WI: the Republic of Texas survived?

I was up late the other night, blown out of my mind on caffeine and sugar, and reading a history of early Texas and the Navajo uprisings against the Spanish. Somehow, this alchemized into "Lawrence of Arizona," sent by the Union boys to encourage the Navajo/Pueblo revolt against the Texans so that the Union could also defeat its ally, the CSA...

*ahem*

Anyway, in doing research, I checked out the nationalist party of Texas, the ones who wanted to remain independent and kill all the Indians, Tejanos, Mexicans, etc. POD is pretty simple...Mirabeau Lamar manages to secure loans from European nations and the US, as he was unable to do in OTL.

My own wild guesses led immediately to:
* With the financial backing to make the Redbacks worth something, Lamar has no trouble pushing his New Mexico expedition through the Texan Congress. The expedition, better equipped and larger than in OTL, reaches Santa Fe and is either to either escape, encourage the New Mexicans to join Texas, or go on bloody conquest.
* Using Very Effective Persuasion (bribery), Texas wins its recognition from Mexico.

But I'm new at this sport. How do you see the Republic going, if she hadn't joined the Union?
 
I think that any successful Texian Republic wouldn't be the big panhandle-wank it was IOTL, it would be what is roughly Central, North, and East Texas today, with the border with Mexico being the Nueces.
That, because the US only got involved when it was sure Texas would join as a state. Without the US helping out, there's no way we'd have enough leverage to secure all the extra crap that was tagged onto Texas after the war.
 
I think that any successful Texian Republic wouldn't be the big panhandle-wank it was IOTL, it would be what is roughly Central, North, and East Texas today, with the border with Mexico being the Nueces.
That, because the US only got involved when it was sure Texas would join as a state. Without the US helping out, there's no way we'd have enough leverage to secure all the extra crap that was tagged onto Texas after the war.

I disagree. Mexico wouldn't have the resources to control the territory, and neither would the US. However, Texas would slowly run out of land to give away in the Eastern part of the state and would have more people moving westward. It would be sparsely populated, yes, but I think it would be Texian. However, whether or not Texas could capture Santa Fe, as is claimed, is a different story.

I think that if Lamar faction had defeated Anson Jones and the Houston faction in the final presidential election, annexation might have been prevented. If Texas develops the same plantation culture as seen in the south, I think the cotton would make it quite wealthy. It also would make the CSA much weaker, as Britain and France wouldn't be relying on Southern cotton at all anymore (unless Texas joins the CSA in a war against the USA and is blockaded by the US in return). I think that the key thing is that Texas survives until the discovery of oil. If they can last that long they're almost positively going to last until the present and beyond. The best chances for them to lose their independence other than annexation are by losing a war with Mexico over western Texas or by losing a combined USA/CSA and Texas war and being annexed by the US. Either way the US likely turns out quite differently because I can't see Mexico ever turning over California and most of New Mexico unless it's to Texas when Texas defeats them in the Santa Fe War.
 
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