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HistoryTexas boasts that "Six Flags" have flown over its soil: the Fleur-de-lis of France, the national flags of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America.[9] Native American tribes who once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, Wichita, Hueco and the Karankawa of Galveston. Currently, there are three federally recognized Native American tribes which reside in Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas.[10] On November 6, 1528, shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European in Texas.[11] Most of Texas was immediately claimed by Spain (mostly western Texas) as part of the Spanish dominions of New Spain.[12] However, France took advantage of Spain's failure to settle the land and in 1685 established Fort St. Louis near the present-day city of Victoria, Texas, and claimed most of Texas (mostly eastern Texas). The first Spanish colonization did not come until a few years after Fort St. Louis, as Spain was spurred by France to enforce its claims. The French claim was inherited by the United States as they bought the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Spanish claim was later inherited by Mexico during the Mexican Revolution of 1821, setting the stage for the Mexican-American War. The French settlement was massacred by Native Americans, and Spain only started sparse settlements, so most permanent settlements by Europeans did start until long after the first explorer arrived in 1521.In the 1800's, two main ethnic groups settled the land: Tejanos and United Stated citizens, mostly of Anglo descent. Smaller numbers of Europeans also came. Moses Austin bought 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land of his choice, and moved to San Antonio in August of 1821.[13] His son, Stephen F. Austin, joined him. In 1821, Texas became part of the newly independent Republic of Mexico and, in 1824, became the northern section of Coahuila y Tejas. On January 3, 1823, Stephen F. Austin began a colony of 300 American families known as the "Old Three Hundred" along the Brazos River, after Austin was authorized to do so by Governor Antonio María Martínez and then successive Mexican officials as Mexico went through tumultuous political regime changes. Austin soon organized even more groups of immigrants, with authorization from the Mexican government. Meanwhile, more Tejanos were also settling in Texas, and as Antonio Menchaca writes in "Memoirs" in 1907, many Tejanos were already desirous of joining the United States. Tejanos were mostly full-blooded Spanish immigrants, not partly or entirely of Native American heritage as most Mexicans south of the Rio Grande were.
Image:Wpdms republic of texas.png Republic of Texas. The present-day outlines of the U.S. states are superimposed on the boundaries of 1836–1845 On March 2, 1836, the Convention of 1836 signed a Declaration of Independence,[15] declaring Texas an independent nation.[16] On April 21, 1836, the Texans won their independence when they defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Santa Anna was captured and signed the Treaties of Velasco, which gave Texas firm boundaries; Mexico repudiated the treaties, considered Texas a breakaway province, and vowed to reconquer it. Later in 1836, the Texans adopted a constitution that formally legalized slavery in Texas. The Republic of Texas included the area of the present state of Texas, and additional unoccupied territory to the west and northwest.[14] Texans wanted annexation to the U.S. Texas was fast-growing but still poor, and had great difficulty maintaining self-defense. Events such as the Dawson Massacre and two recaptures of Béxar in Texas of 1842 helped add momentum to the desire for statehood. [17]. However, American politics intruded; strong Northern opposition to adding another slave state blocked annexation until the election of 1844 was won on a pro-annexation platform by James K. Polk. On December 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to the U.S. as a constituent state of the Union.[18] The Mexican–American War followed, with decisive American victories.[19] Soon after, Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands.[20] During the American Civil War, the state legislature authorized secession from the U.S. on February 1, 1861, and Texas was accepted as a state by the provisional government of the Confederate States of America on March 1, 1861.[21][3] Partly due to its distance from the front lines of the war, a major role for Texas was to supply hardy soldiers for Confederate forces (veterans of the Mexican–American War), especially in cavalry. Although Texan regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war, [22]
Texas descended into near-anarchy during the two months between the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the assumption of authority by Union General Gordon Granger, as Confederate forces demobilized or disbanded and government property passed into private hands through distribution or plunder.[24] Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation on June 19, 1865 in Galveston by General Gordon Granger; nearly 1-1/2 years after the original announcement of January 1, 1863.[25] On March 30, 1870, although Texas did not meet all the requirements, the United States Congress readmitted Texas into the Union.[26] The first major oil well in Texas was drilled at Spindletop, a little hill south of Beaumont, on the morning of January 10, 1901. Other oil fields were later discovered nearby in East Texas, in West Texas, and under the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting “Oil Boom” permanently transformed the economy of Texas.