TEXAS

TEXAS. The varied geography of Texas has helped to shape its history. The eastern third of the state's 266,807 square miles is mostly humid woodlands, much like Louisiana and Arkansas. A broad coastal plain borders the Gulf of Mexico. Much of southwest and far-west Texas is semiarid or arid desert, and west-central Texas northward through the Panhandle marks the southernmost part of the Great Plains. The central and north-central regions of the state are mostly gently rolling prairies with moderate rainfall. Moving from northeast to southwest, the major rivers are the Red, Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, Nueces, and Rio Grande; none has ever proven very suitable for navigation. The state is generally flat, with the exception of the Hill Country region west of the Austin–San Antonio area and the Davis Mountains of far west Texas.

The First Texans

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Texas was home to a diverse collection of native peoples. Most numerous of these were the Hasinai branch of the Caddo Indians in east Texas, an agricultural society related to the mound-building cultures of the Mississippi Valley. Along the upper and central Gulf Coast ranged the nomadic Karankawas, and south Texas was home to various hunter-gatherers collectively known as Coahuiltecans. The Apaches were the dominant Plains nation, following the great herds of bison. Numerous small groups, including the Jumanos of southwest Texas and the Tonkawas of central Texas, lived in various parts of the state.

Spanish Texas

Europeans first viewed Texas in 1519, when an expedition led by the Spaniard Alonso Álvarez de Pineda mapped the Gulf Coast from Florida to Mexico. In 1528 survivors of the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition, which had previously explored parts of Florida, washed ashore in the vicinity of Galveston Island during a storm. Only four men survived the first few months, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, whose memoir became the first published account of Texas. After more than seven years of harrowing adventure, the castaways finally made their way back to Mexico in 1536.

The tales of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions inspired the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, who entered the Texas Panhandle from New Mexico in 1541. Although he failed in his search for gold, Coronado was the first European to see Palo Duro Canyon and to encounter the Apache Indians. In 1542, while Coronado was crossing the Panhandle, an expedition led by Luis de Moscoso Alvarado was entering east Texas from Louisiana. Moscoso perhaps reached as far as the Brazos River before returning to the Mississippi. When Coronado and Moscoso failed to find riches in Texas, Spain abandoned its efforts to explore or exploit Texas. For the next 140 years, Spain would claim the vast region, but only when the French suddenly appeared on the scene did Texas again become a priority.

In 1684 René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, sailed from France with the intention of establishing a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Overshooting his target by 400 miles, he landed instead at Matagorda Bay. At a well-concealed point at the head of the bay, he built a crude camp commonly known as Fort Saint Louis. Beset by disease, disunity, and hostile Indians, the settlement lasted only four years, with La Salle being killed by his own men in 1687. But the ill-fated French venture alerted the Spanish to the dangers of losing Texas, and La Salle unintentionally became the impetus for the creation of a permanent Spanish presence in Texas.

Between 1684 and 1689 Spain dispatched five sea and six land expeditions to locate and expel La Salle. Finally, in 1689 a party led by Alonso de León found the ruins of La Salle's settlement. The French were gone, but Spain was now determined to establish a presence in east Texas among the Hasinai. The following year the Spanish established Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in present-day Houston County. However, floods, disease, and poor relations with the Indians caused the Franciscan missionaries to abandon the effort in 1693.

Spain tried to move back into east Texas beginning in 1716, eventually founding six missions and a presidio there. In 1718 Martín de Alarcón, the governor of Coahuila and Texas, founded a mission and presidio on the San Antonio River in south central Texas to serve as a halfway station between the east Texas missions and the Rio Grande. In time, the San Antonio complex would become the capital and principal settlement of Spanish Texas.

Spain's second effort in east Texas proved little more successful than the first, and by 1731 most of the missions in the east had been abandoned, leaving Spain with only a token presence in the area. Missions and presidios founded in other parts of Texas in the mid-1700s, such as the Mission San Sabá near present-day Menard, met with disease, Indian attack, or other problems and were all short-lived. In 1773, following an inspection tour by the Marqués de Rubí, the crown ordered the abandonment of the remaining east Texas settlements. Spain had acquired Louisiana from France in 1763 and no longer needed Texas as a buffer to French expansion. Some of the east Texas settlers resisted being resettled in San Antonio and eventually returned to east Texas, founding the town of Nacogdoches. By the late eighteenth century, then, Spanish Texas essentially consisted of San Antonio, Nacogdoches, and La Bahía (later renamed Goliad), which had been founded on the lower Texas coast in 1722. At its height around 1800, the non-Indian population of Spanish Texas numbered perhaps 4,000.

When the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory in 1803, Spain found itself with an aggressive new neighbor on its northern frontier. Over the next two decades Anglo-American adventurers known as "filibusters" launched repeated expeditions into Texas, with the intention of detaching it from New Spain. Two filibusters, Augustus Magee (1813) and James Long (1819, 1821), joined with Mexican revolutionary José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara to invade Texas from the United States. A Spanish royalist army crushed the rebels near San Antonio at the battle of Medina River and unleashed a reign of terror across Texas. By the time Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, the non-Indian population of Texas stood at no more than 3,000.

Mexican Texas

Hispanic Texans, or Tejanos, had supported the movement for Mexican independence, and they likewise endorsed the creation of a federal republic in the 1820s. Long neglected by Mexico City, many of these hardy settlers realized that trade with the United States held the best promise for prosperity. Therefore, when a bankrupt American businessman named Moses Austin proposed establishing a colony of 300 American families in 1821, his plan met with widespread support and gained the approval of Spanish authorities. Austin died before launching his colony, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, inherited the project and became Texas's first empresario (colonization agent). Austin's colony encompassed parts of nearly forty present-day Texas counties along the lower watersheds of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers. By 1834 some 15,000 Anglos lived in Texas, along with 4,000 Tejanos and 2,000 African American slaves.

The Texas Revolution

Relations between the Texan settlers and the Mexican government began to sour in 1830, when the Mexican congress passed a law intended to weaken Anglo influence in the state. Among other provisions, the Law of 6 April, 1830 placed Mexican troops in East Texas and canceled all empresario contracts, although Austin and one other empresario were later exempted from the ban. Over the next five years, clashes between settlers and Mexican soldiers occurred repeatedly, often over customs regulations. Anglos demanded free trade, repeal of the 1830 law, and separate statehood for Texas apart from Coahuila, to which it had been joined for administrative purposes since 1824. Matters came to a head in 1835, when President Antonio López de Santa Anna abandoned federalism altogether, abolished the 1824 constitution, and centralized power in his own hands. Anglo Texans, joined by some Tejanos, resisted Santa Anna; hostilities commenced at Gonzales on 2 October 1835. One month later, the Texans declared a provisional state government loyal to the 1824 constitution.

In February 1836 a Mexican army of several thousand commanded by Santa Anna arrived in San Antonio, where they found the old Alamo mission held by approximately 200 defenders. After a thirteen-day siege, Santa Anna's soldiers stormed the mission on March 6, killing all the defenders, including James Bowie, William Barret Travis, and David Crockett. Shortly thereafter, James Fannin surrendered a force of about 400 volunteers at Goliad, who were subsequently executed at Santa Anna's order. On March 2 a convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos declared independence and authorized Sam Houston to take command of all remaining troops in Texas. On 21 April 1836, following a six-week retreat across Texas, Houston's army attacked one division of the Mexican army at San Jacinto and won a stunning victory. Some 800 Mexican troops were killed or wounded and that many more captured, while Texan deaths numbered fewer than ten. Santa Anna was captured the next day and ordered his remaining troops from Texas. Independence was won.

