A Short but Educational Map Tour of the Texas Republic in the 1840s

John Arrowsmith's map of Texas (this one published in 1841 but based on previous maps he compiled) is the OG (aka, Original Gangster) of maps that depict the Republic of Texas, because according to the Scottish mapmaker, Texas was huge! Visit this map at Rare Maps.

Texas is a whole 'nother country, as people who live in Texas like to point out. And from 1836 to 1845, it actually was. But how big this other country was, when it went by the Republic of Texas, is a whole 'nother matter. The map collectors and dealers at Barry Lawrence Ruderman's Rare Maps offer a real smorgasbord of these vantage points, which I curated over here at Red River Historian to provide some simplified context.

Mexico, for example, believed Texas to be only as large as the eastern lands that Anglo Americans occupied through their Empressario system. The US-migrant reach only extended southward to the Nueces River and didn't go very far to the west.

When Texas was a Republic, the British Empire contemplated establishing cotton trade with Texas to circumvent having to deal with the United States. At the same time, they also were investing heavily in the industrialization of Mexico, so they did not officially take sides in the Mexican-American War (1846 to 1848) and accepted the viewpoints of the victors.

The French and Germans (particularly the Alsatians) depicted Texas not through a political lens but rather focused on the practicalities of immigration. They wanted to know the locations of good sources of water as well as where the aboriginal people claimed their territories in an attempt to avoid potential warfare and to compensate tribes for the takeover. In particular, the French appeared to maintain their vintage viewpoints of the areas that bordered the Louisiana Territory. Their maps reflect what the French knew of Texas prior to 1803.

Like the European immigrants, the United States saw Texas's farming potential, but like the British, it also viewed Texas as an important industrial investment. This is why the preferred viewpoint of Texas's size took on the proportions proffered by the OG of North America's mapmakers, the Scotsman John Arrowsmith. He drew the Republic's boundaries encompassing the lands between the Red River, Rio Grande, and extending into New Mexico, and denoted which areas were good, better, and best for settlement and development.

Maps are great snapshots of contemporary viewpoints that depict past, present, and potential futures, and this is definitely true for maps that depict the Republic of Texas. When examining them closely, a reader can really visualize how they informed the history of this U.S. state. Thank you, Barry Lawrence Ruderman, for sharing these maps with us!

The 1841 map of the Republic of Texas by John Arrowsmith depicted the past -- such as dragoon expeditions -- but also helped to form the future, with descriptions superimposed of the map for "excellent land," "rich land," "good land slightly wooded" and more. It also notes the Pawnee Village that George Catlin visited and may have still existed.

In contrast to John Arrowsmith's map of Texas from 1841, this 1841 map of the Republic of Texas and Adjacent Territories, published in London, depicts the Mexican view of Texas, with its border at the Nueces River. The mapmaker, Charles Cheffin, was known for making railway maps and this map definitely is industry-oriented -- after all, Britain was the main supplier and contractor for Mexican railroads. This map was included in the book, "Texas: the Rise, Progress and Prospects of the Republic of Texas" by William Kennedy (1841).

The Red River Valley in this 1841 map by Charles Cheffin (full one is the image above) details the native tribes who claimed the territories along the river.

Germans wanted to know where they could settle, not how they could develop the land. This 1841 emigration map for Germans, published in Augsburg and based on Anglo cartography, depicts roads and villages and colonies. This map was produced in a book in 1842 that influenced immigrants of the Adelsverein to Texas.

The German immigration map from 1841 was not meant to be speculative. Its purpose was to help immigrants understand the current conditions. In this close-up of the Red River Valley region, landmarks are depicted to help in immigrant's decision making: Coffee's Trading post in Fannin District; Pecan Point, the Trammel Trace at Jonesboro, and Clarksville in the Red River District. There's also Schenk's Ferry at Port Caddo near Shreveport.

A map of Texas in a French book called "Bird's Eye View of Texas from an Enlightened Frenchman," published in Paris in 1841, is even more detailed than its German counterpart (see above) and some of it speculative: for example, the "Chemin de Fer projete" that reaches to Cantonnement Towson suggests a potential railroad! The "Village Pawnees" (abandonee) was one of the villages that moved westward as more non-native people entered the area.

American culture is very number-driven, and this 1844 map of the Republic of Texas, compiled by William Emory using information from the Topographical Engineers office for Congress during the Texas annexation debates, doesn't disappoint in that department. The Red River Valley portion of the map includes census figures, the Chihuahua Trail, and many more settlements, including DeKalb and Boston in today's Bowie County (back then, this was the Red River District). The map historians from Barry Lawrence Ruderman explain this map as "e first scientific attempt by the United States to accurately define the then Republic of Texas."

A Mercator Projection World Map was illustrated for Queen Victoria in 1845, whose empire-building regime eyed Texas as a potential strategic place for industrialization and cash crops. This perspective is highly interesting, in that it provides a colonization viewpoint of Texas -- which in this viewpoint includes Santa Fe.

This French map, published in 1845, is an up-to-date snapshot of Mexico and Texas... but note how Texas does not look at all like the depiction offered by Arrowsmith in 1841 that was reproduced at the start of this map journey!