[27] Oil production eventually averaged three million barrels of oil per day at its peak in 1972.[28] The economy, which had experienced significant recovery since the Civil War, was dealt a double blow by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. From 1950 through the 1960s, Texas modernized and dramatically expanded its system of higher education. Under the leadership of Governor John B. Connally, the state produced a long-range plan for higher education, a more rational distribution of resources, and a central state apparatus designed to manage state institutions more efficiently. Because of these changes, Texas universities received federal funds for research and development during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.[29] GeographyThe geography of Texas spans a wide range of features and timelines. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. It is in the south-central part of the United States of America. It is considered to form part of the U.S. South and also part of the U.S. Southwest. The Rio Grande, Red River and Sabine River all provide natural state lines where Texas borders Oklahoma on the north, Louisiana and Arkansas on the east, and New Mexico and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south. By residents, the state is generally divided into North Texas, East Texas, Central Texas, South Texas, and West Texas, but according to the Texas Almanac, Texas has four major physical regions: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and The Basin and Range Province. This is the difference between human geography and physical geography. Some regions of Texas are associated with the South more than the Southwest (primarily East Texas, Central Texas, and North Texas), while other regions share more similarities with the Southwest than the South, (primarily far West Texas and South Texas). The upper Texas Panhandle and the South Plains part of West Texas don't easily fit either category. The former has much in common with the Midwestern United States, while the latter, originally settled primarily by anglo Southerners, yet with a notable hispanic population, is some blend of the South and Southwest. The size of Texas prohibits easy categorization of the entire state wholly in any recognized region of the United States; geographic, economic, and even cultural diversity between regions of the state preclude treating Texas as a region in its own right.
GeologyImage:LlanoEstacadoShadedRelief.jpg Shaded Relief Map of the Llano Estacado. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. It is mostly sedimentary rocks, with east Texas underlain by a Cretaceous and younger sequence of sediments, the trace of ancient shorelines east and south until the active continental margin of the Gulf of Mexico is met. This sequence is built atop the subsided crest of the Appalachian Mountains—Ouachita Mountains—Marathon Mountains zone of Pennsylvanian continental collision, which collapsed when rifting in Jurassic time opened the Gulf of Mexico. West from this orogenic crest, which is buried beneath the Dallas—Waco—Austin—San Antonio trend, the sediments are Permian and Triassic in age. Oil is found in the Cretaceous sediments in the east, the Permian sediments in the west, and along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas continental shelf. A few exposures of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the central and western parts of the state, and Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas, in the Big Bend area. A blanket of Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important aquifer. Texas has no active or dormant volcanoes and few earthquakes, being situated far from an active plate tectonic boundary. (The Big Bend area is the most seismically active; however, the area is sparsely populated and suffers minimal damages and injuries, and no known fatalities have been attributed to a Texas earthquake.) ClimateThe large size of the state of Texas and its location at the intersection of several climate zones gives the state highly variable weather. In general, though, there are three main climate zones: the humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa) of the eastern half of Texas, the temperate semi-arid (Koppen BSk) steppe climate of the northwestern part, including the Panhandle, and the subtropical steppe climate (nearly an arid desert climate, Koppen BSh) of the southern parts of West Texas, particularly around El Paso. The Panhandle of the state is cooler in the winter than North Texas or the Gulf Coast. Different regions of Texas experience vastly different precipitation patterns: El Paso averages as little as 7.8 inches (198 mm) of rain per year while the average annual precipitation is 59 inches (1,499 mm) in Orange, Texas.[30] Moderate snowfall often falls in the winter months in the north. Maximum temperatures in the summer months average from the 80s °F (26 °C) in the mountains of West Texas and on Galveston Island to around 100 °F (38 °C) in the Rio Grande Valley. Nighttime summer temperatures range from the upper 50s °F (12 °C) in the West Texas mountains[31] to 80 °F (27 °C) in Galveston.[32] Thunderstorms are more common in the eastern and northern part of the state, although they are far from rare elsewhere in the state. Tornadoes are common in Texas, with the state averaging around 139 a year, more than any other state.[33] Tornadoes are most frequent in the northern half of the state from April-July, although tornadoes can happen anywhere in the state, except perhaps for the Big Bend area.
