A line commentating on the rise of Communism over in the American Southwest. After Texas' independence, they would find themselves unable to join the Union for varying reasons and attempts at expandng over west did not to go too well at first. As such, they would have to endure the land by themselves and make plenty of compromises, including the demands of the various Amerindian peoples there though it would get better over time. After the rise of the Second Mexican Empire, with many of the defeated Republicans heading up north and into Texas. Despite the initial complaints, they accepted it as it would help with the population and settlement. However, the large shift and ideals would lead to Texas doing things like outlawing slavery and they would eventually claim California, claiming the bottom half of it, including the San Francisco area. However, by the time they did, they've begun forming their own identity from the Americans and perhaps out of spite, would restrict access to them during the Texan Gold Rush.
Many freedmen from the US Civil War would end up in Texas alongside some of the Irish diaspora from the Potato Famine and even plenty of Chinese immigrants settling in. The open expense and the need for cooperation helped promote the ideals based on socialism, which is why communism grew more and more popular in Texas, even if influenced by various factors. One massive example would be the Texas State Church, born from a combination of Hispanic Catholicism, Protestant beleifs, Amerindian folk traditions and even some Chinese folk beliefs (courtesy of the failed Taiping ebels' God Worshipping Society) rolled into one. As such, the idea of the "freedom-loving cowboys" becoming communists was viewed as bizarre by outsiders yet quite sensibile in many leftist circles. As such, the Texas Commonwealth remains a powerful nation, with the Mexican Federation in the south (the monarchy peacefully overthrown by Spanish republicans fleeing the lost civil war who immgirated there) and the United States of America as their neighbor.
"The defeat of the Rashidun Caliphate at the hands of the Roman-Persian Alliance also decided the fate of the newborn religion of Islam, creating what is informally called Roman Islam and Orthodox Islam, the two major branches."