States of the Texan Empire

The Texan Empire is a semi-constitutional monarchy established in 1846 after the failing Republic of Texas elected Prince William of Prussia to be Emperor. The empire encompasses a large part of North America, ranking the 5th largest with 5 states

## Implementation

Originally, during the history of the republic and of the early empire, Texas consisted of 35 primary districts, later known as Imperial Districts which made up the modern day borders of the state of 'Old Texas'

On June 10th, 1846, 6 days following the Treaty of the Rio Grande, Emperor William I met with the Imperial Congress and split up the country into 5 primary areas. These consisted of, Old Texas, Rio Grande, Roswell, Meade, and Aspen.

## States

### Old Texas

Old Texas is the second largest, most populous, and most influential state in the whole empire. It is the only one, besides Rio Grande, who borders the sea and consists of the capital, Austin, as well as Houston, Galveston, San Antonio and Dallas. It makes up, and holds nearly 65% of all of the wealth in the country, by far the most industrialized state, and is home to most of the 'culture' of the empire.

Stretching from the coast to the desert in the far west, Old Texas encompasses all of what once was the Republic of Texas. The other 4 states were only claimed land before the Treaty of the Rio Grande which changed that. The state is home to 5,578,768, 43% of the whole countries population. Visitors of Austin and the other major cities get to see the marvels of government halls, royal residences, the Victory Avenue and the Victory Monument, world-renowned museums, large operas and cinemas, and of course the Imperial Hall, where political questions on Texas' future are discussed.

### Rio Grande

Very different from the socialite, popular Texan is the stoic Rio, who is more close to his catholic brethren in Mexico then his northern counterpart. Rio Grande got its name from the river which makes up its entire southern border with the Mexican Empire, its only neighbor. The state was planned to be just a border territory to separate Mexico from Texas but plans were switched and it was allowed the rights to become a state.

Rio Grande is the fourth largest state, second most populous, and arguably the most influential behind Old Texas. Like Old Texas, Rio Grande is the only other state to border the sea. It is home to Laredo and Corpus Christi, a large port city and the regional capital of the state. It is popular for its peoples close connection to their Mexican roots and makes up nearly all of the countries Mexicans. The state has a population of 3,588,991 and is the only state with Spanish as its primary language, and the only state besides Roswell to have Spanish as an official language along with English. The state, although close to Mexico and its culture, has never had any big independence movements.

### Roswell

Roswell is the largest state in the whole empire. It was originally planed to be 4 different states, Jones, Williamsburg, Roswell, and Burnet but William I scrapped the idea and combined it into one state, likely to help it become a strong state over 4 weak ones.

Roswell is home to 2,989,654 making it the third most populous. However, even with its semi-large population, it has very little economic output and this is likely due to its former slave economy. After the abolition of slavery in 1880, the economy of Roswell took the biggest hit and needed the most support. Unlike Old Texas, and Rio Grande, industrialization was greatly built up making slave labor little parts of the economy unlike in Roswell where slave labor made up nearly 75% of their annual GDP.

Roswell houses not only its regional capital Lubbock, but also Albuquerque, and El Paso. Roswell, like Rio Grande has Spanish as a second language, largely due to its large Mexican population. After the abolition of slavery, Roswell began building smaller industries and is now by far the single largest farming state in the whole country. Even with payed labor, their farms flourish off the former cash crops and as of 1899, likely thanks to Sam H. Thompson's reforms, the economy of Roswell was doing well.

### Meade

Meade was created as a fifth state among Jones, Williamsburg, Roswell, and Burnet however once the four united to form Roswell, William I met with Captain John H. Meade and arranged for the state to be separate from Roswell due to its opposing ideas on slavery and the slave trade.

Meade is home to 441,113 people and its regional capital of Springfield. Meade, similar to Roswell earns most of its GDP from farming, and cattle herding. On Meade and Aspen are often forgotten because they were famous for virtually nothing. On March 15th 1847, 15 days after the signing of the Treaty of the Red River with America, Governor and Popular war leader, John H. Meade abolished slavery in the state. Across the country it was heavily contested, epically in Old Texas and Roswell which were both formerly major slave states however the vote still passed.

John H. Meade faced so much backlash from his decision that he resigned but since then, the state has mostly been forgotten

### Aspen

Aspen is the smallest, and least populous state in the whole empire. Home to 360,345 the rural, and 'frontier' community was vastly different from the rest of the country. Its economy revolved around, similarly to its southern neighbor, of farming and cattle herding. Due to their economic dependence on just farming and cattle herding, likely due to their terrain, the economy of Aspen is far smaller than Old Texas, Roswell, and Rio Grande.

Following Meade's ban on slavery, 2 months later on June 15th 1847, Aspen banned slavery and the slave trade throughout its territory because slavery, similar to Meade, was almost non existent.

Aspen has, and is the most politically, and culturally similar to its southern neighbor, Meade and several times there were moves to unite the two states into one but it ultimately failed. The states nearly always vote for the conservative parties and are some of the most loyal to the Emperor and his family. The states are often referred to as the twin sisters, while the three in the south are referred to as the Southern Brothers.