American History Hit

What if the Texas Republic survived?

Release Date: November 17, 2025
Host: Don Wildman
Guest: Professor Sam Haynes, University of Texas at Arlington

Overview

In this episode, Don Wildman explores the fascinating question: What if the Republic of Texas had remained an independent nation instead of joining the United States? Joined by historian Professor Sam Haynes, author of Unsettled Land: From Revolution to the Struggle for Texas, they delve into the history, politics, and potential alternate futures stemming from Texas’s tumultuous independence and brief existence as a sovereign republic.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Indigenous and Colonial Texas (06:36–12:44)

• Pre-European Settlement:
  Texas, before European arrival, was populated by major native nations including the Caddo, Karankawa, Apache, and Comanche.
  “What becomes Texas had been a major culture of native peoples...” (05:36, Don Wildman)
• Spanish, then Mexican Rule:
  Spanish colonization began in the 1500s, and after the Mexican War of Independence, the region became part of Mexico, specifically the state of Coahuila y Tejas.
• Early American Entrants:
  Haynes stresses that before the famed Anglo-American colonization, several Native American tribes from the US migrated to Texas:
  “There were more Native Americans from the United States living in Texas than there were Anglo American immigrants throughout the 1820s.” (07:36, Sam Haynes)

2. The Rise of Anglo-American Texas & Austin’s Role (10:01–13:05)

• Stephen F. Austin is portrayed as an ambitious entrepreneur, not a driven nationalist. His and other settlers’ main motive was wealth:
  “He was trying to fulfill his father's dream of establishing a land empire in Texas.” (10:07, Sam Haynes)
• Early colonists were motivated by profit and had little attachment to their new Mexican nationality.

3. Causes of Texas Revolution (13:05–16:39)

• Tensions grew as settlers insisted on maintaining US customs (notably slavery), ignored Mexican law, and sought to replicate American societal norms:
  “What drives this movement towards revolution, what happens?” (12:44, Don Wildman) “Anglo Americans...bringing enslaved people with them, didn't take their obligations as Mexican citizens particularly seriously.” (13:05, Sam Haynes)

• Series of uprisings and mini-rebellions foreshadowed the Texas Revolution, which was not a sudden outburst but a product of longstanding friction.

4. Texas Independence: War and Aftermath (16:39–22:28)

• The Alamo and San Jacinto:
  • Two battles at San Antonio (December 1835 and March 1836); the Alamo, a legendary defeat, preceded a declaration of independence.
• Treaty of Velasco:
  • Signed by captured Mexican President Santa Anna but never ratified by Mexico.
  • Ongoing border disputes, especially over the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. “The Mexican government wanted absolutely nothing to do with a treaty which they claimed had been signed by a disgraced president under duress.” (18:20, Sam Haynes)
• Conflict and instability persisted; Mexico continued to claim Texas.

5. Life and Ambitions of the Texas Republic (23:17–32:28)

• Most Texans viewed independence as temporary, expecting annexation by the US. “They had always assumed that Texas would be annexed to the United States.” (23:17, Sam Haynes)

• Highlighted the economic motivation—rising land values depended on US immigration.

• Only reluctantly did Texas form a stable government, currency, and even a small navy.

• Under President Mirabeau Lamar (1838), a bolder vision emerged: a slaveholding Texas empire independent from the US abolitionist movement.

• Notable Political Structure:

  • Texas claimed vast lands (including parts of modern New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) but only controlled a fraction due to Native and Mexican resistance.
  • Texas even briefly claimed the Pacific as a western border—“a fit of reckless exuberance.” (29:48, Sam Haynes)

6. Annexation and Prelude to the Mexican-American War (32:28–35:48)

• Anglo-Texans were consistently pro-annexation; the real barrier was US domestic politics, particularly over slavery.
• US hesitation tied to admitting another slave state and maintaining balance post-Missouri Compromise.
• Polk’s 1844 election (Democrat, pro-annexation) proved pivotal. “October 13, 1845, majority of Texan voters were in favor of the USA's offer of annexation with a proposed state constitution which endorsed slavery.” (32:50, Don Wildman)
• Texas’s admission (1845) immediately soured relations with Mexico and set the stage for war.

7. Counterfactual: What If Texas Remained Independent? (36:45–45:01)

• Was Longevity Possible?
  • Haynes: Survival was possible—especially if annexation had failed in 1844—but prosperity was doubtful. “I think that it's unlikely, if I'm being honest, that Texas would be an independent sovereign nation for a long period.” (36:58, Sam Haynes)
  • Texas would have needed British backing. Britain, eager to check US expansion and protect its economic interests, saw Texas as a valuable ally. “There was a very ambitious and very effective diplomat on the ground in Texas. His name was Charles Elliot...making the case to people like Sam Houston that Texas might do better if it established commercial treaties with Great Britain.” (37:44, Sam Haynes)
• The US Without Texas:
  • No Mexican-American War as known; vast US southwest territories might remain with Mexico; major rearrangements of American westward expansion.
  • With Texas’s large Anglo and slaveholding population, Haynes speculates that if still independent by 1861, Texas would likely have joined the Confederacy during the Civil War anyway. “You would have had two slaveholding nation states fighting the Union.” (39:52, Sam Haynes)
• Social and Cultural Ripple Effects:
  Wildman playfully imagines: no “Remember the Alamo,” no cowboy archetype, no oil booms—perhaps a less boisterous US national identity. “Maybe America would have stayed smaller, quieter and much more cautious. It's a whole different identity that Texas brings along...” (45:01, Don Wildman)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On early expansion:
  “Historians have a problem with that term [Manifest Destiny] because nobody moves west out of a sense of Manifest Destiny...They went for one reason and one reason only, and that was to grow their wealth.”
  — Sam Haynes (11:00)
• On Texas ambitions as a republic:
  “What the Texas Republic claimed as its national domain and what it actually controlled were two very, very different things.”
  — Sam Haynes (29:48)
• On the counterfactual impact:
  “If Texas became a satellite of Great Britain, it would form an iron hoop around the United States that would cost oceans of blood to burst asunder.”
  — Andrew Jackson, paraphrased by Sam Haynes (38:55)
• On the 1844 election:
  “The annexation of Texas, the acquisition of this enormous amount of territory in the American west and Southwest through the Mexican War. These all can be attributed to...the victory of James K. Polk in 1844.”
  — Sam Haynes (41:33)
• On Texas’s DNA in American culture:
  “No ‘Remember the Alamo.’ You've got no cowboy archetypes, no oil boom economy, no jangly spurs and a swagger in its step...It's a whole different identity that Texas brings along.”
  — Don Wildman (45:01)

Timeline & Timestamps

• Spanish/Mexican Texas & Early American Settlement:
  05:36–12:44
• Anglo Colonization & Stephen F. Austin:
  10:01–13:05
• Path to Revolution:
  13:05–16:39
• Alamo & San Jacinto / Aftermath:
  16:39–22:28
• Republic of Texas Politics, Land Claims, and Diplomacy:
  23:17–32:28
• Annexation Events:
  32:28–35:48
• Counterfactual Discussion:
  36:45–45:01

Conclusion

Don Wildman and Professor Sam Haynes deliver a nuanced look into Texas’s dramatic journey from indigenous homeland, to colonial outpost, to revolutionary republic, and finally, to American statehood. Their detailed exploration of Texas’s alternate history is both historically grounded and richly evocative, painting a picture of how a single state’s fate dramatically altered the trajectory of a continent and the meaning of “America” itself.