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unmerged(32548)

Remember, it ends in 'se'
Jul 28, 2004
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This is my first AAR, and indeed, my first post. So I felt like being ambitious: Texas, a little rump state that I've never seen survive three consecutive decades.
I get the impression that the VIP generally knees you in the groin for the sake of remote historical accuracy. It certainly didn't do so to Texas -- in fact, if it weren't for the VIP, this game probably would have been nasty, brutish, and short.
Asides will appear in slate-gray, and I'm going to keep them to a bare minimum: it sorta kills the 'wha?' factor that makes a lot of AARs fun to have everything explained right there in the middle of the action.
That said, it commences.


Part 1: Humble Beginnings

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Texas at the dawn of 1836: frighteningly small and weak

1836 was, as can hardly be overemphasized, a monumentous year for Texas: the secession from Mexico had taken place but a short time before, and the wrath of Mexico seemed unavoidable. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to preserve independence through Santa Anna's determination to bring 'Tejas' back into the fold.

It can be understood, then, that many of the early measures taken by Texas seem foolish, aggressively isolationist, and vigorously contradictory, when compared to the state of affairs later on. In fact, it is difficult to understand how modern Texas grew from those few, sparsely-populated provinces in a particularly cantankerous corner of Mexico.

The first seeds were not sown with Houston and the early military figures: they were guilty of the most backchannel and peculiar stunts possible for men of their relatively small stature and means. In fact, if anything, they came close more times to ruining the Lone Star Republic than anyone in its history, or turning it into a backwater of Mexico or the United States.

1836 dawned on the Letters of Marque incident, in which Texas was asked for and granted letters of marque to various private vessels: in essence, a modern extension of privateering not much divorced from that which struck at Europe in Shakespeare's day. The decision dismayed both Mexico and the US, but Mexico hated Texas and the US favored it too much for this to change anything, and both saw Texas as a minor threat at best.

In March, various great events shook Texas: the Declaration of Independence, the first victory at sea. Overseas, the Dutch civil war closed with the creation of a new country, and the fierce civil wars of Spain and Brazil raged on.

At the end of the month, the Alamo was taken with little effort by the Mexicans, and Goliad attacked. The event, strangely, did nothing but bolster Texan elan: now they had martyrs to fight for, a flag to rally around! April came, and with it more victories by the Independence: the Texan ship captured the brig Pocket. The Americans, irritated, arrested the crew of the Invincible when it went to port in New Orleans: reciprocality was a hard lesson for Texas to learn. With its best crewmen jailed in Louisiana, the Invincible made the fateful decision to set sail before their return, bringing the ship back to harbor in its home country.

The Mexicans, by all appearances, used the Pocket's arrest as a pretense to reinvigorate the war. "The United States of America are clearly prepared to stand with us in putting Texas down like the base villains they are," Santa Anna reportedly said upon hearing of the arrests. The chain of events which followed would, in spite of being mostly defeats for Texas, give the Lone Star Republic the foundation upon which it would build its future.

On the 16th, the Invincible was attacked by Mexican ships and swiftly captured. This would have been a disaster but for the fact that in less than a week, the Mexicans launched a heavy-handed military assault on a Texan force near the town of Corpus Christi. After a day's running fight, the Texans turned to attack and the Mexicans suddenly found themselves surrounded on all sides by half of the Texan army.

It was a large-scale bushwhack, one of many dirty tricks the Texans seemed to derive a perverse enjoyment from employing, which would have had little impact on the war as a whole had the group the Texans ambushed not been lead by Santa Anna himself! The Mexicans, especially Santa Anna, were rattled enough by the experience to withdraw from Texas.

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Texas at the end of the Houston presidency: a country rich only in ambition

With the threat of Mexican war suddenly a distant thing, the Texans realized it was time to rest, lick their wounds, and try as hard as possible to prevent another round of fighting. The Mexicans were many times their size, this war had been won by little more than luck, and idle saber-rattling would do nothing but lead to inevitable defeat.

A serious historian here would go into detail about the minor border raids and piracy against Mexico which dominated the pre-Lamar era. Unfortunately, the avid reader will have to seek serious history elsewhere: the Indian wars, border raids, and Yucutan rebellion were so minor that even in their own time, the leaders of Texas seemed to realize that they would go nowhere.

The only events worthy of note in 1837 would be two with far-reaching implications: a near-mutiny by the Army in June, first; second, the establishment of a minor company which would dominate Texas for decades.


