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For the city in Maryland, see Texas, Maryland.

Texas

Flag of Texas, which flew during its brief stint as an independent republic and during its time as a state in both the United States and the Confederate States.

Texasmap

Texas is a state located in the southern and southwestern regions of the United States of America. It is the second largest state in terms of both area and population.

Geographically located in the south central part of the country, Texas shares borders with the other US states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, while the Gulf of Mexico is to the southeast.

Texas declared its independence from Mexico in 1836 and existed as the independent Republic of Texas for nearly a decade. On December 29, 1845, it joined the United States as the 28th state. It joined the Confederate States in 1861, and returned to the Union after the American Civil War.

Texas saw a major economical boom throughout the 20th century, based largely on its substantial oil resources. This in turn drove the creation of a formidable high-tech industry.

Texas in The Disunited States of America[]

In one alternate, Texas was one of several countries in a North America that saw the United States fail early in the 19th century.[1] Militarily and technologically, Texas was one of the world's great powers. Its society was one of the most racially stratified in North America, with whites completely dominating at all levels. Its territory was larger than the state of the same name in the home timeline.[2]

By 2097, Texas and Russian Alaska were the only places in North America that produced oil.[3]

Texas in "Election Day"[]

Texas went to Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, which was not a surprise.[4]

Texas in The Guns of the South[]

During the years following the Second American Revolution, many areas of Texas were sparsely populated and had a labor shortage. A financially savvy man from Alabama or Mississippi went to Josiah A. Beard's auction in Nashville, North Carolina, where he bought several slaves with the intent to sell them at a much higher price in Texas.[5]

Texas was one of six states carried by Patriot Party candidate Nathan Bedford Forrest in the 1867 presidential election. The state had eight electoral votes during the election.[6]

After the election, Texas threatened to secede from the Confederacy in response to Lee's anti-slavery plans, something Lee and Jefferson Davis found no small irony in. Forrest promised President-Elect Lee that he'd help keep Texas in the nation, by arms if it absolutely proved necessary. In the end, Texas did not follow through on this threat.

Texas in Hail! Hail![]

The state of Texas became the epicenter of time-travel and the extensive rewriting of history when the Marx Brothers inexplicably were sent back from 1934 to 1826 while visiting Nacogdoches.

In 1934, the Marx Brothers headed to New Orleans via the Sunset Limited.[7] After passing a few hours with Bridge, drinks, and dinner, the brothers were astonished by the torrential rains pounding Texas. Their porter, Oscar, informed them that the rains washed out the bridge between Houston and Beaumont, and the train would now have to detour through Nacogdoches for re-coaling before continuing east on a different route.[8] The brothers didn't actually mind this as they'd really begun their comedy careers in 1912 while playing Nacogdoches.[9] Nacogdoches also tied into their film Duck Soup: Nacogdoches had been home to the failed Republic of Fredonia in December 1826-January, 1827, and the Marx Brothers had used the name "Freedonia" for the fictional country featured in the film.[10]

While they were visiting downtown Nacogdoches, the brothers were caught in a lightning storm that somehow sent them into the past.[11] They quickly made the acquaintance Adolphus Sterne, and shared their identities with him. They also confirmed that Fredonia was doomed.[12] For lack of any better options, they agreed to help the Republic of Fredonia succeed.[13] To this end, they secured the alliance with the local Cherokee, incidentally causing the death of Mexican Indian agent Peter Ellis Bean.[14] They also convinced Stephen F. Austin to back Fredonia. Austin and his men promptly ambushed Mexican troops under Mateo Ahumada, defeated them, and headed to Nacogdoches.[15]

Texas in The House of Daniel[]

Immediately after Jack Spivey joined the House of Daniel, the team began it tour across West Texas, traveling across the state and playing several teams. They also had encounters with a vampire and a chupacabra.[16]

Texas in Joe Steele[]

Texas was the home of John Nance Garner,[17] who became the Democratic vice presidential nominee after he delivered the Texas delegation to Joe Steele at the 1932 Democratic Convention.[18]

Mike Sullivan received basic training at a U.S. Army camp outside of Lubbock.[19]

Literary comment[]

In the short story, Texas politician Sam Rayburn appears as one of Steele's early opponents, but does not appear in the novel.

Texas in "Lee at the Alamo"[]

Texas seceded from the United States in February 1861, despite the best efforts of Governor Sam Houston. However, when members of the Texas militia under the command of Colonel Ben McCulloch attempted to seize U.S. property and material from the United States Army Department of Texas in San Antonio, they were met with resistence from Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee, who retreated into the Alamo, and made a stand until March. This second Battle of the Alamo was the first battle of the American Civil War.

Texas in "Precious Treasure"[]

By the 26th century, a large part of what had been Texas was part of the Mexican Kingdoms, in the division ruled by Don Jorge de las Torres. The rest of Texas was divided among scattered communities and nomadic tribes such as the Clan Staiklee.

Texas in "Secret Names"[]

Eestexas was a region in the eastern part of the former state of Texas where tribes of hunter-gathers resided some 200 years after the world wide calamity called the Big Oops. To the east were the clans of the KayJun hunter-gathers while to the south and west were the Makykanoes. The Eestexians spoke English while the Makykanoes spoke Spanyol and the KayJuns spoke a third language.

