The Third Pistol

[Meepy]

Excellent! Possibly the best non-ASB but still out there timeline.
It seemed like the US win in the Hispano-Stater War was a little wankish to me. Also, i got to say, it takes getting used to hearing "Stater". It sounds so....ugly. Still, that how a lot of words in ATL's sound at first.

Hmm... Well, I can see what you mean with the wankishness. I figured that the US deserved a bit of a break, what after losing one of their top military commanders along with most of their regular army on the same day. The Hispano-Stater War had already cost far too much, for (relatively) minor gains. Besides, the US hasn't heard the last of Mexico, Cuba, or the Dominican Republic...
I agree completely with the comment about the USA's demonym. However, what else could I call them? Americans would be odd considering the sheer amount of other nations sharing the Continent, and Usaians sounds even worse.

 

[Cylon_Number_14]

I think "Stater" is a good term, but mainly because it sounds to me like the Michiganders use it in a slightly demeaning way. Kinda like "yanks".

 

[Snowman23]

I agree completely with the comment about the USA's demonym. However, what else could I call them? Americans would be odd considering the sheer amount of other nations sharing the Continent, and Usaians sounds even worse.

Its fine really, because after reading the story, Americans really just wouldn't work. Maybe just in the USA itself, but outside it Staters seems good.

 

[Meepy]

Joseph W. Brown was a key figure in the founding of the Republic of Michigan. He is remembered mainly for his prestigious military career (He would serve in four wars throughout his life, and would die with the rank of Field Marshall, however that's another story) and so his other major accomplishments are often overlooked. Did you know Joseph Brown co-founded the Western Coach and Shipping Company (more commonly referred to as the "Pacifica Express")?
During his inspections of the Republic's (previously British) western forts in 1843-'44 Brown noticed the lack of logistical support and communication that plagued the frontier outposts, and decided to do something about it. On his trek he met with Orlando Wilcox in Port Mason and soon was able to work out a solution. He would (with the help of Pacifica's Territorial Treasury) expand his small Detroit-Milwaukee delivery service into a transcontinental express delivery/transportation line. On his way back East, the general encountered Joe Smith in Nauvoo, and convinced him to supply his efforts as well. Brown would even have the (probably illegal) help of the military, thanks to his high rank.
Over the next half-decade General Brown and Governor Mason commissioned over three dozen new forts and outposts -outposts that just happened to act as convenient stations along Co-owner Brown's and Co-owner Mason's mail and passenger route. By 1848 the main line on the Pacifica Express had been completed, and by 1850 the same route routinely delivered packages from Port Mason to Milwaukee in about two weeks.
Later in his life, Brown would pursue a rather successful political career; serving four gubernatorial terms in three different states (Michigan '50-'58, Milwaukee '64-'68, and Houston '70-'71) and ran unsuccessfully for President in 1860. He has had three warships in the RMN named after him as well as several cities and towns (including the capital of the State of Aleutia).

----------- From A Biographical Encyclopedia of the Republic of Michigan By Thomas McNickley

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Hey, does anybody want to make a map of the war? I'm nearly clueless with Paint.NET and would really appreciate it.

 

[Snowman23]

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Hey, does anybody want to make a map of the war? I'm nearly clueless with Paint.NET and would really appreciate it.

Nice update. Love when people use foreshadowing in the book form.

What would the map be of, the Hispano-Stater War?

 

[Meepy]

Yup, Preferably the Hispano-Stater War

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In the 1840's, Michigan seemed to be living on borrowed time. Mason's young republic was slowly drifting towards war with their massive southern neighbor, and everyone could see it. The Republic of Michigan needed to arm up, and fast.
The first measure put in place by Mason's government to address this was the Citizenship Act of 1841. This law gave instant citizenship (and freedom) to anyone who enlisted in the Michiganian Military. This, coupled with huge Michiganian investment into the Underground Railroad and Indians fleeing relocation resulted in much needed boost in manpower for Michigan.
Despite this though, Michigan's army was still only 9,000 strong at the start of 1849. Mason needed to maximize the amount of firepower he could get out of each soldier, he needed new technology and new tactics. To fulfill these needs, he established the Ypsilanti Military Institute in 1839. The think-tank was asked to develop a means of "Rapid Fire", and was given an experimental Company with which to conduct its research.
By 1843, the Institute had produced several prototypes and concepts that looked promising, but most were shelved due to Michigan's inability to mass-produce arms. The only thing that the RoM did have was a huge surplus of French and British small arms, and only one idea incorporated that advantage. The Trench Corps.
The Trench Corps basically consisted of 200 or so 4-man teams, each with a cart of muskets (between 50-60 usually) and prepared rounds. Three of the men would constantly reload the muskets using months of rote training and some specialized equipment, while the fourth member (hopefully a marksmen) would fire constantly. This would all be done withing the relative safety of a pre-built Trench or fort. The Trench Corps would eventually be deployed along the Toledo Strip in 1848. Author unknown

----------- From An Essay on the War of '49; Author unknown

 

[NomadicSky]

Any chance for an update?