Next time: Running Before You've Learned To Crawl
 
FANTASTIC!!! Another Texas AAR...I'm sure the rest of the Lone Star Brigade will come by and wish you well. Good job on winning the Revolutionary War, but be sure not to piss off the Big Blue Blob.

And what's with all this Sam Houston bashing? He's probably one of the best generals in the game and was really cool in real life: governor of 2 states, 2-times president of a nation, senator, statesman...need I say more?

As to the Texan dirty tricks...what's a little honest ambush between friends? Though it sounds like you managed to recreate the Battle of San Jacinto...if a couple hundred miles from where it happened.

As to the letters of marque, they were common in the 1800s...maybe not in the 1830s, but just 15-20 yrs previously they had been greatly employed in the Napoleonic Era, enough that their use wouldn't, IMHO, harken back to Elizabethan England.

Can't wait to read more! Nothing to distract one from being productive like a good AAR. :)

EDIT: Also, check out El-Rey's and GreenMachine's AARs for some strategy ideas. Not that it sounds like you need any, just might be interesting. ;)
 
Nichomacheus: Yeah, my Texan history is a little off ;)
I'm running on a somewhat cursory knowledge of the subject and figures involved. As for the Houston-bashing, he's a good general and all, but thanks mostly to the sorts of events I ran into, he didn't do much except piss his neighbors and occasionally the Europeans off as president!
And thanks mostly to the way I played it, 'father of Texas' is going to someone else...

Unfortunately, in the version I'm running on, the event wherein Mexico grants a cease-fire and Texas can claim New Mexico if it likes seems to be date- and not event-dependent.
To their credit, at least Texas can't capture Santa Anna if they're not at war with them :wacko:

Another update soon, promise.
 
Good luck. I'll be watching and critiquing. Don't you hurt my beloved Texas. :cool:

And Houston was actually a good man. He wanted to get Texas to join the US right away and was very opposed to us joining the CSA. His last word were "Texas Margret, Texas."
 
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el presidentse said:
Nichomacheus: Yeah, my Texan history is a little off ;)
I'm running on a somewhat cursory knowledge of the subject and figures involved. As for the Houston-bashing, he's a good general and all, but thanks mostly to the sorts of events I ran into, he didn't do much except piss his neighbors and occasionally the Europeans off as president!
And thanks mostly to the way I played it, 'father of Texas' is going to someone else...

Well...that's okay ;) the dream of an imperial Texas is really more along the lines of Mirabeau B. Lamar (who in a reality was a bit of a nut, even if he did do nice things like founding schools), so I'm betting it's him you're hinting at? But I stop lest I intrude on your fun.

Oh, and even today, Houston is not remembered as the father of Texas; that monicker usually goes to Impressario Stephen F. Austin, who was responsible for the initial colonies in the 1820s.

P.S. UPDATE!
 
Excellent first post.
I will be watching this AAR and will be curious as to what direction you take with Texas.
 
Part 2: Running Before You Learn to Crawl

On May 19, angered by various reductions of the Texan army, Texan officers attempted a coup d'etat, threatening an open army revolt if certain reforms were not enacted. President Houston, who was, at the same time, a strongly military man and a political opponent of the Rangers, fought the officers bitterly and without much success, capable of doing nothing but speaking out against the Rangers' ideals without betraying much of the Texan military establishment.
What would do them in was the soldiers themselves: unwilling to turn around and fight the government many of their comrades had died on Mexican soil to preserve, they mutinied against the officers, with more soldiers deserting than remaining in the army, and all that remained siding with the Austin government.
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The Texan military before and after the failed revolt

What followed was a period of incredible political upheaval: the Texan Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of the dissolution of the entire officers' corps, with those willing to become officers needing to take tests of loyalty and competence. The Democratic Party, scandalized by Houston's inaction in a time of crisis and devastated by his state of near-forced-resignation from public affairs, had clearly fallen from grace, and drifted aimlessly for some time before collapsing entirely. Although with the old landowning voters' bloc the Democrats remained rather popular, they were no longer the dominant force in Texan politics: 'All upstanding men of Texas must vote,' the slogans now went. After the attempt to establish an officers' oligarchy over the Republic, the leeriness for government elitism had become transformed into a passion for populist action -- culminating in a pair of laws: one which said that no individual Texan or Texan organization had the right to disenfranchise any Texan citizen of the age of legal majority for any reason and one which extended Texan citizenship to every Texan over the age of 24.

The people would use their newfound rights to elect a solidly Whig congress, leaving the respected, if mildly scandalized, President a lame duck for the remainder of his term. It seemed the last nail in the coffin of his political faction when his own Vice-President began to eclipse him.

