What if Texas conquers the Contiguous US?

I'd assume that slavery would be abolished, however, life for Afro-Texans would resemble OTL Apartheid Africa and the Texan government would still deem blacks inferior.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that the resurrection of slavery would be difficult but if it were to happen it would have to happen because of some far-right maniac.

Oh yeah, an apartheid system screwing over Afro-Texans would definitely exist post-abolition. It happened in OTL - it was called the Jim Crow state of Texas.

Like you, I'm just not convinced that returning slavery would be possible at all outside of:
  1. Summoning the ghost of Davy Crockett with a fell ritual at the Alamo then sending his tormented soul to subjugate all black people in Texas.
  2. A government campaign against revolting Afro-Texans so incredibly brutal that there's probably no Afro-Texans left to enslave even if they win. Basically just a straight genocide and then enslaving the survivors, which doesn't even make sense from the twisted mindset of a slave-owning planter.

EDIT: And what self-respecting Texan wants to live in a timeline that doesn't even have Juneteenth, our best holiday? Blasphemy!
 
It’s a fairly common SF idea really. You see it in everything from comics (such as Flashpoint), Star Trek, etc.

Sure it’s probably wrong, but the idea is common. Also, technically Einstein would be more likely to jump up and down in excitement if Superman broke the light speed barrier since it would mean a complete reworking of the disproved theory of special relativity.
I guess, although it wasn't Einstein living in the world of Superman but rather watching the movie.

Besides, was just a joke anyway. :p
 
One could argue the United States of Mexico from Sobel's For Want of A Nail and the For All Nails AH continuation is the largest possible Texas, since it essentially starts as an Alt-Texas. And it gets all Hispanicized in the process.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
Lots of people screaming "ASB". I think it's just very unlikely, but not altogether impossible. The trick would be to screw the USA and wank Texas at the same time.

I do think that the 1836 POD suggested by the OP makes things more difficult than they could otherwise be. Here's a scenario with a bit of an earlier POD (other than the Sobel one), since various other posters have already offered suggestions like that:

A dragged-out War of 1812 sees the North split off. Not just New England, but New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana Territory, Michigan Territory and Illinois Territory as well. Most settlers in those territories were from the North-East, which was fa more inclined to ally with Britain than the South was. The territoies were also threatened by Britain, so becoming part of a British-allied state (let's call it, predictably, the Federal States of America) would protect them. Assuming the war drags out, this scenario isn't unrealistic.

This leaves us a reduced USA that's basically everything south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Moving into the old North-West (now held by the damnyankees) isn't going to happen, at least not on the scale as in OTL. Southerners trekking west will be moving into... Texas. We can easily envision a Texan Revolution with more man-power being a bit more successful. This, in turn, attracts yet more Anglo settlers to more into Texas. Meanwhile, the USA and the FSA both want to move into the Louisiana Territory, but get in each other's way. Border skirmishes and the general lack of safety causes fewer settlers than OTL in the far North-West. The FSA settles the Old North-West more densely, earlier on, instead. The USA... moves more people into Texas.

Eventually, something like the Mexican-American War happens as in OTL. Both the FSA and the USA kind of want a foothold on the Pacific. Britain wants Oregon Country, too-- or at least all of the Seattle Bay area. Texas has its own ambitions. Stronger, more populated, it successfully participates in the war, its troops reaching California first. As the British-FSA alliance looks ready to best the USA, Texas cleverly opens negotiations with Britain. At the negotiating table, North America ends up looking rather like this:

na-tex.png


(N.B. -- The map shows several border corrections I'd see Britain carry out after a dragged-out War of 1812.)

...so the USA is essentially screwed over by Texas, which wins big by doing so. The two nations are not going to be friends anymore. Texas is friends with both Britain and the FSA. taxas also has the best West Coast real estate, and is now a superpower in the making. Eventually, a world war erupts, with Texas and the USA on opposing sides. Texas utterly smashes the USA, conquers it, and begins the arduous process of trying to integrate the conquered territories...

Whether that process is ever truly successful is another question. A pleasant throught in this regard is that this super-Texas, absorbing so much non-slavery territory and being allied to two anti-slavery powers, would do away with the whole institution rather early on. If the rump-USA, consisting purely of slave states, presumably hold onto it, then the Texan "occupation" of the USA might just be a big campaign of liberation for the slaves.
 
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So what if Texas conquered the contiguous US? The POD is March 2 1836, the day that Texas became independent. I would imagine that after Texan independence, Texas would expand westward towards the Oregon territory, use Mexicans as slaves along with African slaves, and due to Mexican slavery, there would be no Mexican American War. Texas, after it has conquered the Oregon territory would go eastward towards Ohio and Missouri and continue going eastward until the 13 colonies were conquered. There would be no Civil war and thus slavery would continue until today. This would easily lead to Texas expanding to the entirety of Mexico.

But would this happen if Texas conquers the contiguous US?
I do not think we will ever see that happening, in 1836 the Texas population was only 5,0000,of of which where 5,000 blacks, 30,000 Anglo-Americans, 3,470 Hispanics, and 14,200 Indians, that compared to 15 million who where living in the United States, the United States Armed forces was a seize of 16,874 compared to the 2,000 to the Texas Army (according to the figures i have found), so you see, there is no change Texas can successfully invade the United States of America while also be worried that they might be invaded again by Mexico.
 
Expanding into New Mexico and California could be plausible (though perhaps it would risk war with the USA?). As for conquering the USA, we have the OTL example of the CSA trying just to win independence from (not conquer) them and they couldn't do that...
 
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