 

[DakotaG01]

bump. I like this TL.

 

[Meepy]

The elections of 1848 would determine the fates of nations, the tides of wars, and the history of a continent. In the United States the Republicans and the True Whigs battled the Democrats for Washington in what would become the most contentious election in the nation's history. In Tejas, the Anexionista movement would make its last stand against the now fractured Nationalists (formally the Intervention-Expansionists and Wealth parties). The Michiganians would choose between Western Federalist, Eastern Federalist, Liberal Republican, and Conservative Republican.

First, let's examine the Yankee's elections; The main issues initially facing the voters were how to deal with the aftermath of the First Caribbean War and weather or not to continue the expansionist policy of Polk's first term (namely, should the occupation and subjugation of Mexico be continued). If these issues had remained at the forefront of the election, history might've been quite different. The moderate coalition might've won.
As it was, however, fate chose differently. Over the summer of '48 Michiganian Abolitionist John Brown conducted a series of raids in northern Missouri that would free some 2,500 slaves. These raids were done under the Michiganian colors, in full uniform (although not with the official consent of the RoM's government). Needless to say, this sparked controversy and quickly became the focus of the election, shoving the bloody conquest of Mexico out of the public's thoughts.
Seeing that this worked to Polk's advantage, the two opposition parties made peace with one another to thwart the Democrats.

The True Whigs, now Polk's only opponents, ran Zachary Taylor, the Hero of St. Augustine. Early polls made it clear that the TW's had NY, Pennsylvania, and most of New England locked up. It looked as though the madness of the Democrats would finally be slain by the sword of Democracy.
Unfortunately, Polk, ever the gerrymander-er, quickly granted statehood to Texas (North and South), Cuba, Florida, and Liberia just prior to the election. Cuba and Liberia's elections were rigged, naturally.
The results came out 168 Democrat, 140 True Whig. Thanks to Polk's gerrymandering, the Democrats had won.
This would not be the last the world heard of Taylor and his Whigs...

 

[Meepy]

The Michiganian Presidential Elections of 1848 would also be rather divisive, although not as much as the Yankee one from the same year. The main issues one the platform were, just as in the US, War Vs. Compromise (Abolition Vs. Slavery) and State Vs. Federal Government. The former dived both major parties (the Federalists and the Republicans) into pro-war/anti-war camps, creating the West-East Federalist divide and the Conservative-Liberal Republican Divide.

The Four tickets were as follows; Stephens Mason (Eastern Federalist), Lewis Cass (Liberal Republican), Edward Burleson (Conservative Republican), and Brigham Young (Western Federalist). The E. Feds and LibReps both wanted to pursue war with the US (both also favored Abolition), while the W. Feds and ConReps both wanted to avoid the conflict.

As the Map below will show you, the final tally came to 72 Mason (Dark Blue), 6(+9) Young (Light Blue), 44 Cass (Red), and 8 Burleson (Orange). Mason would get another term, and the war would come...

 

[Meepy]

Alright, here's a longish update for the Turtledove season!

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John Brown's crisis of 1848 began to boil over on December 7th, when Polk's ultimatum reached Stephens Mason in Ann Arbor. The US demanded monetary compensation for some 25,000 escaped slaves as well as payment for Michigan's recent territorial acquisition in Oregon Country, Rupert's Land, and Wisconsin Territory (about $75,000,000 total). Mason was given 3 months to comply.


Mason, never one to shy away from a fight, raised the States' Militias and called up the National Army in response to Polk's threat. War was declared on February 1st, 1849. News wouldn't reach Washington until February 14th. By March 1st, the Stater's Army of the Maumee crossed the boarder into the Republic of Michigan. Thus began the War of 1849.


To the south stood the Army of the Maumee, -35,000 infantry, 2,500 cavalry, and 200 guns- under the command of Benjamin Stickney (operating in his position of Supreme Commander of the Ohio State Militia until a suitable replacement could be brought up from Mexico). Opposite sat the Michiganian Toledo Line- essentially a huge network of prepared defensive positions built up in between the wars- with a 20,000 man garrison.


