Texas Legation

A Texas Legation (a type of embassy) was maintained by the Republic of Texas in Washington, D.C., London, and Paris from 1836 through 1845.

In a bid to protect itself from almost certain invasion by forces from neighboring Mexico, the government of the republic sought to foster international ties. It did this by also opening the Texas Legations in London and Paris. Their opening is believed by some academics to be less an attempt by Texas to enter the international stage as an independent country and more a maneuver to prompt officials in the United States to worry that an independent Texas might allow British and French soldiers to mass on the southern border of the U.S.

When Texas sought to join the United States in 1845, the British Empire supported keeping it independent. The British even offered to guarantee Texas's borders with both the States and Mexico. Texas was a tactical ally of Britain acting as a counterweight to the United States. Nonetheless an independent Texas was probably inviable for financial reasons, and when the Republic became a state in 1845 the embassy was shut down.