Republic of the Rio Grande

is there any way that The Republic of the Rio Grande could have lasted controlling even a fairly small part of it's claimed territory till the Mexican–American War (or whatever it'd be called in such a TL) and could the Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas became part of the USA after the War? and what would that do to the USA and/or Mexico in the long term?
 
I did a rough TL where the Republic of Rio Grande and Texas either ally or Rio Grande becomes a part of Texas, which remains independent. So that is one way.

Another possibility is the earlier involvement of the US, either due to the actions of filibusters or official US military involvement, not sure how to though.
 
I can't think of a realistic way to get the Rio Grande to become an actual, functioning nation. The movement was rather tiny, the actual states supplied troops to the federal army to crush them, Texas didn't even publicly support them. To be quite honest (as this is the second Mexican secession thread I've seen recently) I think Texas was the only Mexican state with any chance whatsoever of successfully seceding. They were the Mexican frontier, populated largely by foreign immigrants who were completely different from the other Mexicans in every way, and pro-slavery and non-Catholic in an officially Catholic country that was not kind to slavery, this meaning that their views were totally different from the establishment. And when I say frontier state, I mean even other Mexicans didn't know much about the place. One reason for Yucatan's secession was that the people did not like being drafted to go put down a rebellion in some "far-away and very cold" place up north.
 
The movement wasn't really a secessionist movement at all. It was just the local politicians telling Santa Anna to stick it up his arse. They even promised that once the Federal government as outlined by the 1824 constitution was reinstated that they will consider rejoining Mexico.

The only case they could become independent would be if Santa Anna screws up (even more) during the Texan War of Independence and end up following Houston across the Sabine into Louisiana thus causing the Mexican-American war to happen ten years earlier. Andrew Jackson had promised Houston that only in such a case could he actually have the United States intervene directly.

In such case you would have Texas annexed on the get go into the US and Jackson would likely support the Rio Grande independence (probably Yucatan's as well, maybe even a "California", though the last one is really unlikely). However you run into one problem the Capital of Rio Grande Rep. is Laredo located on the Texas side of the Rio Bravo/Grande. There is no way they could fight against Texas/United States for the capital.

So you have a tiny weak republic, with no capital, no sense of identity, who has probably alienated both its neighbors (Texas and Mexico). Sooner or later it is likely to be annexed by either the US or Mexico. Because religion and language is an important thing they are likely to go back to Mexico. Plus the moment Santa Anna gets the opportunity to regain credibility he will invade and probably will be successful.
 

Art

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Hmm..

I sort of though you meant Rio Grande do Sul, down in Brazil, that Garibaldi fought for.
 
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