The Stater strategy was rather simple; they would use their large numerical advantage to bulldoze over Michigan's tiny army then seize Detroit and Ann Arbor, effectively ending the war. The army's only disadvantage was its lack of decent leadership (it would take months to divert a usable general from the war in Mexico).


The Republic's strategy was a bit more complex, although not much; General Brown would rely heavily on tactics developed by the Trench Corps on the Toledo Line (fighting from a prepared, stationary front while firing volleys in rapid succession by cycling through pre-loaded muskets) to stop the Yankee army in its tracks until the war could be decided in the more dynamic western theater


As mentioned earlier, the US war effort was plagued by its own faulty generals. For instance, instead of fully heeding reports of fortifications along the Toledo Line, Stickney (probably wanting to make a name for himself) simply sent out several scouts to keep face, then marched north in force before waiting for their reports. By dawn on March second, the Army of the Maumee was marching on Toledo.


Needless to say, this threw the Michiganians into a panic. Brown soon had sent out couriers to all his major units. He needed to mass his army somewhere, to meet the Staters on the field of battle. Brown soon chose his location – the small hamlet of Sylvania- several hours up the road from the Stater's main column. Cavalry was dispatched to lure the Yankees into battle, the bait was taken, and soon Stickney was forming up across a wide open field of ankle-deep snow.


The Michiganians were deployed in and along a 1/4-mile of trench line, with a squadron of cavalry anchoring each flank and 6 batteries of heavy artillery sitting on an artificial hill to the rear (two or three batteries of light artillery were deployed at various redoubts along the line). All in all, Brown had around a division at his disposal.


Stickney had deployed his infantry in a basic battle line of about the same width as Brown's, and positioned his 6 squadrons of cavalry on his left. The Stater artillery (about 10 batteries) was scattered about the few small hills that lied to the rear of their lines.


It was Stickney who made the first move. The Yankee cavalry moved to outflank the Michiganian's right flank. Brown's cavalry moved to intercept.
The US cavalry suddenly ground to a halt as dozens of horses fell into an empty trench line. By the time the aggressors had negotiated the ditch, the Michiganian cavalry had had ample time to form up. Soon the Staters ran into yet another ditch. This time, however, the Michiganians were ready.


Using several jury-rigged gangplanks to cross the trench, the defenders rushed over the ditch to both flanks of the US cavalry. Before long, the Yankees were totally enveloped – with Michiganians to their rear and a deep ditch to their front. Even after the Staters broke through the Michigan cavalry to their rear they simply had nowhere to run, they had trouble advancing across the first ditch, and simply abandoned their mounts upon reaching it again.


Throughout that entire hour and a half engagement, the Michiganian's massed artillery pounded the Yankee infantry from across the field. After watching his cavalry caught by surprise, Stickney was thrown into a panic.


Soon the order rang out all along the US lines: “Advance”.


The Ohio boys – shaken but well-rested- charged across the mile of open field, only slightly hindered by the ditches that proved disastrous for the cavalry, quickly closing the distance to a mere 50 yards. With a 4-to-1 advantage over the Michiganians, the battle seemed over.


However at 45 yards, the first Michiganian volley ripped through the Stater lines. Five seconds later, the defenders raised yet another set of rifles, and fired again. And Again. And Again.


By the time the distance had closed to 10 yards, General Brown's men had cycled through all ten of their rifles, and most of Stickney's corps was in full retreat. After a short scuffle in the few places were the enemy had made contact, the entire body of US infantry was routing, with the remaining RoM cavalry hot on their heels. The Yankees would not rally: Stickney was dead on the battlefield, along with 3,200 of his comrades.


By nightfall on the 3rd, the Stater column had been pursued across the boarder, where Brown ordered his troops to halt the advance. Michigan had not only shattered its enemy, but had also seized most of Stickney's wagon train along with some 60 artillery pieces of various size.


The battle of Sylvania would mark the end of the Army of the Maumee's attempts to defeat the Toledo Line Garrison in pitched battle. Stickney's successors would be far more cautious, advancing through sheer weight of numbers. The US would now fight a slow war of attrition.


Just how General Brown wanted them to.
---

 

[manofsteelwool]

Will Ann Arbor be more know for being the capital of Michigan or for the University of Michigan?

 

[MadMc]

Alright, here's a longish update for the Turtledove season!

