In a recent entry I provided a listing of the six flags that make up the famous “Six Flags Over Texas.” What is less known — and what many Texans along the southeastern border with Mexico believe — is that there were actually SEVEN flags over Texas. Had history gone a little differently another flag would have joined the list. It represented the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande.
Three sections of Mexico split away as a result of Santa Anna’s increasingly dictatorial rule. Specifically, those included the Republics of Texas, Rio Grand and Yucatán. The Republic of the Rio Grande existed only briefly. It lasted for about ten months in 1840, sandwiched between Mexico and the Republic of Texas.
The Mexican states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas formed the Republic. Additionally, Coahuila claimed a northern border up to the upper Medina River, and Tamaulipas up to the Nueces River. Both claims extended far north of the Rio Grande where the Republic of Texas staked its southern border. For a time this patch of land was in serious dispute. Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande and the Republic of Texas all claimed it.
The Republic of the Rio Grande set its capital north of the river in Laredo, in what is now Texas. But the Republic failed. Its commanding general of its army accepted a position as a brigadier general in the Mexican army. Today there is a museum in what was once the old capitol building in Laredo.
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