On the south side of historic San Agustin Plaza, the historic heart of old Laredo, and right next door to the former Capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande, the 1919 Laredo High School has been renovated into the elegant La Posada Hotel. The hotel's main entrance is crowned by a row of flagpoles that fly the flags of the SEVEN (not six) countries that exercised sovereignty over this part of Texas.
The "extra" country is the very short- lived Republic of the Rio Grande, proclaimed in January of 1840 in the very humble adobe building 10 feet east of La Posada. The Republic of the Rio Grande claimedas its sovereign territory a large swath of the Republic of Texas and in Northern and Western Mexico. The Republic lasted for 10 months in 1840.
The area claimed by the Republic was mostly along the northern frontier of Mexican states, with a large swath of the Republic of Texas south of the Medina and Nueces Rivers to the Rio Grande (disputed territory that the Mexican War would be fought over in 1848) . The revolutionaries met at Laredo, on January 17, 1840, declared independence from Mexico and claimed for its territory the areas of Tamaulipas and Coahuila (in Mexico) to the south, then all lands north across the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo to the Nueces and Medina rivers (in the Republic of Texas), and extending west to encompass the Mexican states of Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, and New Mexico.
The rebellion which had flared in Laredo in January 1840 was put down in Mexico in November 1840, after the Battle of Camargo.
Those flags are, in rough chronological order:
The United States of America (1845-1861; 1865-present)
The Confederate States of America (1861-1865)
The Republic of the Rio Grande (17 Jan 1840-6 Nov 1840)
The Republic of Texas (1836-Jan 1840; Nov 1840-1845)
The Republic of Mexico (1821-1836)
The Bourbon Kings of France (1685-1690)
The Bourbon Kings of Spain (1519-1685; 1690-1821)
In my photo, the flag of the Republic of the Rio Grande is the third flag from the left, after the US and Republic of Texas flags, and before the Confederate States of America flag. It is made of three parts -- two horizontal bars, one white over one black, extending to the right from a vertical field of red with three gold stars arranged in a vertical line in the red field.
For more on the Republic of the Rio Grande see here: (
visit link)