Disputed territory: Rio Grande/Rio Bravo borderlands, 1838-1840

This thesis explores the conflicting historiography of the stillborn Republic of the Rio Grande (1840) and reviews its geographical and political significance in the diplomacy between the Republics of Texas and Mexico from 1838-1840. Contemporary cartographic sources and other historical documents are used to examine the dispute over the Trans-Nueces region and to illustrate the geopolitical perspectives of the three republics embodied by their respective leaders: self-appointed General Antonio Canales, proponent of the Republic of the Rio Grande; Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas; and General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President ad interim of the Republic of Mexico. Evidence points to the conclusion that Canales intended to create a republic but that conditions and events prevented its realization.