There’s one state in the US that likes to brag about how independent they are.
Saying that they have a provision in their constitution that says they can leave the
union whenever they like… or that they can fly their flag at the same height as the US
flag because they’re the only state that used to be an independent republic.
If you haven’t figured out which state I’m talking about, it’s Texas.
Because of course it’s Texas.
But none of those statements are actually true.
In case you missed it, this is somewhat of a followup to my American Empire video a few
weeks ago, so if you haven’t already, give that a quick watch.
Don’t worry, I’ll still be here when you get back.
But before I talk about Texas, it’s worth mentioning that not only is Texas not the
only former independent republic to join the United States, but it’s also not even the
first.
Quick, name the original thirteen colonies!
Okay obviously I can’t hear you, this isn’t Dora the Explorer… so you can stop now.
If you’re an international viewer, or an average American, you were probably going
to get it wrong anyway.
Let’s name them all together, shall we?
If you didn’t already know, the US flag has 13 stripes to pay homage to the original
13 colonies.
Let’s start at the bottom and work out way up.
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire.
Notice anything missing here?
I’d give you a second but I don’t want this to be another twenty minute long video
so…
Vermont.
Vermont isn’t on the list.
Vermont was not one of the original thirteen colonies.
After the United States declared independence in 1776, Vermont broke away from Quebec and
formed the Republic of Vermont, which fought alongside the United States as an independent
republic.
They also got land from the neighboring states of New York and New Hampshire because it was
assumed that it would eventually join the union.
But since there was no Constitution until 1789, there was no statehood process… so
it governed itself as an independent country for 12 years.
Everything about Vermont indicated that it couldn’t wait to be part of the United States.
It’s motto, Stella Quarta Decima, means the fourteenth star and its great seal had
a 14 branched tree.
So finally, in 1791, it became the fourteenth state – and the first state to actually
join the United States.
After the US gained independence from Great Britain in 1783, it was also given the large
area known as the Northwest Territory.
Under British control, the area was going to become what they called an “Indian Barrier
State.”
Or rather, a place to put all of the soon-to-be displaced Native Americans from the east coast.
When the United States took over, that plan was still floating out there in the ether…
but as more and more white settlers began moving to the region, the proposed area set
aside for the Native Tribes, also known as Indiana, got smaller and smaller.
In the War of 1812, many Native American tribes fought alongside the British, because the
British promised to reinstate the plan to establish Indiana as a buffer state.
Unfortunately for them the British lost and in 1816 Indiana became a regular old state.
However, as part of the peace treaty, the British made America provide Native Americans
with their own independent lands, which is the beginning of the reservation system.
Unfortunately, part of that deal did not include where these lands had to be.
At this point, the US had acquired the Louisiana Territory as part of the purchase I discussed
in the last video.
So they picked pretty much the most inhospitable tract of land they could, Oklahoma, and in
1830 signed the Indian Removal Act.
Which didn’t actually mandate the removal of Native Americans from the Southeastern
US… but pretty much yeah, mandated that the tribes be relocated.
You’ve probably, hopefully, heard of the Trail of Tears in 1838, which was when the
Cherokee were forcefully moved from Georgia to what was then called the Indian Territory.
And when I say forcefully moved, I don’t mean deported and put on a plane.
I mean they had to walk the 1000 miles on foot, where 20% of them died along the way.
Not exactly the United States’ proudest moment.
Indian Territory was never going to be an independent country, but it was going to be
an autonomous region of the US.
Much like reservations today.
Part of the United States but like, not really, but… yeah, totally part of the United States.
All of that ended though when Oklahoma, despite being smack in the middle of the country,
became one of the last states to join the union in 1907.
Surprisingly, despite the original plan, almost none of present-day Oklahoma is reservation…
So try to figure that one out.
But let’s get a little less depressing and a little more south and talk about Texas again.
Texas was originally a state belonging to Mexico.
By the way, the official name of Mexico is the United States of Mexico (United Mexican
States depending on translation).
Structurally, it’s pretty much identical to the United States of America.
But anyway, the area that became Texas was heavily settled and colonized by Americans...
so much so that Mexico banned American immigration in 1830.
This didn’t make the American settlers very happy, so in 1836, Texas fought for its independence
from Mexico.
Have you ever heard the rallying cry “Remember the Alamo?”
It’s one of those famous sayings from American history.
Which is odd, because it wasn’t American.
The battle of the Alamo was part of the Texas Revolution.
And it’s not like it’s kind of sort of American history, because when Texas kind
of sort of won its independence and petitioned for annexation, the United States didn’t
want it.
Possibly because they didn’t want to start a war with Mexico… yet.
So Texas governed itself as an independent republic, recognized by the United States,
but not recognized by Mexico.
It extended all the way up into present-day Wyoming.
Citizens of the Republic of Texas were called Texians, or Texicans… or my personal favorite,
Texilingans.
Just let that one sit on your tongue for a minute.
I swear, I couldn’t make that up if I tried.
They didn’t settle on the term Texan until it became a state, in 1846.
Texas was by far the largest state to join the union at the time, so there was a plan
to break it up into smaller parts.
But that was abandoned because that would create too many slave states and outnumber
the free states, which would wildly upset the balance set up by the Missouri Compromise.
So while there is no provision in the Texas state constitution allowing it to secede whenever
it wants, there IS a provision allowing it to break up into five smaller states whenever
it wants.
That’s pretty unlikely, but… it is there.
CGP Grey did a video a few years ago about the intricate details of Texas seceding, link
down below, but spoiler alert, it can’t.
