Republic of the Río Grande

The Republic of the Rio Grande is the name given by Anglo-American newspapers, and later by historians, to a federalist revolt in northeastern Mexico in 1838-1840. After the centralist Siete Leyes abolished the federal constitution in 1835, several northern towns withheld recognition from the government in Mexico City. On 23 January 1840 a junta at Casa Blanca, led by Antonio Canales Rosillo and Jesús de Cárdenas, set up a provisional government until a convention of all Mexican states could meet. Its supporters spoke of the frontera del norte and the villas del norte rather than of secession, and the leaders' own papers avoided the word republic. The movement drew on the same regional grievances that had produced earlier federalist risings, including resentment of central taxes and inadequate defence against Comanche and Lipan raids. It ended with the Convention of Camargo on 6 November 1840, which Canales ratified and General Mariano Arista approved. Although later accounts treated it as a Texan-style secession, the episode is better understood as part of Mexico's long struggle between federalists and centralists.