Texas in "Slue-Foot Sue and the Witch in the Woods"[]

When Slue-foot Sue was thrown off of leaping Widow Maker's back, her bustle bounced her from Texas to Washington, DC and then eventually depositing her in a forest in Russia.

Texas in Southern Victory[]

Texas had been an area that had been colonized by settlers from the United States, but was under the government of Mexico. They rebelled in 1835, which in turn, ignited the War of Texas Independence, resulting in the short lived Republic of Texas (1836-1845), and the eventual annexation into the United States. Barely a generation later, Texas was at war again, when she voted to leave the Union, although governor Sam Houston attempted to prevent this. Throughout the war, Texas was a quiet front, and the only major action was the ill-fated expedition into the New Mexico Territory. In the aftermath of the War of Secession, Texas represented the very edge of the Confederacy, until 1881, when the CS Government under President James Longstreet, acquired the Mexican provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua, thus extending the border all the way to the Pacific Ocean. While this ignited the Second Mexican War, Texas saw no action as all major conflicts were limited to the new Confederate territories. After the war ended, the Confederacy's transcontinental railroad ran through the state as it connected both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the CSA.

When the Great War consumed the North American continent, Texas was a front. Warfare out on the Texas prairies was scattered without the bloodshed of trench warfare back east, but the Union still held the upper hand, driving the Confederate Army back into the state. In 1917, the US Army had captured enough territory with enough sympathizers that it was able to establish the new US State of Houston (named in honor of the late Sam Houston; ironically, the city of Houston was not a part of the new US State). After peace was declared, Texas, like the rest of the country, suffered a national trauma from both the loss of the war and the creation of the US state of Houston, which all Confederates referred to as "West Texas". Although Texas oil companies were thriving from the loss of Sequoyah and its oil deposits, the country was forced to pay huge reparations to the US, including as much oil as they could, crippling the economy. This in turn led to the rise of the right wing political party in Texas, called the Redemption League and led by Willy Knight. However, Jake Featherston's Freedom Party, which originated on the East Coast, was successful in opening at least one chapter in Texas, and eventually absorbed the Redemption League. Featherston was elected President in 1933 with Willy Knight as his Vice President. Knight was later removed from office for treason.

When the Freedom Party took the reigns of power within the Confederacy, agitators were stirred up within the US state of Houston with Confederate weapons and party ideology. This caused so many problems for the United States that in 1940, a plebiscite was called for as part of the Richmond Agreement. A strong majority voted for the return of Houston to Texas, which took place the following year.

(Second) Republic of Texas
Country
Southern Victory
POD: September 10, 1862
Capital: Austin
Government: Federal presidential republic
Status in Southern Victory: Active in 1945

The Second Great War began in June 1941. The Freedom Party established Camp Determination within Texas for its Population Reduction program aimed at the CSA's black residents. During 1942-3, the camp was the target for the US Eleventh Army led by Major General Abner Dowling. This resulted in a static war of attacks and counter-attacks by the elite Freedom Party Guards. By 1944, as the US 11th Army advanced past Lubbock, the United States re-admitted the State of Houston into the Union, much to the chagrin of the locals. With the US Army running roughshod over the state and the US on the road to a total victory in the war, Texas Governor Wright Patman announced his state's secession from the CSA, with himself as the president of a new republic. Patman concluded a separate peace agreement with the US, and as part of that agreement, had the Texas Rangers round up all Freedom Party higher-ups in Texas, including Jefferson Pinkard.

While the US recognized Texas as a republic for the time being, they kept a strong military presence in the area, which the Texans did not resist. A few US officials (such as military lawyer Jonathan Moss) privately suspected that the US planned to annex Texas someday soon.

Texas in Supervolcano[]

The Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption was so powerful that there was volcanic ash falling as far south east as Texas. [20] This effectively wiped out the harvest in America's breadbasket for that year since the amount of ash was enough to bury crops in the fields, cover roads, train tracks and silos. Ash also choked the engines of tractors, harvesters and trucks.[21]

Texas in The Two Georges[]

See Cranmer and Louisiana (The Two Georges)

Literary Comment[]

Most of the OTL Texas, along with most of OTL Oklahoma, are part of Cranmer. The southeastern portion of Oklahoma and eastern Texas are part of a larger Louisiana.

Texas in Worldwar[]

Rance Auerbach retired to Fort Worth, Texas after the Peace of Cairo in 1944. As a consequence of sharing a border with Mexico, one of the Race Colonies on Tosev 3, Texas became a crucial location for ginger-smuggling activities.

See also[]

References[]

  1. The Disunited States of America, pg. 142, TPB.
  2. Ibid., pg. 144.
  3. Ibid., pg. 11, tpb.
  4. Alternate Peace, loc. 613, ebook.
  5. The Guns of the South, p. 316-321.
  6. Ibid., appendices.
  7. "Hail! Hail!", loc. 6-114.
  8. Ibid, loc. 114.
  9. Ibid, loc. 114-138.
  10. Ibid., loc. 155.
  11. Ibid., loc. 178-223.
  12. Ibid., loc. 235-268.
  13. Ibid., loc. 374-391.
  14. Ibid., loc. 492-877.
  15. Ibid., loc. 991-113
  16. The House of Daniel, loc. 1007-2104, ebook.
  17. Joe Steele, pg. 2, HC.
  18. Ibid., pg. 39.
  19. Ibid., pg. 272.
  20. Eruption, pg. 218.
  21. Ibid, pg. 223.
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