- For other uses, see Texas
(disambiguation).
State of Texas
|
|
| State nickname: Lone Star State |
 |
| Other U.S.
States |
| Capital |
Austin |
| Largest city |
Houston |
| Governor |
Rick Perry |
| Official languages |
None |
| Area |
696,241 km² (2nd) |
| - Land |
678,907 km² |
| - Water |
17,333 km² (2.5%) |
| Population (2000) |
| - Population |
20,851,820 (2nd) |
| - Density |
30.75 /km² (28th) |
| Admittance into Union |
| - Date |
December 29, 1845 |
| - Order |
28th |
| Time zone |
Central: UTC-6/-5
Mountain: UTC-7/-6 (part of west Texas) |
| Latitude |
25°50'N to 36°30'N |
| Longitude |
93°31'W to 106°38'W |
| Width |
1,065 km |
| Length |
1,270 km |
| Elevation |
|
| - Highest |
Guadalupe Peak, 2,667 m |
| - Mean |
520 m |
| - Lowest |
0 m |
| Abbreviations |
| - USPS |
TX |
| - ISO 3166-2 |
US-TX |
| Web site |
www.state.tx.us |
Texas joined the United States of America as its 28th member
state in 1845. It has the postal abbreviation TX.
The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of
the Hasinai, tejas, meaning friends or allies; Spanish explorers mistakenly applied the word to the people and their location.
Major state designations and symbols include:
Other state designations
The pledge to the Texas Flag is:
Honor the Texas Flag
I pledge allegiance to thee
Texas, one, and indivisible
With an area of 690,000 km2, Texas forms the second-largest US state in size after Alaska and the largest state in the contiguous 48 states. It has historically had a "larger than life" reputation,
especially in cowboy films.
Location
Texas has borders on the west with New Mexico, on the north with Oklahoma (across the Red River), and on the east with Louisiana (across the Sabine River) and with Arkansas. To the southwest, across the Rio
Grande, Texas borders the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. To the southeast of Texas
lies the Gulf of Mexico.
Texas lies in the south-central part of the United States of America. Depending on whom you talk to (and which part of Texas
they come from), Texas forms part of the US South or part
of the US Southwest. Texas shares some cultural
elements with both regions, with more similarities with the South, especially Arkansas and Louisiana, in East Texas, and more similarities with the Southwest, especially Mexico and New Mexico,
in West Texas and South
Texas.
History
Native American inhabitants of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Karankawa, Kiowa, Tonkawa, and Wichita.
On November 6, 1528 shipwrecked
Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de
Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas.
Texas can claim that 'Six Flags' have flown over its soil: the Fleur-de-lis of France, and the national flags of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of
America and the Confederate States of
America.
Texas formed part of the Spanish colony of New Spain; see Spanish Texas for details.
After Mexican independence in 1821 Texas
became a part of Mexico. See Mexican Texas.
Also see Texas Revolution.
Texas became the first, and to date, the only internationally recognized independent state directly admitted to the United States as a constituent
state of the union. (Vermont, which declared itself an independent republic in 1777, and
joined the union in 1791, had de facto autonomy but no international recognition.
The U.S. annexed both the self-proclaimed California Republic
and the internationally-recognized Republic (or Kingdom) of
Hawaii, but did not immediately admit them as states.)
The Republic of Texas included all the area now included in
the state of Texas, although its self-proclaimed western and northwestern borders extended as far west as Santa Fe and as far northwest as present-day Wyoming, respectively.
Important dates
- 1519: Alonso
Alvarez de Pineda, a Spanish explorer, became probably the first European to map the Texas coast.
- 1528–1534: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, another Spanish
explorer, spent six years visiting Texas for trade.
- 18 February 1685: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de
LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, thus
establishing a French claim to Texan territory.
- 1690: Alonso De León crosses the Rio
Grande to establish San Francisco de los Tejas Mission in East Texas, effectively blazing the Old San Antonio Road portion of the Camino Real - one of the oldest continuously-used roadways in the United States.