The Republic of Texas

In September 1836 Sam Houston was elected president of the Republic of Texas. He faced a daunting task in rebuilding the war-torn country, securing it against re-invasion from Mexico and hostile Indians, achieving diplomatic recognition from the world community, and developing the economy. Over the next decade the record on all of these matters was mixed at best. Twice in 1842 Mexican armies invaded and briefly occupied San Antonio. On the western frontier the Comanche Indians (immigrants to Texas in the mid-1700s) terrorized settlers with their brilliant horsemanship and fierce warrior code. In east Texas the Republic waged a brutal war of extermination against the Cherokees (also recent immigrants), driving the survivors into what is now Oklahoma. The Republic also undertook imprudent ventures such as the 1841 Santa Fe Expedition, intended to open a trade route between Texas and New Mexico, which resulted instead in the capture and imprisonment of nearly 300 Texans by Mexico. The wars against the Indians and the Santa Fe Expedition can largely be laid at the doorstep of Mirabeau B. Lamar, who replaced Houston as president in 1838 and

believed in a sort of Texan version of Manifest Destiny. Under Lamar, the national debt rose from $1 million to $7 million and the currency depreciated drastically. Typical of Lamar's grandiose thinking was his action in moving the capital to Austin, a new village on the far western frontier. Exposed to Indian and Mexican attacks and difficult to reach, the new capital was a luxury that the republic could scarcely afford, but Lamar envisioned its future as the centrally located seat of a vast Texan empire.

By the time Houston returned to office in 1841, the financial condition of the republic made annexation by the United States critically important. Texans almost unanimously desired annexation, but concerns about slavery effectively prevented American action. In 1844, though, pro-annexation candidate James K. Polk captured the Democratic presidential nomination. When Polk won the election, the outgoing president, John Tyler, viewed it as a mandate for annexation. Having previously failed to gain Senate approval for a treaty of annexation, Tyler resorted to the tactic of annexing Texas by means of a congressional joint resolution requiring only simple majorities in both houses of Congress. It succeeded, and Texas officially entered the Union on 29 December 1845. The new state retained ownership of its vast public domain; it also retained its massive public debt. The new constitution reflected the strong Jacksonian political leanings of most Texans, creating a government with limited powers.

The Republic had enjoyed considerable success on one front: In a decade the population had grown from about 40,000 to nearly 140,000. The Republic had made land available practically free to immigrants from the United States, and it also resurrected the empresario system to attract immigrants from the United States and Europe. In the last years of the Republic, some 10,000 colonists from Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio settled in the E. S. Peters colony in northeast Texas; about 7,000 Germans came to a grant in the Hill Country; and approximately 2,000 French Alsatians settled in Henri Castro's colony southwest of San Antonio. These immigrants gave Texas a more ethnically diverse population than most other southern states.

Statehood, Disunion, and Reconstruction

Immigration notwithstanding, after annexation Texas drew closer to the states of the Deep South, primarily due to the growth of slavery and the cotton economy. The enslaved population grew from 38,753 in 1847 to 182,566 in 1860. Cotton production increased from 58,000 bales in 1849 to 431,000 bales in 1859. As part of the Compromise of 1850, Texas surrendered its claims to parts of what are now New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming (thus assuming its modern boundaries) in return for federal assumption of its public debt. Texas thus enjoyed its most prosperous decade of the nineteenth century.

By 1860 Texas mirrored its fellow southern states economically and politically. Following Lincoln's election and the secession of the Deep South states, the state legislature called a secession convention and, over the strong opposition of Governor Sam Houston, voted to secede from the Union. Texas voters ratified the convention's decision by a three-to-one margin. About 60,000 Texans served the Confederacy, many of them in the eastern theatre of the war. Hood's Brigade and Terry's Rangers were among the better-known Texas units. On 19 June 1865, a date celebrated by black Texans as "Juneteenth," Union occupation troops under Gen. Gordon Granger landed at Galveston and declared the state's slaves free.

Texas' experiences in Reconstruction were typically southern. The state underwent Presidential Reconstruction in 1865 through 1866, resulting in the election of state and local governments dominated by former rebels, including Governor James Throckmorton, a former Confederate general. Black Codes returned African Americans to a condition of quasi-servitude.

When Congress took over the Reconstruction process in 1867, black males were enfranchised, many former Confederate office holders were removed (including Governor Throckmorton), and the Reconstruction process began anew. With African Americans voting, the Republican Party rose to power. The Republican Constitution of 1869 gave the new governor, Edmund J. Davis, and the legislature sweeping new authority. Davis, a former judge who had lived in Texas since the 1840s, had served in the Union Army and championed the rights of blacks. His administration created a system of public education for children of both races; established a state police force to help protect the lives and property of all citizens; and worked to attract railroads to Texas using government subsidies. The measures galvanized the Democratic opposition, and in 1872 the Democrats recaptured the state legislature. In December 1873 the Democrat Richard Coke, a former Confederate officer, defeated Davis and "redeemed" Texas from Republican rule. The triumphant Democrats undid virtually all of the Republican programs, and in 1876 they ratified a new state constitution that returned the state to its Jacksonian, limited-government, white-supremacist roots.

Texas in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era

The 1870s marked the beginning of the longest agricultural depression in the state's history. Cotton prices declined steadily through the 1880s and 1890s; land prices and interest rates rose. By century's end a majority of white farmers had joined African Americans in the ranks of tenants and sharecroppers, trapped in a vicious spiral of debt and dependence. In 1900 half of Texas farmers worked on rented farms.

Railroads finally came to Texas. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad connected Texas to northern markets in 1872; by 1882 the Texas and Pacific and the Southern Pacific gave Texas east-west transcontinental connections. But the transportation revolution had come at a heavy price: The legislature had lured rail companies to Texas by granting them 32 million acres of the public domain.

One bright spot in the mostly bleak economic picture of the late nineteenth century was the growth of the cattle industry. The Spanish had first brought hardy longhorns to Texas in the 1700s. By the end of the Civil War millions of the animals roamed wild across the open grasslands south of San Antonio. Between 1866 and 1885, five million of these cattle were driven northward, first to Sedalia, Missouri, and later to a succession of railheads in Kansas. Thereafter the cattle industry declined precipitously. The arrival of railroads and the advance of the farming frontier ended the great overland cattle drives, confining cattle raising to ranches large and small. By this time, years of overgrazing had damaged the range and weakened herds. Then, in 1885 through 1886, two years of severe drought and an unprecedented blizzard killed thousands of cattle and drove many small operators out of business. Only the largest and most efficient ranches, such as the million-acre King Ranch in South Texas, survived.

As the farmers' depression deepened, complaints mounted against the established political parties, the rail-roads, and foreign capitalists. Many ordinary farmers

sought relief from self-help organizations such as the Patrons of Husbandry (popularly called the Grange) and the Farmers' Alliance. In 1891 Alliancemen founded the People's, or Populist, party. Between 1892 and 1896 the Populists competed vigorously with the Democrats, promising to rein in the monopolistic practices of railroads and large corporations, reform the nation's monetary system, and provide affordable credit for struggling farmers. The rise of Populism spurred the state Democrats to embrace limited reforms such as a railroad commission, which became a reality under Governor James S. Hogg (1891–1895). But Populism required far more government action than most Texans could stomach, and the party's willingness to appeal for African American votes further tainted it in the eyes of many whites. After 1896 Populism faded, but many of its ideas would resurface in progressivism and the New Deal.

In the aftermath of Populism, the Democratic Party sponsored electoral "reforms" that largely disfranchised blacks. Foremost among these, the 1902 poll tax also effectively eliminated large numbers of poor whites from politics. Middle-class white Texans embraced certain progressive reforms, such as woman's suffrage, prohibition, prison reform, and the commission plan of city government, but many elements of Texas progressivism were aimed at limiting the influence of northern and foreign capital in the state's economy. Changes in banking and insurance laws, designed to give Texas-owned companies competitive advantages, constituted much of what passed for progressivism in the state.