The other myth, that it’s the only state allowed to fly its flag at the same height
as the United States flag is also just a myth.
The US Flag Code states that the US flag must always be higher than any state flag, it doesn’t
make an exception for Texas or any other state.
Texas law also doesn’t say anything like that.
BUT, if you’re that convinced that the US and Texas flag should be at the same height,
on different flag poles, the US flag should be to the flag’s right, or observer’s
left.
Which is the military position of honor.
If you have a bunch of flags the US flag should be at the center, center right if there are
an even number.
I don’t know why you needed to know all of that… but now you know.
*The more you know* Anyway, Texas joined the United States in
1846, at the start of the Mexican-American War.
Which was actually much more about California than it was about Texas.
Alta California was a state in the United States of Mexico; if you’ve ever wondered
why there is a Baja California in Mexico and you don’t speak Spanish, that’s because
Alta means high, and Baja means low.
So High and Low California… kind of like North and South Carolina…
Anyway, that doesn’t matter.
California declared its independence from Mexico on June 14, 1846 and formed the New
California Republic.
Okay if you didn’t see that coming you obviously don’t watch my channel very often.
The republic lasted a whole 25 days before it was annexed by the United States.
It was around this time that America was all about dat Manifest Destiny, and they really
wanted territory on the Pacific Coast.
California, like Texas, was full of white American settlers, so they weren’t really
opposed to the idea of annexation.
When America won the Mexican American War in 1848, an area the size of the Louisiana
Purchase was ceded, including California, Texas, and everything else north of the Rio
Grande River.
That same year, gold was discovered in California, but it took a year for everyone in the east
to hear about it – so the huge wave of migrants during the Gold Rush are called the 49’ers.
And now you know why the football team is named that.
California became a state shortly after that in 1850.
But we weren’t done getting land from Mexico.
A few years later we bought a little piece of land in modern day Arizona and New Mexico
in order to build the first transcontinental railroad, but that plan got derailed in 1864
for some reason.
I actually made a video about that a while back too if you’re interested.
But California wasn’t the only former republic to be annexed.
During the Spanish-American war in 1898, which I also talked about in a previous video, the
United States really needed a friendly harbor somewhere in the Pacific Ocean in order to
help with their invasions of Guam and the Philippines.
So they annexed the Republic of Hawaii.
*South Park Clip* No… nobody calls it that.
It’s actually kind of depressing how accurate that episode was ….
I grew up in Hawaii…
I’m not a native.
But because of that I know Hawaiian history ad nauseum.
Ready?!
Be more excited please.
The Hawaiian Islands were … re-discovered by Captain James Cook in 1779.
The same James Cook that I talked about in my Ant- Okay you know what, just assume I’ve
touched on all of these topics before and go watch my previous videos.
Just like Native Americans, Hawaiians like to look back on their history as if it were
ultra peaceful.
Sorry, but Native Hawaiians were people too.
The British didn’t like having to trade and deal with so many small islands and chiefs,
so they helped Kamehameha *Kamehameha* unite five of the islands in a war that took fifteen
years, ending in 1795; the other two islands joined peacefully in 1810, thus creating the
Kingdom of Hawaii.
He was super brutal and slaughtered hundreds of men.
Remember that famous cliff scene from 300 that I’m not going to show you because of
copyright?
Yeah, that actually happened (Battle of Nuuanu).
At spear-point, Kamehameha’s army drove over 400 people off of the cliff at the modern-day
Pali Lookout.
Anyway, being smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii was a prime trading and military
location.
Many countries were looking at taking it over, but its distance from everywhere made it almost
impossible to claim.
Perhaps predictively, the United States became its primary trading partner.
But because of Kamehameha’s affinity to the British, they made this the flag – with
the union jack in the corner as if it were part of the British Empire or Commonwealth.
It never was; the British never recognized it or claimed it as part of the empire.
It was kind of like putting a fake ring on it so when the United States came perving
around Hawaii could say they were already spoken for… but they totally weren’t spoken
for.
A few decades later the flag was changed to this and has stayed the same ever since.
Hawaii primarily grew sugar because of its tropical climate.
And just like Texas and California, it didn’t take long before white settlers were the primary
business owners and wealthiest people in the kingdom.
Over the decades the Kings and Queens slowly gave up power in favor of a constitution and
a more parliamentary style of government.
But in 1893, when the last Queen tried to- what you think I can’t say that?
Queen Liluokalani.
The state fish of Hawaii is the humuhumunukunukuapua’a.
Don’t doubt my Hawaiian-ness again… even though I’m totally white.
Anyway, in 1893 the Queen tried to take back some of her monarchical powers, and as a result
the white settlers, with the help of some US Marines, revolted and created the Bayonet
Constitution – forming the Republic of Hawaii.
It lasted four years before it was officially annexed by the United States.
And it was the last state to join the union in 1959.
Hawaiian history is actually incredibly complicated, interesting, and downright comical at times.
Like the fact that the Kamehamehas were so worried about diluting their bloodline that
they pulled a Targaryen and basically incested themselves into extinction.
When the last one died Hawaii had to elect their next King – from House Kalakaua.
Anyway, if you’d like to know way more than you ever thought you wanted to about Hawaiian
history, I highly recommend the book “Unfamiliar Fishes” by Sarah Vowell.
So the next time someone from Texas tells you that they were the only republic to join
the union, you can fire back with Vermont, California, and Hawaii, because- wait wait
wait, what about Deseret and Alaska and all the other states you haven’t talked about-
Sigh, okay I guess I just have to make another one of these… but again, at least for now,
you know better.