I never thought much about it until now, why most, if not all, of the maps for a California Republic include Baja? I know it looks good on a map, but I think any California Republic that manages to hold the current state boundaries might call itself fortunate.
Unless we have a major POD, California was an underpopulated and underdeveloped peripheral part of New Spain and Mexico. Most of the population lived close to the coast along the Camino Real. To think someone from La Paz (probably the only settlement of importance in the entire Baja south of San Diego) would suddenly feel attachment and want to join the ranchers of southern California and the Anglo miners in the north instead of other Mexicans across the Sea of Cortez is in my point of view, naïve. Mazatlán is so much closer than San Diego to La Paz and the southern tip of Baja. If it came to a fight, California won’t be able to defend or supply it as well as the Mexicans from Sinaloa and Jalisco. Baja might as well be partitioned like an island.
The story is entirely different if the US picked it up. I mean, they kind of did the same thing with Alaska. They can keep it, even if it’s empty, because they can force Mexico or anyone else to back off.
Another one is the Republic of Texas with its western border along the entire Rio Grande. It’s as much as a legal fiction as Spanish claims of over half of North America. The Republic of Texas was also very weak, scarcely populated, and bankrupt for most of its existence. The Santa Fe expedition was a disaster. The treaties of Velasco are as good as any piece of paper signed at gunpoint; they are worthless if they can’t be enforced.
The Mexicans of New Mexico were not fond of the Texans, and they never wanted to join the Republic of Texas. As mentioned earlier, it looks good on a map, it goes along with the idea of a “natural” border, but in reality, Texas could barely hold what they had without the US supporting them. I haven’t seen a TL where Texas stays more or less with what they controlled post Texas Revolution. El Paso is on the road to New Mexico that connects it to Chihuahua and to central Mexico, also called the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, it had not natural relation to San Antonio, much less Galveston.
Opening up this post for others to comment or post their ideas on other territorial cliches in maps in other parts of the world.
Unless we have a major POD, California was an underpopulated and underdeveloped peripheral part of New Spain and Mexico. Most of the population lived close to the coast along the Camino Real. To think someone from La Paz (probably the only settlement of importance in the entire Baja south of San Diego) would suddenly feel attachment and want to join the ranchers of southern California and the Anglo miners in the north instead of other Mexicans across the Sea of Cortez is in my point of view, naïve. Mazatlán is so much closer than San Diego to La Paz and the southern tip of Baja. If it came to a fight, California won’t be able to defend or supply it as well as the Mexicans from Sinaloa and Jalisco. Baja might as well be partitioned like an island.
The story is entirely different if the US picked it up. I mean, they kind of did the same thing with Alaska. They can keep it, even if it’s empty, because they can force Mexico or anyone else to back off.
Another one is the Republic of Texas with its western border along the entire Rio Grande. It’s as much as a legal fiction as Spanish claims of over half of North America. The Republic of Texas was also very weak, scarcely populated, and bankrupt for most of its existence. The Santa Fe expedition was a disaster. The treaties of Velasco are as good as any piece of paper signed at gunpoint; they are worthless if they can’t be enforced.
The Mexicans of New Mexico were not fond of the Texans, and they never wanted to join the Republic of Texas. As mentioned earlier, it looks good on a map, it goes along with the idea of a “natural” border, but in reality, Texas could barely hold what they had without the US supporting them. I haven’t seen a TL where Texas stays more or less with what they controlled post Texas Revolution. El Paso is on the road to New Mexico that connects it to Chihuahua and to central Mexico, also called the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, it had not natural relation to San Antonio, much less Galveston.
Opening up this post for others to comment or post their ideas on other territorial cliches in maps in other parts of the world.