The Emergence of Modern Texas

The twentieth century began with two history-altering events. The first, a massive hurricane, devastated Galveston in September 1900, costing 6,000 lives in one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. But the other event ultimately overshadowed even that tragedy. On 10 January 1901 the greatest oil gusher in history blew in at Spindletop, near Beaumont. Texas immediately became the center of the world's petroleum industry. Hundreds of new oil firms came into existence; some, like Texaco, became huge. Perhaps more important than the oil itself was the subsequent growth of the refining, pipeline, oiltool, and petrochemical industries, which transformed the Gulf Coast into a manufacturing center, creating jobs and capital for investment. Growth of these industries, along with the discovery of massive new oil fields in east and west Texas, caused the Texas economy to modernize and begin diverging from the southern pattern of poverty and rurality.

As the economy modernized, however, Texas politics lagged behind. Governor James Ferguson, elected in 1914, three years later faced charges of corruption and suffered impeachment and a ban from future office holding. Undeterred, Ferguson ran his wife, Miriam, successfully twice, in 1924 and 1932, promising "two governors for the price of one." Most historians consider the Fergusons demagogues and an embarrassment to the state, characterizations that likewise applied to Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, a Fort Worth flour merchant who was elected governor in 1938 on a platform based on "the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule." Progressive Democrats, such as the New Dealer James V. Allred (governor from 1935 to 1939), were rare in Texas.

World War II transformed Texas. In 1940 a majority of Texans still lived in rural areas, and sharecroppers plowing cotton fields behind mules were still everyday sights. But the war drew hundreds of thousands of rural Texans into the military or into good-paying manufacturing jobs. By 1950 a majority of Texans lived in urban areas. Farms had mechanized and modernized. Much of this prosperity was due to federal spending, and for the first time the U.S. government was spending more in Texas than the state's citizens paid in federal taxes. Texas cities, which had always been relatively small, began to grow rapidly. By 1960 Houston boasted a population of 938,219, followed by Dallas's 679,684 and San Antonio's 587,718.

The Texas economy boomed in the 1970s, when world oil prices skyrocketed. The boom ended in 1983 and bottomed out in 1986. The oil "bust" plunged the state into a near-depression, as thousands of oil companies and financial institutions failed. Unemployment soared, and state tax revenues declined by 16 percent. But in the long run the crisis may have benefited the state, for it forced the economy to diversify and become less oil-dependent. In the 1990s Texas became a center of the "high-tech" revolution, with dramatic growth in electronics, communications, and health care–related industries. Population growth resumed. The 2000 census revealed that Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio had grown respectively to about 2 million, 1.2 million, and 1.1 million people. Even more dramatic was suburban growth; the greater Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area grew faster than any other large metropolitan area in the nation in the 1990s, with 5.2 million people by 2000, larger than 31 states. Overall, Texas passed New York to become the country's second-largest state, with a population of nearly 21 million. Much of this growth was fueled by Hispanic immigrants, who made up 32 percent of the Texas population in 2000.

As the economy modernized, so did Texas politics. The Civil Rights Movement enfranchised African Americans and Hispanics, who heavily favored liberal Democrats, including Texan Lyndon B. Johnson. This drove many conservative white voters into the Republican Party. In 1978, William P. Clements, Jr., became the first Republican elected to the governorship since Reconstruction. Two other Texas Republicans, George H. W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, claimed the nation's highest office in 1988 and 2000, respectively. Democrats continued to dominate politics in the large cities, but at the state level the Republican revolution was completed in 1998, when Republicans held every statewide elective office.

Texas, then, entered the twenty-first century very much in the mainstream of American life and culture. Texans continued to take pride in their state's colorful history, and many non-Texans persisted in thinking of Texas as the land of cowboys and oil tycoons. But as a modern, diverse, urban, industrial state, Texas had become more like the rest of the nation and less like the rough-and-tumble frontier of its legendary past.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barr, Alwyn. Reconstruction to Reform: Texas Politics, 1876–1906. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.

Buenger, Walter L. Secession and the Union in Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1984.

Calvert, Robert A., Arnoldo De León, and Gregg Cantrell. The History of Texas. 3rd ed. Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 2002.

Campbell, Randolph B. An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821–1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Cantrell, Gregg. Stephen F. Austin, Empresario of Texas. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999.

Chipman, Donald E. Spanish Texas, 1519–1821. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992.

Hogan, William R. The Texas Republic: A Social and Economic History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946.

Lack, Paul D. The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Social and Political History, 1835–1836. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1992.

Moneyhon, Carl H. Republicanism in Reconstruction Texas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980.

Montejano, David. Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.

Smith, F. Todd. The Caddo Indians: Tribes at the Convergence of Empires, 1542–1854. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.

Spratt, John S. The Road to Spindletop: Economic Change in Texas, 1875–1901. Dallas, Tex.: Southern Methodist University Press, 1955.

GreggCantrell

See alsoAlamo, Siege of the ; Dallas ; El Paso ; Explorations and Expeditions, Spanish ; Fort Worth ; Galveston ; Houston ; Mexican-American War ; "Remember the Alamo" andvol. 9:Memories of the North American Invasion ; Mexican Minister of War's Reply to Manuel de la Peña y Peña ; Message on the War with Mexico ; The Story of Enrique Esparza .

Texas , largest state in the coterminous United States. It is located in the S Central part of the country and is bounded by Oklahoma, across the Red R. except in the Texas panhandle (N); Arkansas (NE); Louisiana, across the Sabine R. (E); the Gulf of Mexico (SE); Mexico, across the Rio Grande R. (SW); and New Mexico (W).

Facts and Figures

Area, 267,338 sq mi (692,405 sq km). Pop. (2000) 20,851,820, a 22.8% increase since the 1990 census. Capital, Austin. Largest city, Houston. Statehood, Dec. 29, 1845 (28th state). Highest pt., Guadalupe Peak, 8,751 ft (2,667 m); lowest pt., sea level. Nickname, Lone Star State. Motto, Friendship. State bird, mockingbird. State flower, bluebonnet. State tree, pecan. Abbr., Tex., TX

Geography

Texas is roughly spade shaped. The vast expanse of the state contains great regional differences (the distance from Beaumont to El Paso is greater than that from New York to Chicago).

East Texas

East Texas—the land between the Sabine and Trinity rivers—is Southern in character, with pine-covered hills, cypress swamps, and remnants of the great cotton plantations founded before the Civil War. Cotton farming has been supplemented by diversified agriculture, including rice cultivation; almost all of the state's huge rice crop comes from East Texas, and even the industrial cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur are surrounded by rice fields. The inland pines still supply a lumbering industry; Huntsville , Lufkin , and Nacogdoches are important lumber towns. The real wealth of East Texas, however, comes from its immense, rich oil fields. Longview is an oil center, and Tyler is the headquarters of the East Texas Oil Field. Oil is also the economic linchpin of Beaumont and Port Arthur and the basis for much of the heavy industry that crowds the Gulf Coast.

Gulf Coast

The industrial heart of the coastal area is Houston , the fourth largest city in the nation. Houston's development was spearheaded by the digging (1912-14) of a ship canal to the Gulf of Mexico, and the city today is the nation's second largest port in tonnage handled. Other Gulf ports in Texas are Galveston , Texas City , Brazosport (formerly Freeport), Port Lavaca , Corpus Christi , and Brownsville .

The S Gulf Coast is a popular tourist area, and some of the ports, such as Galveston and Corpus Christi, have economies dependent on both heavy industry and tourism. Brownsville, the southernmost Texas city and the terminus of the Intracoastal Waterway , is also the shipping center for the intensively farmed and irrigated Winter Garden section along the lower Rio Grande, where citrus fruits and winter vegetables are grown.

