of the largest concentrations of german speakers in america with many residents speaking a dialect of the language called texas german or texas deutsch at home german place names are incredibly common in the region due to the presence of austin the state would also be uniquely liberal and could potentially be considered a blue state among a republican leaning part of the country the fourth state i'd create would be galveston sitting on the gulf coast just west of louisiana this state would likely be considered part of the deep south a swampy and forested region very similar to neighboring louisiana is home to a strong cajun culture and a large black population the state's anchor would be the city of houston home to the johnson space center and just surpassed by dallas as the seventh largest urban area in the united states the new state would be named for galveston bay the largest estuary in texas and an important port near houston named by early spanish explorers to the region the final state i'd create would be named texas it seemed right to keep the name in at least one of these states and i feel that the region i chose makes the most sense to have it consisting of the southern tip of the state it would sit on the gulf of mexico bordering the newly created galveston in new germany as well as the mexican states of coahuila nuevo leon and tamalipas the center of the region would be the city of san antonio but the region would also contain smaller cities like corpus christi laredo mcallen and brownsville san antonio was the first settlement ever founded in the state and when texas was part of spain and in mexico it was the capital city the alamo was there the site of the most famous battle in texas's fight for independence from mexico considering the region is the historic heart of texas it makes sense to me that it should retain the state's name or texas to divide along these borders of course this was all just one of many ways that texas could split into five different states if it decided to use the powers granted to in the annexation deal do you think texas would ever break up if so what borders would you draw how would you name the new states let me know in the comments below thank you for watching this video and i hope you learned something new subscribe for more content like this i cover the countries cities people and places of the world and beyond these videos will leave you saying that is interesting [Music] you

Channel: That Is Interesting

Views: 100,243

Rating: 4.8332839 out of 5

Keywords: texas, division, independent texas, alternate history, states splitting, stuff you didn't know, tii

Id: XITRhgys9GY

Length: 13min 0sec (780 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 18 2020