- 1700–1799: Spain established Catholic
missions in Texas throughout the 18th century.
- 3 January 1823: Stephen F.
Austin began a colony of 300 families in the Brazos River region. This
group became known as the "Old Three Hundred".
- 26 June 1832: The Battle of Velasco resulted in the first casualties of the developing
Texas Revolution.
- 1832–1833: The "Conventions" of 1832 and
1833 responded to rising unrest at the policies of the ruling Mexican government.
Policies that most irritated the Texians included the Mexican ban on slavery, the
forcible disarmament of Texian settlers, and the expulsion of illegal immigrants from the United States of America. The example of the Centralista forces' suppression of dissidents in Zacatecas also inspired fear of the Mexican government.
- 1835: The Texas
Revolution began. Early in 1835 Stephen F. Austin
announced that only war with Mexico could secure Texian freedom.
- 2 October 1835: Texians fought a
Mexican cavalry detachment at the town of Gonzales, which began
the actual revolution.
- 28 October 1835: At the "Battle of Concepcion", 90
Texians defeated 450 Mexicans.
- 2 March 1836: The "Convention of 1836"
signed the Texas "Declaration of Independence", making an attempt at a clear break from Mexican rule.
- 6 March 1836: A Mexican army (numbering
4,000 to 5,000) besieged approximately 190 Texians, led by William B.
Travis, at the Alamo in San Antonio. The thirteen-day siege resulted in the deaths of all of the defenders, including Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and
Travis.
- 27 March 1836: By the order of General
Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexicans
executed James Fannin and nearly 400 Texians in the Massacre at Goliad. The place-names Goliad, Alamo. San Jacinto, etc.
line the rim of Rotunda of the Capitol in Austin.
- 21 April 1836: General Santa Anna, having
defeated the Texas rebellion, while conducting mopping up operations advanced to San Jacinto in pursuit of the fleeing rebels. Led by Sam
Houston, the Texians won their independence in one of the most decisive battles in history when they defeated the Mexican
forces of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto.
Houston's army of 800 killed or captured the entire Mexican force of 1,600 men, themselves suffering only nine fatal casualties.
Santa Anna himself passed into
captivity.
- 14 May 1836: Republic of Texas officials and
General Santa Anna signed the treaty of Velasco.
- 1836: Five cities (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Galveston, Harrisburg, Velasco, and Columbia) each served as temporary capitals of Texas before Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837.
- 5 March 1842: A Mexican force of over 500
men, led by Rafael Vasquez, invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They soon headed back to the Rio Grande after
briefly occupying San Antonio.
- 11 September 1842: 1,400 Mexican
troops, led by Adrian Woll, captured San Antonio again. They retreated, as before, but with prisoners this time.
- 29 December 1845: President
James K. Polk of the United States of America followed through on a campaign platform promising to annex Texas, and signed
legislation making Texas the 28th state of the United States.
- 9 September 1850: The Compromise of 1850 stripped Texas of a third of its claimed territory
(now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) in return for the federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation
debt.
- 1 February 1861: The "Secession
Convention" met and voted 171 to 6 to submit an ordinance of secession to the people.
- 23 February 1861: In the statewide
election on the secession ordinance, Texans voted to secede from the Union by a vote of 46,129 to 14,697 (a 76% majority). The
Secession Convention immediately organized a new state government, replacing Sam
Houston when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy.
- 19 June 1865: Union troops landed in
Galveston, Texas with news of the Emancipation
Proclamation, two-and-a-half years after Lincoln signed it.
- 30 March 1870: The United States Congress
readmitted Texas into the Union.
Government and politics
Law and government
Austin is the capital of Texas. The state Capitol resembles the federal Capitol Building in Washington, DC, but is faced in pink granite and is topped by a statue of the "Goddess of Liberty" holding aloft a five-point Texas star. Like several other southern state capitols, it faces south instead of north. The capitol building is taller
than the U.S. national capitol, but less massive.