Rio Grande Valley

The long stretch of plains along the Rio Grande valley is largely given over to cattle ranching. Texas has c.1,000 mi (1,610 km) of border with Mexico. Some S and W Texas towns are bilingual, and in some areas persons of Mexican descent make up the majority of the population. Laredo is the most important gateway here to Mexico, with an excellent highway to Mexico City and important over-the-border commerce.

Blackland Prairies

The first region to be farmed when Americans came to Texas in the 1820s was the bottomland of the lower Brazos and the Colorado, but not until settlers moved into the rolling blackland prairies of central and N central Texas was the agricultural wealth of the area realized. The heart of this region is the trading and shipping center of Waco ; at the southwest extremity is San Antonio , the commercial center of a wide cotton, grain, and cattle country belt. To the north, Dallas and the neighboring city of Fort Worth together form one of the most rapidly developing U.S. metropolitan areas. Their oil-refining, grain-milling, and cotton- and food-processing capabilities have been supplemented since World War II by aircraft-manufacturing and computer and electronics industries.

High Plains

The Balcones Escarpment marks the western margin of the Gulf Coastal Plain; in central Texas the line is visible in a series of waterfalls and rough, tree-covered hills. To the west lie the south central plains and the Edwards Plateau; they are essentially extensions of the Great Plains but are sharply divided from the high, windswept, and canyon-cut Llano Estacado (Staked Plain) in the W Panhandle by the erosive division of the Cap Rock Escarpment.

No traces of the subtropical lushness of the Gulf Coastal Plain are found in these regions; the climate is semiarid, with occasional blizzards blowing across the flat land in winter. The Red River area, including the farming and oil center of Wichita Falls , can have extreme cold in winter, though without the severity that is intermittently experienced in Amarillo , the commercial center of the Panhandle, or in the dry-farming area around Lubbock . Cattle raising began here in the late 1870s (settlers were slow in coming to the High Plains), and huge ranches vie with extensive wheat and cotton farms for domination of the treeless land. Oil and grain, however, have revolutionized the economy of this section of the state.

West Texas

All of West Texas (that part of the state west of long. 100°W) is semiarid. South of the Panhandle lie the rolling plains around Abilene , a region cultivated in cotton, sorghum, and wheat and the site of oil fields discovered in the 1940s. The dry fields of West Texas are still given over to ranching, except for small irrigated areas that can be farmed. San Angelo serves as the commercial center of this area. The Midland-Odessa oil patch lies northeast of the Pecos River and is part of the Permian (West Texas) Basin, an oil field that extends into SE New Mexico.

The land beyond the Pecos River, rising to the mountains with high, sweeping plains and rough uplands, offers the finest scenery of Texas. There are found the Davis Mts. and Guadalupe Peak, the highest point (8,751 ft/2,667 m) in the state. The wilderness of the Big Bend of the Rio Grande is typical of the barrenness of most of this area, where water and people are almost equally scarce. El Paso, with diverse industries and major cross-border trade with Mexico, is a population oasis in the region.

Places of Interest

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is in the Houston area. Other places of interest in the state include Big Bend National Park , Guadalupe Mountains National Park , Amistad and Lake Meredith national recreation areas, Padre Island National Seashore, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (see National Parks and Monuments , table), and Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge, winter home of the whooping crane. Austin is the capital; Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio are the largest cities.

Economy

Mineral resources compete with industry for primary economic importance in Texas. The state is the leading U.S. producer of oil, natural gas, and natural-gas liquids, despite recent production declines. It is also a major producer of helium, salt, sulfur, sodium sulfate, clays, gypsum, cement, and talc. Texas manufactures an enormous variety of products, including chemicals and chemical products, petroleum, food and food products, transportation equipment, machinery, and primary and fabricated metals. The development and manufacture of electronic equipment, such as computers, has in recent decades become one of the state's leading industries; the area around Dallas-Fort Worth has become known as "Silicon Prairie," a name now also extended to Austin and its suburbs.

Agriculturally, Texas is one of the most important states in the country. It easily leads the nation in producing cattle, cotton, and cottonseed. Texas also has more farms, farmland, sheep, and lambs than any other state. Principal crops are cotton lint, grains, sorghum, vegetables, citrus and other fruits, and rice; the greatest farm income is derived from cattle, cotton, dairy products, and greenhouse products. Hogs, wool, and mohair are also significant. Among other important Texas crops are melons, wheat, pecans, oats, and celery. Texas also has an important commercial fishing industry. Principal catches are shrimp, oysters, and menhaden.

Government, Politics, and Higher Education

The present constitution of Texas was adopted in 1876, replacing the "carpetbag" constitution of 1869. The state's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. Democrat Ann Richards , elected governor in 1990, was defeated for reelection in 1994 by Republican George W. Bush ; Bush won reelection in 1998. After Bush was elected president of the United States, Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry succeeded him as governor (Dec., 2000) and was elected to the office in 2002 and 2006. The state's legislature has a senate with 31 members and a house with 150 representatives. The state elects 2 senators and 32 representatives to the U.S. Congress and has 34 electoral votes. Texas politics were dominated by Democrats from the end of Reconstruction into the 1960s, but Republicans achieved parity in the 1990s and then dominance.

Among the many institutions of higher learning in Texas are the Univ. of Texas, mainly at Austin, but with large branches at Arlington, El Paso, and the Dallas suburb of Richardson; Baylor Univ., at Waco; East Texas State Univ., at Commerce; Univ. of North Texas, at Denton; Rice Univ., at Houston; Southern Methodist Univ., at Dallas; Texas A&M Univ., at College Station; Texas Arts and Industries Univ., at Kingsville; Texas Christian Univ., at Fort Worth; and Texas Southern Univ. and the Univ. of Houston, both at Houston.

History

Spanish Exploration and Colonization

The region that is now Texas was early known to the Spanish, who were, however, slow to settle there. Cabeza de Vaca, shipwrecked off the coast in 1528, wandered through the area in the 1530s, and Coronado probably crossed the northwest section in 1541. De Soto died before reaching Texas, but his men continued west, crossing the Red River in 1542. The first Spanish settlement was made (1682) at Ysleta on the site of present day El Paso by refugees from the area that is now New Mexico after the Pueblo revolt of 1680. Several missions were established in the area; but the Comanche, Apache, and other Native American tribes resented their encroachment, and the settlements did not flourish.

A French expedition led by La Salle penetrated E Texas in 1685 after failing to locate the mouth of the Mississippi. This incursion, though brief, stirred the Spanish to establish missions to hold the area. The first mission, founded in 1690 near the Neches, was named Francisco de los Tejas after the so-called tejas [friends]: Native Americans. This is also the origin of the state's name. In general, however, Spanish attempts to gain wealth from the wild region and to convert the indigenous population were unsuccessful, and in most places occupation was desultory.

American Expeditions and Settlement

By the early 19th cent. Americans were covetously eyeing Texas, especially after the Louisiana Purchase (1803) had extended the U.S. border to that fertile wilderness. Attempts to free Texas from Spanish rule were made in the expeditions of the adventurers Gutiérrez and Magee (1812-13) and James Long (1819). In 1821 Moses Austin secured a colonization grant from the Spanish authorities in San Antonio. He died from the rigors of his return trip from that distant outpost, but his son, Stephen F. Austin, had the grant confirmed and in Dec., 1821, led 300 families across the Sabine River to the region between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, where they established the first American settlement in Texas. Austin is known as the father of Texas.

The newly independent government of Mexico, pleased with Austin's prospering colony, readily offered grants to other American promoters and even gave huge land tracts to individual settlers. Americans from all over the Union, but particularly from the South, poured into Texas, and within a decade a considerable number of settlements had been established at Brazoria, Washington-on-the-Brazos, San Felipe de Austin, Anahuac, and Gonzales. The Americans easily avoided Mexican requirements that all settlers be Roman Catholic, but conflict with Mexican settlers over land titles resulted in the Fredonian Rebellion (1826-27).