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great update Meepy! I just love your TL

 

[Meepy]

Soon, news of the US defeat at Sylvania was splashed across the front page of every newspaper in Ohio. By March 15th early reports of the debacle had reached Washington. Initial estimates placed US losses as high as 20,000 dead, wounded, and captured (these were little more than inventions; the actual stater losses were less than a quarter as severe), and sent the capital into a panic. Polk hurriedly recalled Frémont and Lee's corps from Mexico and placed an order for another twenty-five volunteer regiments to be incorporated into the Army of the Maumee (now under Frémont's command).


The Democrat's weren't the only ones to take action during the crisis; Virginian and Pennsylvanian Whigs poured into the nation's capital, taking to the streets in protest. The angry mob, now lead by a congressional delegation, stomped up to the steps of the white house and nailed their demands to the front door. To summarize, the Saint Patrick's Day Ultimatum demanded that all wars of conquest be put on hold and that the troops be brought back home. This would merely be the first of a series of ever-escalating Whig demonstrations. Eventually, the Democrats would have to deal with them.


But not yet. The situation on the Toledo Strip took precedence over any mere “domestic disturbance”. Over the following months troops were shifted, commands reorganized, and supplies gathered. Frémont, despite his political objections, had totally rebuilt the Army of the Maumee by late August into an army of nearly 60,000 men.


Meanwhile, the Michiganians scrambled to reinforce the Toledo Line by any means possible. Western fort garrisons were recalled and organized into the “Frontier Division”. William Mackenzie and John Brown scraped together the remains of their charisma to raise the fifteen volunteer regiments from Canadian rebels, Quebecois patriots, and runaway slaves. By the time Frémont renewed the Stater offensive in early September, the Toledo Line had nearly doubled in size. Brown's army now constituted 5% of the nation's male population, and its largest city.


By Monday, September 3rd, both armies were eager for a fight. Frémont was happy to oblige, as it was on that day that he ordered the crossing of the Maumee at Perrysburg. Contrary to the Stater's expectations, Brown's army didn't bother to contest the crossing. As a result, the only injuries sustained by Frémont's men for the first couple of days of the August campaign were 12 from fighting and drowning. It was not until the Army of the Maumee began to march north along the Maumee that the first shots were fired.


The Armies met along a muddy little run known as Swan Creek.


Along the north bank sat the newly-reinforced Trench Corps (6,000 strong), on the other side stood the 15,000 men of the Stater vanguard. The US scouts reported that the river was fordable. In response to this, Frémont ordered an attack on the river before dawn on the 7th.


At the head of the Stater charge was the Buckeye Brigade – the same soldiers that charged the Michiganian works at Sylvania. These men knew what to expect. When the Michiganians let loose their rapid-volley's, the ex-militiamen hit the dirt. They wouldn't be fooled twice.


Thus the US army avoided the worst of the rapid-volley until they reached the creek itself, were crouching or any other evasive action would be impossible. Unable to cross the river in the face of Michiganian fire, the advance ground to a halt.


Sporadic heavy fighting amid a general background of light skirmishing characterized the next eight hours. By noon it was clear to Frémont that the Michiganians weren't going to fall back until forced to. He called up 9,000 of his reserves, which began to form up south of the Creek.


At around two o-clock the advance was sounded, and the formation lurched forward. The US's aim was to overwhelm a narrow section of the front through sheer weight of numbers. Although neither a complex nor an elegant plan, a breakthrough was achieved after a brief gunfight.


It was now Brown's turn to call upon his reserves; he sent all he had on hand in to close the breach before his whole line collapsed.


And so at 4:40 two regiments of Canadian volunteers (mostly veteran revolutionaries) stormed the breach, taking the Staters completely by surprise. The charge drove the Staters all the way across the river, only to be cut down by a withering volley and driven back by a counter-charge. The melee swung back and forth until stabilizing in the middle of the creek around 6:00.


Seeing his last opportunity to get out of the fight with his force intact, Brown told Mackenzie's men to hold until the trench core withdrew. Under cover of dusk, the Michiganians withdrew into the relative safety of Toledo. The Battle of Swan Creek was over.

 

[Nitzkrieg]

I really like this, as usual. As an Ohioan attending OSU, that's saying something. Please update soon! My main question is after defeats, why doesn't the US simply go around the Toledo line? Basically the whole of the RoM seems undefended, and while the US military leadership is terrible at this point, well, they can't be too dumb.

 

[Meepy]

I really like this, as usual. As an Ohioan attending OSU, that's saying something. Please update soon! My main question is after defeats, why doesn't the US simply go around the Toledo line? Basically the whole of the RoM seems undefended, and while the US military leadership is terrible at this point, well, they can't be too dumb.

