Am Texan. While it’s a fun little thing to kind of be proud of - that Texas was its own country before joining the United States - we stopped being a country for a reason. And today we are 100% less capable of independence from the United States compared to then.
We are taught “We can opt out of the United States whenever we want to. Other states can’t because they weren’t their own countries beforehand.” as a fun fact in 7th grade (Texas History) and no one seems to clarify that we can’t to the students or later in life when they’re grown ass adults. But by then, most refuse to believe it… like they do with most inconvenient facts.
sigh.
You know who else was an independent state before the US came along? The Kingdom of Hawai'i.
Ya know, that sounds super obvious but no that wasn’t a fact that I consciously knew. Great point! That is definitely not taught to us…Thank you for teaching me that! It does kind of change my perspective, too…
There are actually 4 states that were independent countries at one point or another.
Hawai'i
Texas
California
Vermont
No way! What’s Vermont’s story?!
Here. Basically, some people carved out a territory and lived as a republic for fourteen years, despite no formal recognition. They were negotiating to rejoin Quebec, until the British had to go and surrender at Yorktown.
Am Texan. While it’s a fun little thing to kind of be proud of - that Texas was its own country before joining the United States - we stopped being a country for a reason. And today we are 100% less capable of independence from the United States compared to then.
We are taught “We can opt out of the United States whenever we want to. Other states can’t because they weren’t their own countries beforehand.” as a fun fact in 7th grade (Texas History) and no one seems to clarify that we can’t to the students or later in life when they’re grown ass adults. But by then, most refuse to believe it… like they do with most inconvenient facts.
sigh.
You know who else was an independent state before the US came along? The Kingdom of Hawai'i.
Ya know, that sounds super obvious but no that wasn’t a fact that I consciously knew. Great point! That is definitely not taught to us…Thank you for teaching me that! It does kind of change my perspective, too…
There are actually 4 states that were independent countries at one point or another.
Hawai'i
Texas
California
Vermont
No way! What’s Vermont’s story?!
Here. Basically, some people carved out a territory and lived as a republic for fourteen years, despite no formal recognition. They were negotiating to rejoin Quebec, until the British had to go and surrender at Yorktown.
The battle of Yorktown.
Seventeen Eighty-One.
You're my favorite Texan in this thread!
Ah shit, the bar must be so low then.
And took a coup for that to happen.