By 1830 the Americans outnumbered the Mexican settlers by more than three to one and had formed their own society. The Mexican government became understandably concerned. Its sporadic attempts to tighten control over Texas had been hampered by its own political instability, but in 1830 measures were taken to stop the influx of Americans. Troops were sent to police the border, close the seaports, occupy the towns, and levy taxes on imported goods. The troops were withdrawn in 1832, when Mexico was again in political upheaval, but the Texans, alarmed and hoping to achieve a greater measure of self-government, petitioned Mexico for separate statehood (Texas was then part of Coahuila). When Austin presented the petition in Mexico City, Antonio López de Santa Anna had become military dictator. Austin was arrested and imprisoned for eighteen months, and Texas was regarrisoned.

Independence from Mexico

The Texas Revolution broke out (1835) in Gonzales when the Mexicans attempted to disarm the Americans and were routed. The American settlers then drove all the Mexican troops from Texas, overwhelming each command in surprise attacks. At a convention called at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas declared its independence (Mar. 2, 1836). A constitution was adopted and David Burnet was named interim president.

The arrival of Santa Anna with a large army that sought to crush the rebellion resulted in the famous defense of the Alamo and the massacre of several hundred Texans captured at Goliad . Santa Anna then divided his huge force to cover as much territory as possible. The small Texas army, commanded by Samuel Houston, protected their rear, retreating strategically until Houston finally maneuvered Santa Anna into a cul-de-sac formed by heavy rains and flooding bayous, near the site of present-day Houston. In the battle of San Jacinto (Apr. 21, 1836), Houston surprised the larger Mexican force and scored a resounding victory. Santa Anna was captured and compelled to recognize the independence of Texas.

The Texas Republic and U.S. Annexation

Texans sought annexation to the United States, but antislavery forces in the United States vehemently opposed the admission of another slave state, and Texas remained an independent republic under its Lone Star flag for almost 10 years. The Texas constitution was closely modeled after that of the United States, but slaveholding was expressly recognized. Houston, the hero of the Texas Revolution, was the leading figure of the Republic, serving twice as president.

Under President Mirabeau Lamar large tracts of land were granted as endowments for educational institutions, and Austin was made (1839) the new capital of the republic. Despite the efforts of presidents Houston and Anson Jones, a combination of factors—confusion in the land system, insufficient credit abroad, and the expense of maintaining the Texas Rangers and protecting Texas from marauding Mexican forces—contributed to impoverishing the republic and increasing the urgency for its annexation to the United States.

Southerners pressed hard for the admission of Texas, the intrigues of British and French diplomats in Texas aroused U.S. concern, and expansionist policies began to gain popular support. President Tyler narrowly pushed the admission of Texas through Congress shortly before the expiration of his term; Texas formally accepted annexation in July, 1845. This act was the immediate cause of the Mexican War . After Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma , the Mexican forces retreated back across the Rio Grande.

Civil War and Reconstruction

During the pre-Civil War period settlers, attracted by cheap land, poured into Texas. Although open range cattle ranching was beginning to spread rapidly, cotton was the state's chief crop. The planter class, with its slaveholding interests, was strong and carried the state for the Confederacy, despite the opposition of Sam Houston and his followers. During the Civil War, Texas was the only Confederate state not overrun by Union troops. Remaining relatively prosperous, it liberally contributed men and provisions to the Southern cause.

Reconstruction brought great lawlessness, aggravated by the appearance of roving desperadoes. Radical Republicans, carpetbaggers , and scalawags controlled the government for several years, during which time they managed to lay the foundations for better road and school systems. Texas was readmitted to the Union in Mar., 1870, after ratifying the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. Although Texas was not as racially embittered as the Deep South, the Ku Klux Klan and its methods flourished for a time as a means of opposing the policies of the radical Republicans.

The Late Nineteenth Century

Reconstruction in Texas ended in 1874 when the Democrats took control of the government. The following decade was politically conservative, highlighted by the passage of the constitution of 1876, which, although frequently amended, remains the basic law of the state. As in the rest of the South, the war and Reconstruction had resulted in the breakdown of the plantation system and the rise of tenant farming. This did not, however, have as marked an effect as elsewhere, partly because much of the land was still unsettled, but in greater measure, perhaps, because the Texas tradition is only partly Southern.

In the decades following the Civil War the Western element in Texas was strengthened as stock raising became a dominant element in Texas life. This was the era of the buffalo hunter and of the last of the Native American uprisings. From the open range and then from great fenced ranches, Texas cowboys drove herds of longhorn cattle over trails such as the Chisholm Trail to the railheads in Kansas and even farther to the grasslands of Montana. The traditional symbols of Texas are more the "ten-gallon" hat, the cattle brand, and spurs and saddles than anything reminiscent of the Old South.

As railroads advanced across the state during the 1870s, farmlands were increasingly settled, and the small farmers (the "nesters" ) came into violent conflict with the ranchers, a conflict which was not resolved until the governorship of John Ireland. Many European immigrants—especially Germans and Bohemians (Czechs)—took part in the peopling of the plains (they continued to arrive in the 20th cent., when many Mexicans also entered). Agrarian discontent saw the rise of the Greenback party , and during the 1880s demands for economic reform and limitation of the railroads' vast land domains were championed by the Farmers' Alliance and Gov. James S. Hogg. However, antitrust legislation was insufficient to curb the power of big business.

Oil, Industrialization, and World Wars

The transformation of Texas into a partly urban and industrial society was greatly hastened by the uncovering of the state's tremendous oil deposits. The discovery in 1901 of the spectacular Spindletop oil field near Beaumont dwarfed previous finds in Texas, but Spindletop itself was later surpassed as oil was discovered in nearly every part of Texas. Texas industry developed rapidly during the early years of the 20th cent., but conditions worsened for the tenant farmers, who by 1910 made up the majority of cultivators. Discontented tenants were largely responsible for the election of James Ferguson as governor.

World War I had a somewhat liberating effect on African-American Texans, but the reappearance of the Ku Klux Klan after the war helped to enforce "white supremacy." The economic boom of the 1920s was accompanied by further industrialization. The Great Depression of the 1930s, while severe, was less serious than in most states; the chemical and oil industries in particular continued to grow (the East Texas Oil Field was discovered in 1930).

The significance of the petrochemical and natural gas industries increased during World War II, when the aircraft industry also rose to prominence and the establishment of military bases throughout Texas greatly contributed to the state's economy. Postwar years brought continued prosperity and industrial expansion, although in the 1950s the state experienced the worst drought in its history and had its share of destructive hurricanes and flooding.

Many projects for increased flood control, improved irrigation, and enhanced power supply have been undertaken in Texas; notable among these are Denison Dam, forming Lake Texoma (shared between Texas and Oklahoma); Lewisville Dam and its reservoir, supplying Fort Worth and Dallas; Lake Texarkana on the Sulphur River; and Falcon Dam and its reservoir on the Rio Grande. The Amistad Dam on the Rio Grande, serving both the United States and Mexico, was completed in 1969.

Industry in the Late Twentieth Century

In the 1960s, Texas began to develop its technology industries as oil became less easy to exploit—even though soaring oil prices in the 1970s caused the energy industry to boom. Since then, the state has become a preferred location for the headquarters of large corporations from airlines and retail chains to telecommunications and chemical companies. High-technology industries have boomed since the 1980s, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin areas. The state's economy proved still vulnerable to the fluctuations of the energy industry in the mid-1980s, however, when falling oil prices resulted in massive layoffs, hurting the state's real estate market and in turn precipitating the failure of hundreds of savings and loans in the state.