Republican Rick Perry has served as Governor of Texas since December 2000 when the office was vacated by President-elect George
W. Bush; two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and John Cornyn (since 2002)
The current Texas constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second longest in the nation. 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 Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State. Except
for the Secretary of States—who is appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate—each of these
officials is elected. There are also a large number of state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Partly because of the
large number of 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 State 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. He also appoints members of
various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections.
The Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every
other state except Nebraska, is bicameral (that is, has two chambers). 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 judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States—if not in the
world—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.
Texas has a total of 254 counties, each run by a county commissioners' court headed by a county judge (elected by the entire
county).
Politics
Main article: Politics of Texas
Texas politics are currently dominated by the Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of
Representatives. Every executive branch official elected statewide is Republican, as is every member of Texas' 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 other 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 2004 elections, respectively.
Geography
Texas has five major topographic regions:
- The Coastal Plain, from the Gulf of Mexico inland to about San Antonio and just southeast of Austin
- The Hill Country and Edwards Plateau, a hilly rocky area in
central Texas bordered on the east by the Balcones Fault zone and
Blackland Prairie.
- The Great Plains region extends into northern Texas, including the Llano Estacado and the Panhandle high plains
- The North Central Plains
- The Trans Pecos Desert.
Articles on Texas regions:
For the 254 counties of Texas, see: List of Texas counties
| North-south routes |
East-west routes |
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Economy
Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its
main industries. In 1926 San Antonio had the largest population of any city in Texas with over 120,000 people.
After World War II, Texas became increasingly industralized. Its economy
(circa 2000) relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas,
energy exploration and energy trading, agriculture, and manufacturing. Two major economic centers exist: the Houston Metropolitan Area, centered in Houston, and Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, centered on those two cities.
Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical and NASA/space trades while Dallas functions as the center of the agricultural and
information technology labor market in Texas. Other
major cities include San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville, Lubbock, Amarillo, McAllen, Tyler, Odessa and Midland. Other important cities
include El Paso, Eagle Pass, and Laredo; these have particular
significance due to their location on the border with Mexico, making them important trade points.
The state passed New York in the 1990s
to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after California). In
2001 Texas had a gross state product of $764 billion.
Texas's growth allegedly stems largely from the availability of jobs, the low cost of living, the generally high living-standard, the lack of a state income tax, low taxation of business, limited
government (the state legislature of Texas meets only once every two years) and favorable climate.
Demographics
The people of Texas, historically often known as Texians, are now generally referred to as Texans.
As of 2003, the state had a population of 22,118,509, nearly one-third of
them Latinos, some of whom have recently immigrated from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Others, known as Tejanos, have ancestors who have
lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations.
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, in styles of
architecture, in genres of music, in varieties of cuisine, and in many other ways.
In recent years the Asian population in Texas has grown, especially
in Houston and in Dallas. People from
mainland China, Vietnam, India, South
Korea, Japan, Taiwan,
Pakistan and other countries have settled in Texas.
The racial makeup of Texas today comprises:
The most prominent ancestry groups in Texas include Mexican (24.3%), African American (11.5%), German (9.9%), American (7.2%), and Irish (7.2%).
Census data reports 7.8% of Texas's population as under 5, 28.2% under 18, and 9.9% over 64 years. Females made up
approximately 50.4% of the population.
Religion
The religious affiliations of the citizens of Texas are:
- Protestant – 66%
- Roman Catholic – 23%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 6%
The three largest Protestant denominations in Texas are: Baptist (32% of the total
state population), Methodist (9%), Pentecostal (3%).
Important cities and towns
Main Article: List of cities in Texas
List of cities by population
(2000)
List of metropolitan areas by population (2000)
As of the 2000 Census Texas had 22 Metropolitan
Statistical Areas or MSAs and 2 Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas or CMSAs; for a total of 24 metropolitan areas.
Education
Colleges and universities
Professional sports teams
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