Texas Facts
Texas Geography/Terrain/Climate
Texas comprises 7.4 percent of our nation's geographical area or 267,339 square miles. To the chagrin of most of us, we are now the 2nd largest state. However, Brewster County, our southernmost and largest (6,208 square miles) could easily house Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. Ask yourself this: Does anything really happen in those states? Has anyone in Japan or Botswana ever heard of them?Texas has forests, about 10 percent covered, grasslands, desert, and mountains. There are 80 peaks in Texas over a mile high. We also have a coastline, most of which is relatively unspoiled. Our climate is reasonably mild in the winter although it can snow quite a bit and freeze bitterly in the panhandle and northern parts of the state. The Rio Grand Valley is semitropical and citrus fruit is grown there in abundance. It is not uncommon to have a blizzard in and around Amarillo and temperatures near 100 in Brownsville.
Texas Population/Cities
Our 2004 population was 22,490,022 and fortunately for those of us who prefer west and south Texas, most of these live in cities. About 70% of Texans live within 200 miles of Austin. That includes Houston, San Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. DFW alone has a population of 5,221,801 individuals. DFW has more people than 31 states. Texas has three of the country's most populous cities: Houston (2,009,690), San Antonio (1,214,725), and Dallas (1,208,318). Although the population density per square mile is 79.6 you don't really feel that unless you live in one of the cities. By the way, on a good day, it take me about an hour to drive east to west through Houston on 1-10. We have 41 cities with 50,000 or more people.Texas History to San Jacinto
Texas is a blend of cultures: Hispanic, American Indian groups, African
American, Anglo-Irish, German, and other European Americans. From
prehistorical times numerous and diverse groups of Native Americans
inhabited
the regions between the Red River in the north and the Rio Grande in
the south. They were first encountered by Spanish and French
explorers early in the 16th century. After the arrival of the
Europeans, the Indian populations were decimated by disease and the
remaining populations were changed forever by the introduction of the
horse and the firearm. What follows is only a brief description of the
major Indian groups by regions. For an excellent and detailed
description of Indians in Texas and their interactions with European
explorers and settlers see the twenty-one page treatment at The
Texas Handbook Online.Texas Indians
The Caddo Indians lived in fertile river valleys of east Texas and
parts of Arkansas and
Louisiana. They were agriculturalists living relatively settled lives
in villages. Among
them was a group called the Tejas by the Spanish. Tejas became the name
for the early Spanish province, the Republic, and the State of Texas.
Tejas is said to mean friend. The Karankawas lived along the Texas
coast and subsisted by fishing and are said to have been a more
primitive culture. The Karankawas were despised by other Indian groups
for ritual cannibalism. The Coahuiltecans lived in south Texas along
the
lower Rio Grande Valley. The Lipan-Apache lived in the Hill Country of
central Texas and often fought the early Anglo and Hispanic Texans but
later became allies of the Texicans against the Comanche and other
Apache tribes. Other Apache tribes, in particular the Mescalero Apache
lived mainly in west Texas and parts of New Mexico and Arizona. The
Comanche tribes arrived relatively late from the north and were most
troublesome to the early
Texans and the Mexicans. Comanches were skill horsemen and hunters and
fierce enemies.
For many years they raided annually deep into Mexico to win horses and
other items of value. The Comanche culture, like that of all Plains
Indians depended on hunting the multitude of bison that roamed the
staked
plains and panhandle. The descendants of these tribes are Texans today.Texas Spanish & French Explorers
In 1519 Alonso Alvarez de Pineda sailing from the Spanish Indies was
the first known European to explore and map the Texas coast. In 1528
Cabeza de Vaca was shipwrecked on the Texas coast. It took him several
years of travel and trade with the Indians along the coast before he
managed to return south to Spanish civilization in Mexico. De
Vaca returned with talk of great wealth to the north. Francisco Vasquez
de Coronado led an expedition (1540-1542) in search of the fabled Seven
Cities of Cibola across the American Southwest including parts of
Texas. In 1685 Robert Cavelier, Sier de LaSalle established a fort on
Matagorda Bay called Fort St. Louis and established a competing French
claim to Texas. However, four years later in 1689 the Spaniard Alonso
de Leon found St. Louis abandoned by the French. For the next hundred
years or so, the Spanish and French competed for rule over the Texas
area. The Spanish established missions and settlements from the south
at Goliad, San Antonio, and El Paso. They had earlier met with varying
degrees of success in attempted to Christianize the pueblo Indians from
El Paso north to Santa Fe. They attempted to influence the Indians in
Texas against the French. At the same time, coming from the North and
from Louisiana, the French attempted to influence these same groups of
Indians against the Spanish. For awhile (1817-1820) the pirate Jean
Lafitte occupied Galveston Island.Texas post Louisiana Purchase
Following the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase the citizens of the
United States began to take a greater interest in all things west. In
1812 the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition was launched across the Sabine from
Louisiana as a rebel movement against Spanish rule in Texas. During the
early 1800s when many Indian tribes in Mississippi, Alabama, and the
Carolinas were disenfranchised, groups of Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee
began to move into Texas. In 1823 Stephen F. Austin received a land
grant from the now independent Mexico to settle European Americans
along the Brazos River. Other Americans came over illegally and began
to stake and claim land from Mexico either legally or by right of
possession and the gun. In 1830 relations between the Texicans and the Mexican government worsened when further emigration from the US was forbidden. In 1832 fighting broke out near Valasco when the Mexican commander attempted to block the movement of a cannon to Anahuac. There were losses and wounded on each side and the Mexican government replaced the commander at Anahuac. In October of that year a convention was held at San Felipe to request government reforms. Among the reforms called for was the formation of a separate state of Texas within Mexico and a lifting of restrictions on immigration from the United States. The Mexican government held that the gathering was illegal but a second convention was scheduled for 1833. Stephen F. Austin carried the resolutions of that convention to Mexico City where he met with some initial success. But as the political climate in Mexico changed authorities were less inclined to deal with the troublesome Texas. Austin was imprisoned and did not return to Texas until 1835 by which time the revolution had begun.
In October of 1835 a force of 100 Mexicans were sent to Gonzales to repossess a cannon previously used as a defense against Indians. The Texan defenders instead loaded and fired the cannon in the direction of the Mexican force who retreated with only one causality. This was the shot that started the revolution and from hence came the expression dear to many in Texas, "come and take it". Several other skirmishes happened in the remainder of 1835 including the seizure of Goliad by Texican forces and ending in the siege of Bexar (San Antonio). Following a two day skirmish through the streets of San Antonio, Mexican forces obtained a truce for parole. They ceded control of San Antonio and all arms and public property and withdrew south.
Things looked pretty good for the Texas revolutionaries until news arrived that Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was headed north with five thousand troops. Santa Anna marched overland through the Mexican winter and General Urrea followed the coast toward Refugio. On March 2nd, 1836 Texas declared independence from Mexico. Four days later on March 6, following siege, Santa Anna's troops overran the Alamo killing all defenders. Sam Houston abandoned Gonzales and headed east to gather strength and to plan the destruction of the Mexican army. Houston ordered James Fannin and the Texans holding Goliad to follow him. Fannin waited too long to fall back to Victoria and was trapped and defeated in battle. On March 27 Fannin and his remaining Texans were executed as pirates at Goliad by order of Santa Anna.
Throughout the remainder of March and April Houston retreated east toward the Louisiana border. Santa Anna split his forces into three parties. On April 21, 1836 the Texican army soundly defeated Santa Anna's forces at San Jacinto in a battle lasting less than twenty-minutes. In exchange for his freedom, Santa Anna gave up Texas forever.