Texas has, however, continued to grow, becoming the second most populous state in the nation. Its population increased by nearly 23% between 1990 and 2000, and its economy slowly recovered in the 1990s. Its political influence has grown commensurately, and since the 1960s three sons (or adopted sons) of Texas have been president of the nation: Lyndon Johnson , George Herbert Walker Bush , and George Walker Bush . In 2005 and 2008, SE Texas suffered extensive damage as a result of Hurricanes Rita and Ike, respectively.

Bibliography

See T. G. Jordan, German Seed in Texas Soil: Immigrant Farmers in Nineteenth-Century Texas (1967); Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Cattle Ranching (1981); and et al., Texas (1984); K. W. Wheeler, To Wear a City's Crown: The Beginnings of Urban Growth in Texas, 1836-1865 (1968); S. V. Connor, Texas, A History (1971); W. Seale, Texas in Our Time: A History of Texas in the Twentieth Century (1972); W. Holmes, The Encyclopedia of Texas (1984); R. N. Richardson et al., Texas, the Lone Star State (5th ed. 1988); L. A. Herzog, Where North Meets South: Cities, Space, and Politics on the United States-Mexican Border (1990); H. W. Brands, Lone Star Nation (2004); see also Texas Almanac (latest edition).

TEXAS

Austin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Dallas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

El Paso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Fort Worth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

Houston . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

San Antonio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

The State in Brief

Nickname: Lone Star State

Motto: Friendship

Flower: Bluebonnet

Bird: Mockingbird

Area: 268,580 square miles (2000; U.S. rank: 2nd)

Elevation: Ranges from sea level to 8,749 feet above sea level

Climate: Semi-arid in western region and central plains; subtropical on coastal plains; continental in the panhandle

Admitted to Union: December 29, 1845

Capital: Austin

Head Official: Governor Rick Perry (R) (until 2007)

Population

1980: 14,229,000

1990: 16,986,510

2000: 20,851,820

2004 estimate: 22,490,022

Percent change, 1990–2000: 22.8%

U.S. rank in 2004: 2nd

Percent of residents born in state: 62.2% (2000)

Density: 79.6 people per square mile (2000)

2002 FBI Crime Index Total: 1,130,292

Racial and Ethnic Characteristics (2000)

White: 14,799,505

Black or African American: 2,404,566

American Indian and Alaska Native: 118,362

Asian: 562,319

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 14,434

Hispanic or Latino (may be of any race): 6,669,666

Other: 2,438,001

Age Characteristics (2000)

Population under 5 years old: 1,624,628

Population 5 to 19 years old: 4,921,608

Percent of population 65 years and over: 9.9%

Median age: 32.3 years (2000)

Vital Statistics

Total number of births (2003): 377,414

Total number of deaths (2003): 153,944 (infant deaths, 2,400)

AIDS cases reported through 2003: 30,043

Economy

Major industries: Machinery, agriculture, chemicals, food processing, oil, transportation equipment

Unemployment rate: 5.8% (December 2004)

Per capita income: $29,076 (2003; U.S. rank: 30th)

Median household income: $40,934 (3-year average, 2001-2003)

Percentage of persons below poverty level: 15.8% (3-year average, 2001-2003)

Income tax rate: None

Sales tax rate: 6.25% (food and prescription drugs are exempt)

Texas State in central s USA, bounded by the Gulf of Mexico (se) and the Rio Grande (sw). The state capital is Austin. Other major cities include Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. Texas has pine-covered hills and cypress swamps; cotton and rice are the main crops and the timber industry is important. Cattle are raised on the plains of the Rio Grande valley, from where the land rises to the Guadalupe Mountains of w Texas and the Great Plains area of the Texas Panhandle in the n. The Spaniards explored the region in the early 16th century, and it became part of the Spanish colony of Mexico. By the time Mexico attained independence in 1821, many Americans had begun to settle in Texas. They rebelled against Mexican rule and in 1836, after defeating the Mexican Army, established the Republic of Texas, recognized by the USA in 1837. Eight years later, Texas joined the Union. Rich oilfields are the mainstay of the state's economy. Industries: oil refining, food processing, aircraft, electronics. Area: 692,405sq km (267,338sq mi). Pop. (2000) 20,851,830.

TEXAS. A state of the US Southwest, bordering on Mexico to the south. Its first European colonizers, in the 18c, were speakers of Spanish, and until 1836 the region was part of Mexico. The terms Texas English, Texas, and Texian refer to English as used in the state. The variety is Southern is slightly nasal, and vowels are elongated into diphthongs which can be shown in eye dialect as hee-ut hit, ray-ud red. Some diphthongs, however, are rendered as single vowels, so that the oil business sounds like ‘the awl bidness’ and barbed wire like ‘bob war’. Texas English is not homogeneous and shows some variety between East Texas (where phonology and lexicon show greater affinity with Southern usage) and West Texas (where they are somewhat more Midlands and Western). See DIALECT (AMERICA), SOUTHERN ENGLISH.

Texas, Australia, USA USA: a state. Spanish exploration began in 1528 but it was not until 1682 that they established their first settlement near El Paso; in 1691 the area became a Spanish province and it was at this time that it received the name Texas. According to tradition, a Spanish monk was welcomed with cries of techas ‘friends’ from the Native Americans. When Mexico gained its independence in 1821 Texas became part of Mexico. However, in 1836 the Texans, dissatisfied with the Mexican government, declared their independence as the Republic of Texas. This attempt to prosper as an independent nation was not a success and in 1845 Texas joined the Union as the 28th state. When the Civil War began in 1861 it seceded but rejoined in 1869.

TEXAS

Texas, or the Lone Star State, is known for the strength and character of its people, who have overcome various difficulties. As the economy has waxed and waned, Texans—very much dependent on ranching, farming, and oil production—have stood tall to overcome any adversity that has come their way.

In the 1600s the Spanish were the first to settle in Texas along the San Antonio River, where they established forts and churches. The Spanish taught the Native Americans who lived in the area about Christianity, and the Native Americans taught the Spanish how to farm the land and grow crops.

In 1689 a Spanish explorer named Captain Alonso de Leon left behind a cow and a calf at each river he came across during his expeditions through central and eastern Texas. When the Spanish left some of their missions, they left the cows to roam free on the land. These herds of cattle thrived on the Texas grasslands. Throughout Texas, the Spanish established large cattle ranches, each owned by a hacendado, who lived a privileged life. The vaquero, or cowboy, worked hard on the ranch for meager meals and a place to sleep. The Spanish established sheep ranches in Texas as well, and these rural estates have also had an impact on the state's economy.

Before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States took no interest in Texas land. When the Louisiana Territory became part of the United States, however, Texas became a next-door neighbor. In 1820 Moses Austin, a Missouri businessman, convinced the Spanish government to allow him to establish a colony in Texas. Austin's plan was to farm the rich soil along the Brazos River near what is now known as Houston. Upon their arrival in Texas, the colonists learned that Spain had been overthrown and a new government of Mexico ruled Texas. Over the next few years pioneers from Tennessee and other southern states migrated to Texas. They worked hard and fared well. As the number of such colonists grew, they demanded to have a greater influence on the policies and laws set forth by the Mexican government.

In 1835 war broke out as Texas successfully fought for independence from Mexico. After the war, the colonists of the new Republic of Texas faced the challenges of rebuilding their land and businesses. Because roads were not adequate, it was difficult to ship goods in and out of Texas. What's more, the Republic's government had no money. In order to attract newcomers, the government gave away huge tracts of land to settlers. The government also established the homestead-exemption law, which stated that those who fell delinquent on debt payments could not lose their land.