Government and politics
GovernmentRepublican Rick Perry has served as Governor of Texas since December 2000, when George W. Bush vacated the office to assume the Presidency. Two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and John Cornyn (since 2002). Texas has 32 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives: 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats. The Texas Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second oldest state constitution still in effect. As with many state constitutions, it explicitly provides for the separation of powers and incorporates its bill of rights directly into the text of the constitution (as Article I). The bill of rights is considerably lengthier and more detailed than the federal Bill of Rights, and includes some provisions unique to Texas. The executive branch consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member Texas Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. Unlike many other states, all of these positions are elected by the populace, with the exception of the Secretary of State (who is appointed by the Governor). It is thus possible for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to be from different political parties. The Comptroller decides if expected state income is sufficient to cover the proposed state budget. There are also many state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Partly because of many elected officials, the Governor's powers are quite limited in comparison to other state Governors or the U.S. President. In popular lore and belief the Lieutenant Governor, who heads the Senate and appoints its committees, has more power than the Governor. The Governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature (this power is exclusive to the Governor and can be exercised as often as desired). The Governor also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections. In reality, the Speaker of the House is the most powerful member of the state government. The Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every other state except Nebraska, is bicameral. The House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Senate has 31. The speaker of the house, currently Tom Craddick (R-Midland) leads the House, and the Lieutenant Governor (currently Republican David Dewhurst) leads the state Senate. The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years. The Legislature cannot call itself into special session; only the Governor may call a special session, and may call as many sessions as often as desired. The judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States, with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions. Texas has two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except in the case of some municipal benches, partisan elections choose all of the judges at all levels of the judiciary; the Governor fills vacancies by appointment. LawThe justice system in Texas has a reputation for strict sentencing. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, of the 21 counties in the United States where more than a fifth of the residents are prison inmates, 10 are in Texas. As mentioned above, Texas has 254 counties which affects the significance of this statistic. Texas leads the nation in executions by far, with 381 executions from 1976 to 2006. The second-highest ranking state is Virginia, with 94. Only capital murder (which is murder with an aggravating circumstance such as killing a police officer or fireman, theft or sexual assault of the person murdered, murder of an elderly person or child, or murder in the commission of a felony)[5] is eligible for the death penalty. However, a bill making child rape a capital crime in some instances is currently under consideration.[6] Prior to 2005, the alternate sentence was life with the possibility of parole after 40 calendar years; a 2005 law change changed the alternate sentence to life without parole. A 2002 Houston Chronicle poll of Texans found that when asked "Do you support the death penalty?", 69.1 percent responded that they did, 21.9 percent did not support, and 9.1% were not sure or gave no answer. Well-known for their role in the history of Texas law enforcement, the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Highway Patrol continue today to provide special law enforcement services to the state. Texas Game Wardens, law enforcement officers working for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, are given the most authority with respect to the enforcement of law. Texas Game Wardens can go onto private property, without a warrant, in the normal discharge of their duties and have the latitude to inspect persons, vehicles, and property with little or no probable cause. There are less than 500 Texas Game Wardens commissioned in the entire state.
