The Stars at Night: A Texas Timeline

My prediction: With the new French government taking power, it becomes obvious to the world that the French in Texas are no longer legitimate. This gets France out of the equation. The Texans in the west and south call for help from the U.S. to get rid of a "phony" government ruled at bayonet point by radicalized and illegitimate Frenchman. The U.S. (possibly under a new administration, if Trumball is still against intervention) swarms in, and easily defeats the French. Once their job is done, they leave, but Texas thus becomes much, much more close to the U.S. And from there they slowly rebuild over the decades. Am I close, or way off? :D

And I think Sic just meant that different regions will call it different things, similar to the different names northerners or southerns would have to our war. But I admit the only thing I have to go on is the 1920s update, when things seemed moderately fine.
 
Another question: are there regional flags, or do all of the fractions use the 1839 national pattern flag and yell at the other ones for daring to co-op their glorius ensign for their treasonous ways.

And on a side note, your uniform description made me picture these guys, espically the one on the left.

 
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My prediction: With the new French government taking power, it becomes obvious to the world that the French in Texas are no longer legitimate. This gets France out of the equation. The Texans in the west and south call for help from the U.S. to get rid of a "phony" government ruled at bayonet point by radicalized and illegitimate Frenchman. The U.S. (possibly under a new administration, if Trumball is still against intervention) swarms in, and easily defeats the French. Once their job is done, they leave, but Texas thus becomes much, much more close to the U.S. And from there they slowly rebuild over the decades. Am I close, or way off? :D

The US may intervene with the condition the new government will abolish slavery. Which shouldn't be too hard with Free Texas seeing it as more trouble than its worth and the South Texians having no ned for it. But it will secure a certain antiAmerican feeling in the East, and the others will not like the conditional aid.

The USA may also get a generous slice of the Comanche controlled lands as a price for intervention. Washington sees it as only fair because the Texians can't hold it anyway. The Texians though may take offense to it.

Could the King offer to bail the French out in exchange for oaths of allegiance? After all the French despite what the Texians think never wanted to rule Texas. A boat home may be an offer that would end the French influence with a whimper. Though would the USA agree to allow the French to evacuate?
 
Magnificent Time Line! You have dragged me from my lurker status!
I was heading south on I-35 yesterday through Waco and spied the Texas Ranger Museum as I crossed the Brazos. I remembered some of my 7th grade Texas History about the Rangers and the last time I visited the Museum. Names like Jack Hayes & Leander McNelly came back to mind. So now you can guess where this is heading. How have the Rangers evolved as an organization in this TL? Did Sam Colt sell his firearms to the Republic? And what has happened to John Coffee Hays? IMO he is one of the most important people in the early history of the Republic. As a side, I realize the TL is about 40 years beyond these questions. I was only wondering.
Take care.

Hays.jpg

Jack Hays

http://www.texasranger.org/ReCenter/org1844.htm

 
I'm in SanAn and got thrown out of the Alamo AGAIN in my quest to observe every Texas holiday AND to commune with the ghost of David Crockett. I'll get to all y'all's qs soon, I promise! But this is not the weekend. God bless
 
Fietsa? What is that? Some ancient Texian holiday from the earliest days of the Republic?



Originally, it was a holiday done by the upper class Anglo women around the turn of the century in San Antonio where they threw flowers at each other to commemerate the battles of San Jacinto and the Seige of the Alamo; now it just an excuse to become intoxicated in public without getting arrested. :D
 
Originally, it was a holiday done by the upper class Anglo women around the turn of the century in San Antonio where they threw flowers at each other to commemerate the battles of San Jacinto and the Seige of the Alamo; now it just an excuse to become intoxicated in public without getting arrested. :D

Those colourful Texians. :rolleyes:
 
I'm in SanAn and got thrown out of the Alamo AGAIN in my quest to observe every Texas holiday AND to commune with the ghost of David Crockett. I'll get to all y'all's qs soon, I promise! But this is not the weekend. God bless

That's the spirit of William B. Travis being a dick and controlling the staff. :D Man he hated Crockett.
 
How has Texas German developed so far ITTL? Is it on the same course as OTL, or is it less distinguished linguisticlly due to more German Immergration over a longer period than OTL?
 
Cinco de Mayo

I hope everyone enjoyed their observance of the Battle of Puebla today. There was an air show here with some old war birds from WW2. Still nice to see that someone loves those aircraft enough to maintain and keep them air worthy.
 
bump

Everyone still out there? Surely folks aren't still recovering from Cinco de Mayo!

We're still waiting for an update Sic...

Everyone be sure to talk to their mom today.

Take care.
 
Did the U.S. get the same border for Oregon as they did in OTL? And what year did it happen? I know you mentioned U.S. troops coming from Oregon in 1852, so it was either Clay or Cass. :D I can't believe I didn't ask this before! And while you're at it, pleeeeeeeeeeease update! :p
 
Part 32
Queen of the King

Henrietta Maria Morse Chamberlain King was always more than just a ranch wife. Her mother died not long after giving birth, and her father was a Presbyterian missionary whose frequent travels meant that young Henrietta was often left alone. She became quiet and self-reliant, and through self-education, more learned than many other women of her time. She moved to Texas in 1850 when her father began a mission in the south of the Republic. She worked as a teacher for a time, before meeting a steamboat captain and budding land baron named Richard King. They were married in 1855.

