Annexation History - Planning and Development Department - City of Houston

What might Texas look like if it split into 5 states?

Which it can - as we noted in 2306:

We would be in Gulfland:

Capital: HoustonOther Cities: Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Baytown, GalvestonPopulation (2008 Estimate): 7,494,089 (about as many as Virginia)Congressional Districts: 10 (would increase to 11 following 2010 reallocation)Electoral Votes: 12 (would increase to 13 following 2010 reallocation)Area: 36,547 square miles (14% of former Texas territory, about as large as Indiana)Demographics: 32% Hispanic, 16% Black, 5% AsianEconomic: 32% college degree (adults 25+); 16% below poverty line2008 Vote (Excludes third parties): McCain 1,350,322 (56.1%), Obama 1,058,446 (43.9%)

This somewhat unusually-shaped state, which looks a bit like West Virginia rotated 90 degrees, would contain the Houston metroplex, while then meandering to include nearly the entirety of Texas' Gulf Coast, from the Louisiana border up to (but not including) Texas' southermost reaches in Cameron County. Gulfland's economy would likely be heavily dependant on offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, there are a few things for Democrats to like about Gulfland -- it would be a majority-minority state (although barely) and Barack Obama won Houston's Harris County in November (also barely). Gulfland might be incrementally more competitive than Trinity, although very likely only for the Senate and not the Presidency, as Democrats have been gradually losing ground in this part of the country.

Happy Birthday (State of) Texas!

Today (December 29th) is the 167th anniversary of Texas' admission to the US as the 28th state. We generally don't make a big deal about it. We prefer to celebrate Texas' independence on April 21st - San Jacinto Day - when the forces of Santa Anna were defeated near what is now the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. We don't even make that big a deal of the day the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed, March 2. That's curious since the US celebrates its independence when its declaration was signed - not when the battle of Yorktown was concluded.

I have no idea why that's the case, but given Texas' identity, its little surprise we make a bigger deal about independence from Mexico than admittance to the US because, to be honest, the state lost independence when it was annexed. It became solvent, but .... you know ...

One little detail we tend to forget is that Mexico still did not recognize Texas independence at all, so there were legal disputes about what in fact was going on in 1845. Was the US annexing an independent sovereign state or taking over control of the state of an adjoining nation? Despite the lines we see drawn in maps today - much of the territory was in fact no man's land - and no one had yet to tell the Plains Indians that they did not control the land. This would wait until the 1870s.

That Mexican-American War ultimately settled the issue as far as Mexico was concerned - along with what would become the American southwest. Wars tend to settle what politics cannot. This helps explain the strained relationship we've had with Mexico over much of our history. Canada too - we made a brief attempt to take it over during the war of 1812. They still have hard feeling about that too.