PoliticsTexas politics are dominated by fiscal and social conservatism. The political climate is currently dominated by the Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives, reversing the trend of the previous 130 years of Democratic Party rule. Every executive branch official elected statewide is Republican, as is every member of Texas's two courts of last resort; no Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994. The majority of the state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives is Republican, as are both U.S. Senators. Like the Southern states, Texas historically was a one-party state of the Democratic Party. The Democrats controlled a majority in the Texas House and in the state's Congressional delegation until the 2002 and Representative Ralph Hall's 2004 switch from the Democrats to the Republicans, respectively. There are thirty-two congressional districts in Texas, the second most after California. Texas's congressional districts were redrawn in 2003 by the Republican-dominated legislature. Districts are usually drawn after the national census every 10 years, but an impasse in the Texas Legislature resulted in the districts being drawn by the courts in 2001. The legislature, with controversial help from U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay, redrew the districts after the Republicans gained a larger share of the legislature. A court challenge to the legality of the non-Census-timed redistricting was upheld by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court; the United States Supreme Court remanded the map to a three-judge federal panel to redraw the 23rd District, which it ruled unconstitutionally diluted Hispanic voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The court otherwise upheld the rest of the districts on the map in question and noted that after a map meets all legal rules and laws, one drawn by the state's elected officials is preferred over one drawn by federal judges. The Democratic challengers of the map had pointed to an early 1990's map drawn by federal judges as one that should be kept in use. Administrative divisionsImage:Texas counties map.gif Map of Texas counties Texas has a total of 254 counties—the most of any state. Each county is run by a commissioners court consisting of four elected commissioners and a county judge elected from all the voters of the county. County government is similar to the "weak" mayor-council system; the county judge has no veto authority, but votes along with the other commissioners. All county elections are partisan. Unlike other states, Texas does not allow for consolidated city-county governments, nor does it have a form of metropolitan government. Cities and counties are permitted to enter "interlocal agreements" to share services. Further, counties are not granted "home rule" status; their powers are strictly defined by state law and the Texas Constitution. Texas does not have townships—areas within a county are either incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporated areas are part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services. Unincorporated areas are not part of a city; in these areas, the county has authority for law enforcement and road maintenance. Cities are classified as either "general law" or "home rule". A city may elect home rule status (draft an independent city charter) once it exceeds 5,000 population and the voters agree to home rule. Otherwise, it is classified as general law and has very limited powers. All municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan. Once a city elects home rule status, it keeps that status even if the population later falls below 5,000.
EconomyImage:Cotton harvest.jpg Cotton harvesting in Texas In 2005, Texas had a gross state product of $989 billion, the second highest in the U.S. after California, after recently surpassing New York state.[34] Gross state product per capita as of 2005 was $42,975. Texas leads the nation in number of beef, which usually exceed 16 million head. Cotton is the leading crop and the state's second-most-valuable farm product. Texas also leads in national production of grain sorghum, watermelons, cabbages, and spinach. Wheat, corn, and other grains are also important. Texas's growth is often attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing (housing values in the Dallas and Houston areas, while generally rising, have not risen at the astronomical rates of other cities such as San Francisco), the lack of a personal state income tax, low taxation and limited regulation of business, a geographic location in the center of the country, limited government (the Texas Legislature meets only once every two years), favorable climate in many areas of the state, and vast, plentiful supplies of oil and natural gas. The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels, which makes up approximately one-third of the known U. S. supply. Texas has 4.6 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves.[35] There are currently 33 billionaires residing in Texas today. Dallas has 11 billionaires, the most of any city in Texas. Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its main industries. Cattle ranching (though important) was never Texas's chief industry – before the oil boom back to the period of the first Anglo settlers, the chief industry was cotton farming (as in most of the South). In 1926, San Antonio had over 120,000 people, the largest population of any city in Texas. After World War II, Texas became increasingly industrialized. Its economy today relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, fuel processing, electric power, agriculture, and manufacturing. The major segment of the economy depends largely on the region involved – for example, the timber industry is a major portion of the East Texas economy but a non-factor elsewhere, while aerospace and defense manufacturing is primarily centered within the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The state has two major economic centers: Dallas and Houston. Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical, biomedical research trades, and aerospace (particularly NASA) while Dallas functions as the center of the defense manufacturing and information technology labor market in Texas. As of 2006, Texas, for the first time, has more Fortune 500 company headquarters (56) than any other state (California has 55; ironically, it was due to the move of Fluor Corp. from California to Texas). This has been attributed to both the growth in population in Texas and the rise of oil prices in 2005, which resulted in the growth in revenues of many Texas oil drilling and processing companies. In 2006, for the fifth year in a row, Texas was ranked as the number one state by export revenues. Texas exports for 2006 totaled $150.8 billion, which is $22.1 billion more than 2005 and represents a 17.2 percent increase. In 2002, the Port of Houston was 6th among the top sea ports in the world in terms of total cargo volume;[36] Air Cargo World rated Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as "the best air cargo airport in the world".