Look at California today. In every metric from the useful land area to GDP to population,
California outstrips every US state west of the Mississippi.
Well, almost every state.
The only state that is even close to competing is, Texas.
Both of these states found themselves on the Mexican side of the border,
following the nation's independence from Spain.
But borders at this time were not as concrete and changed more often than today for a variety of factors.
At the first foray into The Wild West,
there were no overarching authorities of nationhood.
What determine your borders was the ability to enforce a claim,
mostly modest claims were made lest you stretch yourself too thinly or come into disputes with a stronger northern neighbor.
Compared to the threat of force that could have come from the Spanish Empire,
a newly independent Mexico could barely control its northern reaches
and a certain group of American settlers in Coahuila y Tejas
weren't happy about their lack of political power and flagrantly disobeyed the brand-new illegality of slavery
which provided an income for the most powerful landowners.
Mexico could not control Texas.
Mexico had real rebel problems, through one such civil conflict and supported by Washington,
Texas was born as an independent republic, for a decade.
Not in Mexican eyes, but in the eyes of France, Great Britain and the United States,
even Texas itself claimed territory far beyond its real control, as far northwest as modern-day Wyoming.
Then crippling debt came along and Texas had no choice
but to beg the U.S for annexation, they made concessions of powers and territory
but as an independent nation with relations to the other two powers of the day, France and Great Britain.
It had bargaining power to leverage some unique provisions including maintaining it's size
Texas had asked for annexation before and failed but times have changed,
and a certain annex-y mood was in the air.
The admission of Texas into the United States sent Mexico crazy,
it had to enforce its claim. Luckily the United States was also itching for a fight
Thus the outbreak of another war over the enforcement of their borders.
Separated by mountains and desert from the political core in upland Central America,
Alta California was another area barely controlled by the central government of Mexico
and it was seen as potential easy pickings by the other empires that hadn't collapsed like the Spanish,
but before they could do anything about it,
the U.S.A's conflict with Mexico over Texas was spilling across the continent.
The 1840s were a boom time in industry worldwide
and northern California was one vital part of it.
Americans left the states and traveled westward into Mexico in search of fortune
but ended up being denied property rights and threatened with deportation.
Discriminated against as immigrants from a nation with whom Mexico was at war.
Meanwhile,
The US Army was around and about, "surveying" the sparsely populated areas of Alta California,
some of those settlers rose up against the supposedly tyrannical territorial government,
taking control of a small area and raising the republican flag.
The U.S.A claimed that rebellion when it started to succeeding with absolutely no help from the army,
they used it in the ongoing war to further their national obsession of westward expansion.
Without US military support, the California rebellion would likely have been put down
considering there were only 800 American settlers compared with 30,000 in Texas.
But what we do know,
is that an independent Republic of California did not even control close to all of its claimed territory
and lasted less than a month before big-daddy U.S.A swallowed it whole. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Now it was time to apply for statehood for maximum representation
and rights in the U.S.A.
Every state since the U.S's conquering the Appalachians
had been created with a framework of equality among states.
Every free state had a slave state, every Alabama had its Mississippi
but that system broke, with the admission of
Texas and California.
The South wanted to extend slavery to the Pacific
but there were other plans on the table. For that to happen,
the great expanse of land of Alta California had to be divided
but the southern part of this territory didn't have much use for plantations and slaves,
being a desert and all.
So any discussion about extending slavery to the west coast was snuffed out.
The Gold Rush had also meant a huge influx of migrants from overseas
and the economically empowered northern free states
where slavery had already been abolished.
It made California heavily populated and rich and powerful and the people here did not want slavery.
There was to be no compromise on borders or powers.
The Federal government knew fully well
that a foreign power would support for a California rebellion
had the Californians not got their way.
So without the threat of their own military,
California leveraged a favorable deal,
California was to be admitted wealthy and huge
and as they say: "The rich only get richer".
The US government has since
instead of always capitalizing on the fragility of it's southern neighbor to take territory,
on and off, allied with Mexico to put down civil conflict
or to support civil conflict or to use Mexican civil conflict as a tool in domestic politics,
but more about that one day soon.
As mentioned in a previous video, the real core of the United States is in the Mississippi basin.
The addition of California is just a bonus and very much so for California itself.
There is no better word for the relationship between the state and the rest of the country than symbiosis.
For everything California has boasted,
in resources and land, and industry and trade.
It has always lacked several things necessary for a modern healthy independent nation.
The state has some of the most productive cash crops in the country
but it's heavily dependent on the provisions of water.
A long term problem, industrial technology has allowed this tower of cars to escalate 40 million people
and the enormous agriculture around them could not have lived on the brink of a desert and drought until modern times,
Texas shares this.
That technology plus the other largest industries of California
also need access to the vast human resources of the United States.
As one of the biggest acceptors of migrants
and the biggest most financially powerful universities in the world,
the brainpower contained in the U.S's industrial centers is stunning.
Without access to its internal and international skilled migrants
California would have no Hollywood, no Silicon Valley and no brainpower to run its myriad world leading industries,
Texas also shares this
American energy policy has changed quite a bit in the last decade,
coal has fallen vastly out of favor
and the U.S has increasingly turned to renewables and a new source of hydrocarbons
that couldn't have been explored until the invention of a certain fracking technology.
Shale oil.
Fortunately,
the biggest shale field sit right over or a short pipeline away from huge population centers.
Financially, it's competing well with imports and traditional wells.
This would help the U.S detangle its energy demands from the rest of the world
should it decided to rein in its meddling.
California would not see those benefits.
It's own offerings are relatively paltry considering the demands.
The nearest decent oil wells are thousands of miles away and pipelines are thin on the ground.
Imports could come from Texas, the Dakotas, Alberta or Alaska
but that's expensive and vulnerable.
Currently the largest source of petrol carbon imports to California is the Persian Gulf
and you might see where problems would arise with that.
Whereas Texas has a completely different relationship with energy.
It has its own power grid to stay out of the reach of federal authorities
who regulate the interstate(?) energy market.
That soaring new potential source of hydrocarbons, shale oil, comes with its own risks
But I give the impression from Texans,
they don't mind a little bit of risk.
Located close to market,
Texan oil is cheap and easy to provide and even to sell to other countries
Because on the Gulf of Mexico,
some of the world's biggest and best oil refineries and export node(?) exist.
Even with Venezuela across the Caribbean, dumping oil for pennies onto the market,
Texas holds its own.
It's a world leader in a world influencing industry
and so is California through knowledge and tech
but it's entirely out of the state's hands and it's not tied directly and immutably
to its geography like the energy of Texas.
As an accelerating but only emerging industry, we're only now sensing the influence of
the Internet,
social media,
AI,
VR,
DNS,
LAX,
OBB,
PDC,
RESPECT
and Amazon Prime video.
We don't know if that will have the same "echoing through the ages" impact
as the age-old global scramble for energy resources.
So although there are many things to admire about California and to be intimidated or impressed by.
California is in a fantastic situation retaining it's relationship with the rest of the states,
I would recommend California not going its own way any time soon.
As for Texas, they are increasingly offering more in tried and trusted markets and systems.
I would recommend the U.S not allowing Texas to go its own way any time soon.
*cue Texas nationalism*
This video was made possible by brokenballs.org (oof). A Polandball for charity, close to my heart.
We see all too often the injuries of maimed countries around these days.
If you can spare a penny a dollar or a swathi
Please visit brokenballs.org (oof again) and donate.
Links in the description. (Help fix some ball's broken balls today!)
Together we can fix what is broken because, what is broken is balls. (Wise word)
Thanks for watching.