User blog comment:Smallpox/First Blog Post, First TL, Help Wanted!/@comment-890383-20100712220606

About Texas and California being independent, it could very well happen. Texas of course won its independence from Mexico in OTL 1836. The Bear Flag Revolt in 1846 established a weak Californian Republic before the U.S. intevened. But if the U.S. had no influence in the west in this TL, a republic could have been sustained. They've could've even formed an alliance with Texas to comba the Mexicans who would want to suppress the revolt.