[37] Texans pride themselves in a history of tradition, yet they seek new social and technological developments also. Round Rock (an Austin suburb) is the headquarters of Dell and the surrounding area is known as "Silicon Hills". Dallas is a famously cosmopolitan metropolis and the birthplace of the integrated circuit, and Houston is a global leader in the energy industry. The cultures of San Antonio and El Paso retain their Mexican heritage while Fort Worth maintains its western heritage. With a nod to its diversity and its past as a sovereign nation, the state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country." Texas is one of the top filmmaking states in the United States, just after California and New York. Austin, Texas is now one of the leading filmmaking locations in the country. In the past 10 years alone (1995-2004), more than $2.75 billion has been spent in Texas for film and television production. The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling.[38] Since 2003, Texas state officials have been committed to developing the economy of Texas with various initiatives such as the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which invest money into developing Texas business. DemographicsImage:Texas population map.png Texas Population Density Map The center of population of Texas is located in Bell County, in the town of Holland.[39] As of 2005, the state has an estimated population of 23,507,783, an increase of 579,275 (2.5%) from the prior year and an increase of 2,655,993 (12.7%) since the year 2000. In all three subcategories—natural (births less deaths), net immigration, and net migration—Texas has seen an increase in population. The natural increase since the last census was 1,389,275 people (2,351,909 births minus 962,634 deaths), immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 801,576 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 451,910 people. The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after California). As of 2004, the state has 3.5 million foreign-born residents (15.6% of the state population), of which an estimated 1.2 million are illegal immigrants (illegal immigrants account for more than one-third of the foreign-born population in Texas and 5.4 percent of the total state population). Race and ethnic originsAccording to the 2005 US census bureau, Texas's ethnic origins are as following: White American 71.9%, African American 11%, Other 11.6%, Asian American 3%, Mixed race 1.7%, Hispanic American's as of 2005 made up 35.5% of the state population
Much of east, central, and north Texas is inhabited by Texans of White Protestant heritage, primarily descended from ancestors from Great Britain and Ireland. Much of central and southeast-central Texas is inhabited by Texans of German descent. African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in those parts of East Texas where the cotton plantation culture was most prominent prior to the American Civil War, as well as in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas. Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. After the European revolutions of 1848, German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and French immigration grew, and continued until World War I. The influence of the diverse immigrants from Europe survives in the names of towns, styles of architecture, genres of music, and varieties of cuisine. Lavaca County is predominantly Czech. More than one-third of Texas residents are of Hispanic origin and may be of any racial group. Some are recent arrivals from Mexico, Central America, or South America, while others, known as Tejanos in English, have Spanish ancestors who have lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations. Tejanos are the largest ancestral group in southern Duval County. The Hispanic population in Texas is increasing as more illegal immigrants from certain Latin American countries—primarily from Mexico—look for work in Texas. The state has the second-largest Hispanic population in the United States, behind California. Numerically, Hispanics dominate south, south-central, and west Texas and are a significant part of the residents in the cities of Dallas and Houston. This influx of immigrants is partially responsible for Texas having a population younger than the union average. In recent years, the Asian American[40] population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. People with ancestry from India, Vietnam, Pakistan, China, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan make up the largest Asian American groups in Texas. CultureImage:Big Tex.JPG Big Tex has presided over every Texas State Fair since 1952 Due to immigration in the United States history, the culture of Texas has been a melting pot of different cultures around the world. Texas is a diverse and an international place to live, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong biomedical, energy, manufacturing and aerospace industries. There are many popular events held in Texas celebrating cultures of Texans. The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo that is held over 20 days from late February through early March. The event begins with trail rides that originate from several points throughout the state, all of which convene at Reliant Park for a barbecue cook-off. The rodeo includes typical rodeo events, as well as concert performances from major artists and carnival rides. The World’s first rodeo was held in Pecos, Texas on 4 July 1883. The Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo lasts three weeks in late January and early February. It has many traditional rodeos, but also a cowboy rodeo, and a Mexican rodeo in recent years that have a large fan base for each. The State Fair of Texas is held in Dallas each year at Fair Park. Texas has a vibrant live music scene in Austin boasting more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city, befitting the city's official slogan as The Live Music Capital of the World. Austin's music revolves around the many nightclubs on 6th Street and an annual film, music, and multimedia festival known as South by Southwest. The longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits, is videotaped on The University of Texas at Austin campus or Zilker Park. Austin City Limits and Waterloo Records run the Austin City Limits Music Festival, an annual music and art festival held at Zilker Park in Austin. Over the years, San Antonio evolved into the "Nashville" of Tejano music. The Tejano Music Awards have provided a forum to create greater awareness and appreciation for Tejano culture.
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