Between 1836 and 1847 the population of Texas quadrupled, with most of the new settlers coming from the United States. Many other settlers came from Germany, Belgium, France, England, Ireland, and Sweden to work on cattle ranches and cotton plantations. In 1836 a few cities emerged in eastern and central Texas. San Antonio grew to become the largest town in Texas, and Galveston, founded in 1836, became the main port for shipping cotton.

Mexico still considered Texas a colony and threatened to declare war on the United States if it moved to allow Texas to become a state. Mexico held true to its words when, in 1845, the United States approved the statehood of Texas. The two-year war between the United States and Mexico (the Mexican War, 1846–1848) resulted in a peace treaty that forced Mexico to give up all claims on the American Southwest, as well as California.

During the years following the American Civil War (1861–1865) the state government's treasury was again depleted. The state's economy before the war depended on the land—and on the slaves who worked on the land. After the war, land prices dropped and, since slaves were free, labor was scarce. Nonetheless, the 4 million longhorn cattle roaming the ranges of Texas provided another source of income for the ailing economy. The cattle, a source of tallow, hide, and food, could be sold for $40 a head in the north. In 1866 large-scale cattle drives began in Texas, as more than 250,000 cattle were driven northward to market. For three to six months cowboys pushed the cattle toward their destination: railroad depots in Kansas or Missouri. The cattle-drive period lasted about 20 years. By the 1880s expanded railroads helped to transport the cattle, and such drives were no longer necessary.

After the Civil War the U.S. population began to push westward, forcing Native Americans to move to reservations in Oklahoma. Within 30 years the population of the Texas Great Plains grew to exceed 500,000. Though rainfall was scarce, there were great reserves of underground water in Texas and a constant breeze. These conditions led to the use of windmills for power and water.

By 1890 railroads crisscrossed the state. Three major railroads connected western and eastern Texas, the surrounding states, and the country's East and West Coasts. While the railroads provided efficient transportation, the costs remained relatively high for the ranchers and farmers until the Texas Railroad Commission was established to regulate freight rates.

Texas's economic base changed forever in 1901, when an oil gusher was discovered in Spindletop Hill just south of Dallas. News of the well traveled fast, and an influx of oil workers and engineers tripled the population almost overnight. From Spindletop, oil businessmen spread out to other cities looking for more. By the end of the year the government had issued more than five hundred charters to oil companies. In 1930 drillers discovered the biggest crude oil pool in the country in Rush County near Kilgore. At this site C.M. Joiner, who was drilling an exploratory well, founded the East Texas Oil Fields, an underground lake of crude oil that measured 40 miles long and between three and 10 miles wide.

Naturally, oil had a major impact on the state's economy. Farmers who discovered oil on their property became rich. Some laborers invested their savings on prospective wells only to turn up sand. Spin-off businesses developed to provide drilling equipment, tank cars, and pipelines. The industries brought people from the farms to the cities, leading to a more than 20 percent increase in city dwellers between 1900 and 1930. Other industries also flourished. During the 1920s new irrigation methods and farming equipment opened areas of the state for cotton growing, and production exploded. Texas produced more than a million bales of cotton in 1926, compared to only 50,000 bales in 1918.

The Great Depression (1929–1939) struck the country in the late 1920s, however, putting more than 300,000 Texans out of work. Many farmers suffered from drastically reduced cotton prices, and a drought in the Texas Panhandle caused farmers and ranchers to leave their homes. Attempts to establish relief programs for the poor and conservation programs for farmlands added to the state's financial difficulties.

World War II (1939–1945) helped to turn around the state's economy. Oil wells provided more than half of the petroleum for the nation during the war, and manufacturing jobs tripled as factories built aircraft, ships, and other goods for the war effort. After the war more than 60 percent of Texas's population lived in urban areas, and Texas remained a major ship and aircraft producer. These industries would remain important to the state's economy for years to come.

Another discovery made in Texas has led to the advancement of technology around the world. In 1958 Jack Kilby, an employee of Texas Instruments in Dallas, made a finding that led to the production of the silicon chip, enabling the development of handheld calculators, personal computers, and other miniaturized electronics.

Even though Texas's industry and agriculture were strong, the state's economy rose and fell according to the oil market during the 1970s and 1980s. When oil sold for more than $30 per barrel in the 1970s and early 1980s, the economy in Texas boomed, growing more than 6 percent a year—more than twice the national average. The high oil prices led to easy cash flow: Investors built high-rises in Dallas and Houston, and credit was easily extended. But in the late 1980s oil prices crashed to less than $14 per barrel due to overproduction. Construction stopped, several banks needed federal assistance to remain in business, and more than 20 percent of office space in Dallas and Houston stood vacant as thousands lost their jobs. As Professor Bernard Weinstein of Southern Methodist University stated, "[i]n Texas, oil is the tail that wags the whole economy."

In order to make up the $100 million in revenues that the government estimated it had lost for every $1 decline in the price of a barrel oil, the government raised fees on everything from vanity license plates to day-care centers. It also made efforts to attract new business to Texas, particularly high-tech companies. In 1986 oil prices again began to climb. The revived oil market, along with Texas's newly established high-tech businesses, helped to stabilize the state's economy by the 1990s.

From 1991 to 1996 total personal income grew in Texas by 20.2 percent, while the nation's growth was about 15 percent during the same period. In 1995 the median household income in Texas was $32,039. That same year, however, 17.4 percent of Texans were living below the federal poverty level.

See also: Cattle Drives, Longhorn Cattle, Petroleum Industry, Westward Expansion

FURTHER READING

Frantz, Joe B. Texas: A Bicentennial History. New York: Norton, 1976.

Proctor, Ben and Archie P. McDonald. The Texas Heritage. Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1998.

Richardson, Rupert, Ernest Wallace, and Adrian N. Anderson. Texas, The Lone-Star State. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1970.

Thompson, Kathleen. "Texas." In Portrait of America. New York: Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 1996.

Worldmark Encyclopedia of the States. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998, s.v. "Texas."

in texas, oil is the tail that wags the whole economy.

professor bernard weinstein, southern methodist university

Texas

Pop group

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

With a name like Texas, one would most likely expect to hear the straightforward country and blues-rock tunes or the rolling folk songs often associated with the southwestern state. Despite the images the name implies, Texas, whose members hail from Glasgow, Scotland, also grasp the moody textures of British 1980s pop and American radio rock. Named after the 1985 Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas for which Ry Cooder, a folk musician admired by the members of the band, composed the soundtrack, the group took inspiration from blues and folk music and added an overall modern rock feel. “The name Texas causes so many problems,” front woman Sharleen Spiteritold Neil McCormick in the Daily Telegraph. “Sometimes I wonder what possessed us, I really do. But it was pouring with rain in Glasgow, we were sitting there playing a Southern blues twang thing, wishing we really were in Texas… What can I say? It seemed like a great idea at the time.” Texas achieved pop-star status in Great Britain with their debut album in 1989, Southside, but reached only a limited following of fans in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, the Scottish quintet amassed an even broader audience, selling over ten million records worldwide, although a substantial American fan base continued to elude them. However, critics predicted that with their 1999 release, The Hush, Texas would earn greater recognition outside of the United Kingdom and Europe.

Texas formed in 1986 in Glasgow, Scotland, when Spiteri, praised for her deep, soulful voice, met Johnny McElhone, a veteran of the British rock circuit and a member of two former groups, Hipsway and Altered Images. While Hipsway remained a relatively unknown band, Altered Images had considerable chart success in both Britain and the United States during the mid-1980s. McElhone, who played bass guitar for Texas, and Spiteri, who served as the group’s lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and occasional pianist, penned a number of songs before recruiting guitarist Ally McErlaine and drummer Stuart Kerr to join the band. Although Spiteri began playing guitar at the age of ten, she claimed she never held aspirations to form or play with a pop/rock ensemble. In fact, until the creation of Texas, Spiteri worked as a hairdresser in Glasgow.