Politics, mostly: The Ohio state government really wants Toledo back, and the state government of Indiana is reluctant to invite Frémont's army onto its territory.

In addition to this, it is doubtful that the Army of the Maumee's leadership isn't that dumb. Frémont won the post as commander because he was the most qualified commander without better things to do. The US has overextended itself quite badly (65,000 in Mexico, 12,000 in Cuba, 6,000 on Hispaniola, 3,000 on Puerto Rico - not to mention their garrison in Liberia).

With that said, the defenses of the Toledo Strip have pretty much been passed after Swan Creek. Only Toledo lies between Frémont and Michigan's defenseless interior.

Anyway thanks for reading, I'm always glad to answer questions!

 

[Nitzkrieg]

This needs to get updated again. I just got back from my cousins wedding in Detroit, and I need to hear more AH about Michigan. All there is to it.

 

[Meepy]

Alright, I promise the RoM's honeymoon is over after this update. The War of '49 ends, you guessed it, with the beginning of 1850. If this seems a bit climactic and unexpected, it's mostly intentional. Don't want anything too decisive to happen this early on, now do we?
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[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]By the time Frémont's army made it into Toledo, the war against Michigan was far beyond political salvageability. The Whigs had been in an uproar over the nation's non-stop aggression ever since the debacle at Sylvania Field. After news of Swan Creek arrived east of the Appalachians in mid-September the Whig demonstrations turned violent. By September 22nd, Polk was forced to instate martial law in Washington, DC. [/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]By the end of September, the Siege of Toledo had developed into quite the bloody mess. The built up terrain lent itself well to Brown's rapid-volley tactics, but a general lack of supplies forced the Michiganians to go hours at a time without firing a single shot. These pauses in resistance lead to the ebb and flow of the front lines, until eventually stragglers left behind by both sides smeared the front lines throughout the whole city. A week in, and all command structure had collapsed on both sides. Neither Frémont nor Brown could do anything but funnel even more troops into the city. Michigan was quickly running out of troops to send.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]It was sometime during this brawl when plotting began between two governors and a general. The Union, they thought, had been lead astray, and only through violence could it be corrected. These men (Millard Fillmore, James Pollock, and Zachary Taylor) gathered their agents, loosed their propaganda, and awaited the proper spark to set off their rebellion.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Their spark would arrive in early October when, prompted by direction of the president, Frémont began to his pull troops out of Toledo. They were to quickly reorganize for an assault on the Michiganian capital of Ann Arbor. If Frémont managed an orderly withdrawal of a sufficiently large force from the fighting in Toledo, he would almost certainly be able to seize Ann Arbor. Brown had already committed the whole army to the defense of Toledo. [/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Unfortunately for Frémont's career (to say nothing of the Stater war effort), this was not to be. Communications on both sides had deteriorated to far; there would be no orderly withdrawal, only a chaotic rout. Michiganians, spurred on by the sight of fleeing bluecoats, were soon in full-out attack. Stater units that may have rallied and reorganized were unable to thanks to the Michiganian assault, and soon fled. [/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Before long Brown's men were charging into the Army of the Maumee's camp, where the capture of the Stater field command destroyed any hope of salvaging the shattered army. Once again Brown's army had pulled victory from the jaws of certain defeat. Michigan had once again been saved by little more than blind luck.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Of coarse, the circumstances of the defeat hardly mattered for the Whigs. The plotters saw this as the perfect chance to put their plans into motion. On November 1st, 1849, the States of New York and Pennsylvania declared the Allied States of America in opposition of what the 'States' Whigs saw as a “Unlawful Kinderhooker Regime” in Washington. New York and Pennsylvania were joined by Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire on November 17th after 8,000 defecting troops defeated an equal number of Federal soldiers outside of Pittsburgh.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]The majority of Frémont's shattered army voted to mutiny after regrouping south of Perrysburg. The Buckeye Brigade, still mostly intact, fled south to guard the capital. With winter swiftly closing in, the two armies stumbled farther and farther south until both screeched to a halt outside Findlay, where the two armies would remain for the rest of the winter.[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]In Mexico, Zachary Taylor lead his men to join the rebellion. Morale was so abysmally low by then that little incentive was required to turn the 45,000 men to the Allied cause. The few commands in Mexico that remained loyal to Polk allowed the Allied troops to withdraw peacefully, understanding that any resistance would be futile. Taylor began to march north, towards Tejas, and the US beyond...[/FONT]


[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]By the dawn of the New Year, the War of '49 had ended, and the American Civil War was in full swing. The war would be neither brief nor civil; American blood would be spilled in excess in Southern bayou, Appalachian mountain, Midwestern fields, and Liberian Jungle. On these battlegrounds Blue would fight Buff, and the future of a continent would hang in the balance.[/FONT]

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So yeah. I don't really feel like yet another war post, so I think I'm going to do a series of posts detailing the situations in, let's say, Michigan, Tejas, Mexico, Quebec (no, I hadn't forgotten about them), the ASA, the USA, and the Caribbean. No more long delays. I promise.