Their first home was little more than a mud jacal, but the holdings of the King Ranch eventually grew to be over 750,000 acres of land. Henrietta’s role was far from passive - not only did she supervise the housing, education, and spiritual needs of the Tejano workers, during Richard’s absences she was the de facto head of the household. She was serving in such a role when Nathan Forrest returned from the Battle of Edwards Plateau, leading a column of worn and wounded men, his scarred visage grim. Richard King was not with him.

It can be assumed that Henrietta was greatly distraught. Her clothing would remain uniform from that day until her own death - mourning black from head to toe. There was, at least, plenty of work to distract the widow King’s mind, for she now was the sole owner of over three quarters of a million acres of functionally independent land.

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Wait a minute! Richard King isn't dead! He's trapped inside that brooch! Witch! Witch!

Henrietta was a clear-eyed and intelligent administrator, but running an enterprise of those proportions was too much of a task for any one man or woman. Fortunately, Henrietta had also inherited a talented band of advisors. Nathan Forrest was one of Richard King’s close friends, and of course had his own experience in running a ranching venture. As did Mifflin Kenedy, a former partner of King’s whose massive tracts of land bordered the King Ranch. Gideon "Legs" Lewis was another former King partner, the original owner of a half-share of the Ranch. He cashed out to finance his political career and made a good living representing the interests of the Caudillos - until the French coup. Wounded while in flight, Legs had been recuperating at the Ranch, which now appeared to be his permanent home. Leander McNelly and his lieutenant Ben Thompson had been the soul behind South Texas’s Rangers, hand-picked by Richard King. As the central government lost effective control over the South, the Southern Rangers had simply changed their stationary to the vague title “Special Force”, and served as the paramilitary/security arm of the Ranch. Finally, Francisco Alvarado had been with Richard King since the earliest days of the Ranch, the cowboss who managed much of the Ranch’s nuts and bolts operations, and a vital connection to the Ranch’s workers.

Because those hundreds of thousands of acres were home also to a number of Tejano workers - the Kineños. The first Kineños, or King’s Men, hailed originally from the Mexican village of Cruillas. In the devastation after the Mexican War, Richard King had gone to the village to recruit cattle workers, and found a population wracked with famine. Never one to think small, King quickly altered his plans, and after a discussion with the village elders, it was agreed that every man, woman, and child in Cruillas would move to the growing King Ranch. Over 120 souls departed, on foot, upon the great Entrada. Others would come over the years, and by the time of King’s death, the Ranch had hundreds of workers. The connection between the Kings and their Kineños was somewhat unique, the results of a close symbiotic relationship. King had sought out workers in the first place because he had no idea how to manage a Ranch’s operations. The Kineños had been vital in getting the Ranch started, but likewise, King had been vital in providing them with a livelihood after the destruction of the war. Though far from a perfect relationship, there was a large measure of mutual respect between King and his workers, who were far better treated than even most other ranches’ white cowpunchers. Only Mifflin Kenedy and his Kenedeños enjoyed a similar relationship.

Kingkenedy.jpg

Mifflin Kenedy (Right) inspired respect by his Ranch management, relationship with his workers, and the fact that he was nine feet tall.


Obviously, this is a departure from the depiction of the King Ranch that was put forward throughout most of the 20th century. In these ideologically fueled imaginings, Richard and Henrietta King were either a brutal tyrants oppressing peaceful Tejanos, or necessarily firm patricians holding back the baser instinct of wild Mexican savages. Reality is, as ever, more nuanced. While later relations would be at times more strained, Henrietta King enjoyed a high reputation among the Kineños for her lifetime of work in improving their living situation. Further, there was no great feeling of racial solidarity among the Kineños, the Mexicans, and other Tejanos. Mexican bandits killed Kineños just as readily as white men in their cattle raids. The Kineños were Kineños, and felt solidarity among themselves, and to some extent, with the King family. They had no great desire to rejoin Mexico or take up with murderers. While on other Ranches the relationship between owner and worker was much less cooperative, it was not for lack of good examples in the King and Kenedy Ranches.

Henrietta King would lead by more than just example. The nights after Forrest’s return were filled with long discussions between Henrietta, Forrest, Legs Lewis, and McNelly. Eventually, Kenedy too was invited to give his advice. Thus by the time of Richard King’s funeral, a massive gathering attended by every Ranch owner in South Texas, the caudillos of three of the largest and most important Ranches were fully prepared to make their proposal - formalizing the bonds between the Ranches to forge a free, secure, and independent South Texas. Drawing on the historical rebellions that had led to Texas's birth, the triumvirate even had a name prepared - The Republic of the Rio Grande.
 
I know that I should feel happy that there's a somewhat strong, independent "Texas," but I honestly feel a little sad that its not a "whole" Texas :(
 
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