{"id":88540,"date":"2019-07-04T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=88540"},"modified":"2019-07-01T14:46:05","modified_gmt":"2019-07-01T18:46:05","slug":"texas-only-state-that-was-previously-a-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=88540","title":{"rendered":"Texas Only State That Was Previously a Country?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Copy of the Declaration of Independence. (Blake Barr\/Wordpress)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One time on Facebook, I saw a pro Texas meme. It stated, paraphrased, that where the other states were just “land” before becoming a state, Texas was a nation before it became a state.<\/p>\n

This was created under the assumption that when 13 colonies declared their independence, via the Declaration of Independence, they were doing so as a single country.<\/p>\n

This assumption is based on some misconceptions. One assumption was that these were just colonies in the same sense as they were during the beginning of the colonial period. They did start off as colonial ventures, under a colonial charter, charged with developing and colonizing the land identified by the colonial charter. During this time, one could have argued that this was all just open land.<\/p>\n

By the time the “colonies” declared independence, they had evolved into provincial entities with a form of government and even a provincial militia. They still had plenty of “open land”, and continued to carry out their mission, but they had a similar arrangement that Texas had prior to its revolt.<\/p>\n

What occurred during the Declaration of Independence?<\/p>\n

Thirteen provinces\/colonies declared themselves as independent states. “States” had a similar meaning to what we would identify as a “nation-state” today. This was a declaration of 13 individual states.<\/p>\n

From the Declaration of Independence:<\/span><\/p>\n

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these<\/strong><\/span> United Colonies<\/span><\/strong> are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States<\/strong><\/span>; that they<\/span><\/strong> are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them<\/span><\/strong> and the State<\/strong> of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States<\/span><\/strong>, they<\/span> <\/strong>have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thirteen different colonies were speaking as a single voice, collectively declaring each colony as a “state”. They make this clear in the above statement, as opposed to the single entity, State, of Great Britain. This is well before the conclusion of the American Revolution as well as before acceptance of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

Another assumption is that Santa Anna’s authority was “final” with regards to granting independence.<\/p>\n

Santa Anna did have plenty of power. However, his granting Texas its independence did not get support back in Mexico. The Mexican government, both politicians and bureaucrats, continued to list Texas as a province in revolt. They also considered California as a province in revolt.<\/p>\n

Both Texas and California were operating as independent states until the U.S. annexed Texas, and the U.S. Army arrived in California during the Mexican-American War. Texas, as a republic, was already recognized by the U.S. before annexation.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until the signing of the Treaty concluding the Mexican-American war that the Mexican government stopped considering them as “provinces in revolt”. Both had been ceded, with other territory, to the United States.<\/p>\n

Likewise, King George III considered all the colonies as “being in a state of revolt”. Vermont was not one of the 13 that signed the Declaration of Independence. They declared their own independence. So, Texas with its similar evolution as the original 13 plus Vermont, would not be the only state that was previously a “nation” before becoming a state.<\/p>\n

Texas did have embassies overseas, made treaties with other countries and Indian tribes, and were in the process of negotiating a treaty by the time the U.S. annexed them into the U.S. During this time; however, Mexico still controlled large areas in Texas.<\/p>\n

Texans could argue that Texas went further than most of the others with regards to acting in the capacity of a nation state.\u00a0 But, it wouldn’t be the only one. Hawaii, previously the Kingdom of Hawaii, accomplished similar activities that a nation would expect to accomplish.<\/p>\n

And now you know.<\/p>\n

References:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Declaration of Independence<\/a><\/p>\n

Vermont as “14th Colony”<\/a><\/p>\n

Hawaii’s Diplomatic Efforts<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas’s Diplomatic Efforts<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One time on Facebook, I saw a pro Texas meme. It stated, paraphrased, that where the … Texas Only State That Was Previously a Country?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88794,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88540\/revisions\/88794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}