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Texan politics after the implementation of manhood suffrage

In July, a previously unknown businessman by the name of Arratos came to the government with a ludicrous plan which would consume most of the country's stockpiled resources and gold reserves, as well as requiring the semi-permanent services of the as-yet unrepaired RTNS Independence. He was nearly laughed out of Congress, and may well have gone back to his backers unsuccessful had he not proceeded to deliver the most fierce, principled, and far-reaching oratory yet to be heard in the Lone Star Republic.

At the hour-long speech's heart:
"Honored gentlemen of Congress, for centuries many of the world's peoples have been suppressed by foreign ambition. In some cases, it is the basest tyranny: the dominion of a tribal chieftain over a large area by force of arms, or the more sophisticate Spanish American dictator ruling over an even larger area by even greater force of arms. In some cases, it is far more sophisticated: the cruel bondage in which we were once held by the hated Santa Anna, and the horrific dominion in which our brothers in arms to the west remain locked. We have escaped from our bonds, but others, nations no less manful than that of Texas, are suppressed by peoples who are not stricken by the typical Mexican lassitude: the peoples of Poland and Lithuania, the Greeks, the craven satellites of the Turkish Empire. These are cases over which Texas should not and can not have any influence, being far too small in terms of area, population, economics, and military to bring fruition to any great change.
However, as liberty-loving people, now that we have freed ourselves, it is high time that we go into the world and do something, anything, to give the gift of freedom to the oppressed millions of the world."

"It is a difficult mission, one with great price and little tangible reward. The spiritual reward, however, is to be great: We, so help us God, are to become a nation of peacekeepers, the guardians of liberty and the bearers of the brilliant torch of the Republican tradition to the world. The country we seek to approach is a small one, tiny by any standards: smaller than the state of Massachusetts. But it must be noted that the corrupting influence of the ancient imperial power of Uman shall soon spread to this innocent, savage state: but for our intervention they will be taken up by a group of utter reactionaries, Mosulman fanatics, and delegated eternally to the backwater."

"For God's grace I pray: that you, honored gentlemen of Congress, will approve of the appropriations neccessary to establish full Republican control over the state of Djibouti. I can do no more."

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The Tigray colony, established August 1 1837

Congress would eventually approve of Arratos's plan, and the Texas Africa Company was established. The Europeans viewed it with a general bemusement: but for a few coaling stations, an isolated trading post, and the southern colonial states, Europe had not much bothered with non-Mediterranean Africa, or even the rest of the world. A scant few settlements in Australia -- convict colonies -- and the rivalling dominion-states of Indonesia and India -- had been the extent of colonialism outside of Africa.
If there was any power who it seemed would dominate the uncivilized world, Texas was certainly not it. Exceeded in objective, statistical ratings of prominence even by Haiti, the ambitious state was smaller in terms of industrial might, population, and even military than most European cities. The headlong charge Texas made into the world stage seemed foolhardy.
Could miniscule Texas make any mark on the world? It seemed doubtful. Very doubtful indeed. But at least for the time being, no one would try to stop them.

Next time:The Difference Between Nation And State
 
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DON'T TOUCH ETHIOPIA!!!

Ah, why do I even bother. If I were you, I'll have the Ethiopians yelling 'Glory, Glory, Texas!' before long. ;)
 
Oh, no...poor Houston...betrayed by the very men he led <<Sniff>> :(

Maybe someday, there will be a game and this game will allow men to relive to glory days of the birth of Texas and using this game maybe some of them--a righteous few--will rewrite in myth a new history for Texas and see in the poor first President of Texas the stuff of potential legend....;)

Haha, let Texas cover the whole world! The Empire of Liberty shall rise in glory under the Banner of the Shining LONE STAR!!!!

Also, very nice touch to introduce backstory to give reason for action.
 
anonymous4401 said:
If I were you, I'll have the Ethiopians yelling 'Glory, Glory, Texas!' before long. ;)

No, "Glory, Glory, Texas" was another AAR. This one needs it's own theme song. Something along the lines of Rule Britannia but with banjos perhaps?
 
Part 3: Elsewhere

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world...

1838 would see the delicate ties that bound the United States of Central America, a valued Texan ally against Mexican imperialism, begin to collapse. Texans were beginning to grow frustrated: the Indian in their borders was a minor problem, but a valued ally self-destructing wasn't minor by any means.

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1838: The United States of Central America threatens to implode

The Texans, in fact, took it very seriously.