Spiteri remained the dominating force behind Texas’s success from the beginning. Labeled by the British press as “the U.K.’s sexiest female,” Spiteri displayed a sensual style with her dark hair, pale skin, and slender frame, without appearing as a stereotypical beauty. While many pop groups tend to experience conflicts when one band member receives most of the attention, Texas placed Spiteri in the spotlight on purpose. As the lead singer told McCormick, “We made that decision as a band. I am the most confident about having photographs

For the Record…

Members include Eddie Campbell (joined group 1989), keyboards; Richard Hynd (joined group C 1991), drums; Stuart Kerr (left group C 1991), drums; John McElhone, bass; Ally McErlaine, guitar; Sharleen Spiteri (born 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland), vocals, rhythm guitar, piano.

Formed group in Glasgow, Scotland, 1986; performed first live show as a group, 1988; signed with Phonogram/Mercury label, released debut album Southside, 1989; released single “Tired Of Being Alone,” 1992; released Ricks Road, 1993; released White on Blonde, 1997; signed with Universal Records, released career highlight The Hush, 1999.

Addresses: Record company —Universal Records, 1755 Broadway, 7th FI., New York City, NY 10019; (212)373-0600; fax (212) 247-3954.

taken. They’ve no desire to do it, no desire to be in the videos.” In March of 1988, with Spiteri fronting the band, Texas performed live for the firsttime as a group at a local college in Glasgow. They continued to tour around the United Kingdom extensively before signing with the British record label Phonogram (known as Mercury in the United States). In 1989, after recruiting keyboard player Eddie Campbell, Texas released their debut album entitled Southside. The strength of the song “I Don’t Want a Lover,” which became a top ten British hit single, helped make Southside an instant success and launch it to number three on the British charts. Eventually, the album went platinum, selling 1.6 million copies worldwide, even though many critics described the remainder of the record’s songs as derivative and bland. In the United States, the album’s engaging yet low-key blending of blues, R&B, soul, country-folk, and modern rock only received air play on college radio stations.

After touring across Europe, Richard Hynd replaced Kerr on drums, and Texas released their second effort, 1991 ’s Mothers Heaven, an overall improvement on the band’s debut release. Maintaining their prior blues undertones brought to the surface by slide-guitar and Spiteri’s handsome vocals, the band also introduced more rock and roll influences with their sophomore release. Critics marveled at Spiteri’s singing, often comparing her vocal skills to those of Motown legend Diana Ross, country singer Linda Ronstadt, and singer/songwriter Maria McKee, former vocalist for the country-rock group Lone Justice. McKee sang back-up vocals on two songs for Mothers Heaven, including the album’s title track. “What makes Texas truly special is the singing of Sharleen Spiteri,” concluded People magazine. “On a song like the gospelized ‘Alone with You,’ Spiteri moves easily from a prairie-dust roughness to a slippery sexiness.” But despite the record’s artistic merits, Texas unfortunately fell victim to bad timing with the release of Mothers Heaven, and found themselves displaced by the growing popularity of British dance-pop bands. Thus sales for the album, under one million mostly in continental Europe, proved disappointing in comparison to Texas’s debut.

However, the group’s disappointment was short-lived as they were reinvigorated by the success of their 1992 British Top 20 hit single“Tired Of Being Alone,” a cover of an Al Green song. That year, Texas also traveled to the United States for the first time and enjoyed a popular American tour, performing before mainly alternative music audiences. In 1993, Texas released a third album containing 12 songs, the back-to-basics and unpretentious Ricks Road, for which the band again won favorable reviews. For this release produced by Paul Fox, Texas settled into a rich groove, featuring songs accented with but not dominated by country, blues, gospel, and rock undertones. The focus of Ricks Road, as with the band’s first two releases, centered on Spiteri, who gave full voice to such memorable, straightforward songs as “You Owe It All to Me,” “You’ve Got to Live a Little,” “Listen To Me,” the country twang “So Called Friend,” and the rock-inspired “Fade Away.” Throughout the album, Texas’s influences came to the surface, most notably Spiteri’s gritty rock and smooth country-styled vocals, as well as McErlaine’s blues-based guitar playing.

For the next few years, Texas took a break from recording but returned in 1997 with White on Blonde, the group’s second number one album in the United Kingdom. Not since the release of Southside had the band witnessed such popular success. For most of the record’s songs, Texas chose to drop their American rock and roll sound for a combination of pop-rock, hip-hop, and soul. Spiteri described White on Blonde as a “modern soul record,” as quoted by Andy Gill in Independent. Nevertheless, the same Texas sound came through under the alterations, and the band drew on a variety of styles without letting go of their adult-pop composure. “Hints of ambient electronics, gritty rock and R&B grooves ripple through the lush layers of sound,” stated Los Angeles Times writer Sandy Masuo, printed in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Masuo further added, “Spiteri shifts effortlessly from bluesy crooning to a forthright folkiness without ever losing her poise.” Also taking more chances with White on Blonde, Texas produced more ambitious songs such as the dark, moody “Insane” and “Put Your Arms Around Me,” both setto stringed instrumentals and a slowed-down beat.

Texas released The Hush in the spring of 1999 on Universal Records, and the album soon became considered the group’s best collection of songs. The more finely produced effort recorded in a studio in Spiteri’s house offered more depth and made Texas seem more like a sophisticated modern soul act. The subtle opening track “In Our Lifetime,” for example, gradually develops without sounding predictable, and the album progresses with references to Texas’s influences, from R&B singer Marvin Gaye to the classic rock band Fleetwood Mac. In the past, some of Texas’s songs had come off as clumsy and underwritten when paired with the grandeur of Spiteri’s voice. But with The Hush, propelled by drummer Hynd and the soulful rock guitar of McElhone (who also shared production duties), Spiteri shined similar to a member of Motown’s the Suprêmes for “When We Are Together”and delivered the sultry “Tell Me the Answer,” a track resembling a lustful Prince tune, with a soft, sexy style. Other noteworthy tracks included the dreamy “Sunday Afternoon,” and the pop song “Summer Son,” reminiscent of the 1970s group Abba. With plans to return to the United States to promote their latest release, Texas, now based in London, England, seemed certain to attract a more mainstream American audience and surpass the sales of their previous albums.

Selected discography

Southside, Mercury, 1989.

Mothers Heaven, Mercury, 1991.

Ricks Road, Mercury, 1993.

Live From Ricks Road, Mercury, 1994.

White on Blonde, Mercury, 1997.

The Hush, Universal, 1999.

Sources

Books

musicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press, 1999.

Robbins, Ira A., ed., Trouser Press Guide to ’90s Rock, Fireside/Simon and Schuster, 1997.

Periodicals

Daily Telegraph, May 8, 1999; August 26, 1999, p. 19.

Dallas Morning News, May 23, 1999, p. 10C.

Entertainment Weekly, May 21, 1999, p. 78.

Independent, January 31, 1997, p. 10; May 9, 1997, p. 13; May 8, 1999, p. 11.

Independent on Sunday, March 23, 1997, p. 15; July 27, 1997, p. 24.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, November 9, 1997, p. 02F.

People, November 11, 1991, p. 25; March 28, 1994, p. 23; July 12, 1999, p. 39.

Rolling Stone, June 10, 1999.

Online

“Texas,” All Music Guide website, http://allmusic.com(September 22, 1999).

RollingStone.com, http://www.rollingstone.tunes.com(September 22, 1999).

—Laura Hightower

Texas •Crassus, Halicarnassus, Lassus •tarsus •nexus, plexus, Texas •Paracelsus •census, consensus •Croesus • narcissus • Ephesus •Dionysus • colossus • Pegasus •Caucasus • petasus •excursus, thyrsus, versus