 

[MadMc]

YAY! i'm glad to see this back

I'm liking the civil war, it's defo not like most TLs. keep up the good work!

 

[Meepy]

The early Republic of Tejas was about as fragile as a nation can be. Divided from within, and surrounded by an aggressive USA to the North and by an anarchic Mexico to the south – to say nothing of the de facto independent lands in the Republic's interior- Tejas was at first largely unable to cash in on it's huge supply of land and natural resources.
Tejan Westward expansion and economic growth was first blocked by the young Nation's first great political schism. On one side sat the Nationalist Movement – a largely Mexican party that saw Tejas as a mere stepping stone on the path to the democratization of the rest of Mexico. Their platform called with an eventual reunification of Mexico and Tejas (either through the creation of a viable Mexican Republic or through force of Tejino arms).
Opposed to the Nationalists stood the Annexationists, who were largely Staters who had settled in the northeastern region of Tejas. The Annexationists called for Tejas' immediate admission into the USA, preferably as a slave state.
The most striking thing to be found in Tejas' early politics is the utter lack of any Tejan Nationalism. Simply nobody actually thought that Tejas could- or should- make it as an independent nation. There was Tejan Regionalism, to be sure, even then Tejinos wanted what was best for Tejas – they just thought it would be better under a Mexican or Stater yoke.
All that suddenly changed with the beginning of the Hispano-Stater war. Over the course of several months, the Mexican Republic was shown to be a total failure by it's quick internal collapse proceeding the Stater invasion. Just as this realization was sinking in for the Nationalist Party, the US declared war upon Tejas.

The war was a disaster, and within the year Tejas had lost all of its territory East of the Neches River. This defeat had several very important indirect consequences; mainly a strong surge in Anti-USA opinion across the nation, as well as the loss of one of the most Pro-Annexation regions of the republic. It was as a result of these phenomenon that the power of the Staters in Tejan politics was greatly diminished while the Pro-Mexican faction was all but eliminated. In summary, the First Yankee-Tejino War spawned the Nation's first surge of Nationalism.

Tejas' new Nationalist parties gained in power until they were finally able to form a ruling coalition following the Elections of 1848. At the head of this leading coalition sat the Wealth Party, who would dominate the country's politics for years to come.
The first item on the Wealth agenda was the Grand Survey of Lands Westward. Over the next 6 months the army was put to the task of mapping out the entirety of the Western Territories, chopping it up into individual family plots as they went. In regards to the Indian population, the Wealth administration preferred a program of mutual cooperation; tribes that allowed settlers to pass through were put under Tejan protection and guaranteed ownership of their herds. Those that did not were simply ignored, and dealt with as needed.
Soon after the completion of the survey, Tejas opened the floodgates by guaranteeing every settling family both a free plot of land and -more importantly- free military escort West. The program was an unprecedented success; by 1850 over 20,000 families had settled the western frontier.
This was good, but things didn't really start to boom until the discovery of of Silver in Northern Sonora and Gold in Northern California in the early 1850's. Immigrants poured into Tejas from all sides when news of the precious metal hit back East. Over the next decade Tejas' population would skyrocket to over five million.
Tejas experienced a time of economic growth as well, with it's GDP growing to eclipse Mexico's and to rival that of any American nation. By 1870 Tejas would possess the Sixth strongest economy in the World, neck and neck with the USA's.

Nowhere was this growth more evident than in the frontier town of Saint Francis, which had grown from a mere hamlet of several hundred in 1840 to a bustling city of nearly 150,000 souls by 1860.
This population growth out West was met by a growth in industry back East. Many of those who struck it rich out West went on to pour their newfound wealth into Tejas' rising industries. Such industries became yet another incentive to immigrate to Tejas, and the East's population growth was soon the match that of the West.


----------- From A History of the Republic: An Introductory Guide to Tejan History by Earl Wall