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1839: The Texan intervention...

Had it not been for the attack on rebels by Texan forces, it is believed the USCA would no longer exist.

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...saves the day.

In other corners of Latin America, the rebel tide would be far more difficult to surpress.

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By the end of the 1830s, the Piratinis had reached Brazil's northern coast and the Union Peru-Bolivia had collapsed with great violence.

And, of course, the state of things in the Middle East surprised no one.

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The Ottomans thrash the Egyptians badly, later seizing the entire contested zone and some territory besides

The next update will concern Texas as promised last time.
 
They're all PNGs. That might be it; some browsers apparently can't view them, for whatever reason.
If that's it, I could switch to GIF or possibly JPG.

If not, I might be having server issues... might have to hunt down somewhere else for my images.
 
They're working just fine for me with Firefox.
 
See, here's the great thing about a Texas AAR: you can count on a reliable, voluble, spirited, if rather small fan base. :p

POP: Texas AAR Fans

Stats:

Number: 3
Ideology: Conservative
Issues: Jingoism/Jingoism
MIL: 0 (-.04) for good update stream
CON: 50 because a triumvir is here
Cash Reserves: 100
Location: Alamo, trying to explain to tourists that it was really a huge Texas victory
Subsistence Goods: 100%
Cattle, Arms, Paper, Liquor, Forums (except for yesterday)
Everyday Goods: 100%
Texas AARs, coffee, Victoria, oil
Luxury Goods: 50%
Triumphant Texas AARs, Texas WC (0%)
 
Part 4: The Difference Between Nation And State

The difference between nation and state is identical to the difference between domination and stagnation.
--unknown, but often accredited to Mirabeau Lamar

The lack of Mexican recognition begun to grate upon Texans: they were now by all indications a fully independent and self-reliant country, clearly dead-set on taking their own course. Why, then, allow the Mexicans to treat them as a rebellious province?

Whatever they were to do, they would have to do it on their own. Feelers sent out to the US seeking admission as a state were rudely rejected: the free-soilers in the US were bothered by the prominence of slavery in Texas, and the Southerners were made uneasy by Texas's faint cultural ties to Mexico and highly distressed by the Arratos Doctrine.

In fact, the Arratos Doctrine was the biggest weapon the North had against the addition of Texas as a slave state: it stated that slavery would, by default, be illegal -- unless the people of any given state voted it into legality, slavery would be illegal in any territories under political control of Texas.
The idea of illegalizing slavery at all ate at Southerners, and it gave the disturbing, if inaccurate, idea that Texas could at any moment inaugurate complete manumission.

So Texas would, at least for the time being, be free of US intervention.

The Presidential election was not a contest at all: Houston's man was a nonentity, a competent administrator by the name of Seguin.

Seguin, unfortunately, spoke poor English, and had next to no formal opposition positions against the Vice-President. The election results were in in November: about 19% of voters supported Seguin (including most Mexicans) and a whopping 80% supported Lamar and the Whigs.

Realizing that he would never win the election, Seguin and his backers approached Lamar with a request: that Seguin be appointed Governor of Texas and Vice-President, two offices which would later become synonymous and associated with the political minority thanks to the 1838 election.

Lamar accepted, and early in December, he was sworn in as the second President of Texas.

lamar.jpg

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, second President of the Republic and widely considered the father of Texas

Mirabeau Lamar was seemingly as different from Sam Houston as possible. A Georgian of non-aristocratic background and a poet, he brought a sort of grandiloquent fire to the Texan government. Fighting as a colonel in 1836 and distinguishing himself in the attack that captured Santa Anna, although his faith in Texas was boundless, he knew that the Lone Star Republic had her limits. One of them was Mexico: the war had only been won by luck and the hand of God, and neither could be counted upon to interfere in another open struggle. Although he was Houston's vice-president, the President and he would be bitter enemies in public and barely civil in private.

On his first day as President, it was said that he struggled above all to put his grand vision onto paper. From his well-spoken manner, personal fire, and attacks on Houston's Indian and Mexican policies, the Texan people were growing anxious: what would Lamar propose for the Lone Star Republic, and how well could he achieve his goals?

They wouldn't have to wait long.

Next time: Castles in the Sky
 
Memnon said:
Well I don't have Firefox, Mr. I have 1,111 posts! :p

Well, I would suggest it Mr. 2813 posts. You can get it at Mozilla.com. No popups (unless you want them) and no spyware. Plus, tabbed browsing. MUCH better than IE and Netscape.

OT - Again, interesting AAR.