Texas

Hundreds of small Native bands lived in South Texas for thousands of years; the Spanish called them “Coahuiltecans,” after the region of Coahuila y Tejas, and many families in South Texas and northern Mexico trace their Indigenous roots to these groups.⁠[1]

Spain held sovereignty over the region in 1519–1685 and 1690–1821. Domingo Terán de los Ríos served as the first Spanish governor of Texas in 1691–1692, and the list of Spanish governors runs to Antonio Martínez, who served from 1817 to 1822.⁠[2][3]

In 1684 La Salle attempted to establish a French colony on the Texas coast; the attempt failed, and Fort St. Louis had been abandoned by 1690. The years 1685–1690 are counted as the period of French sovereignty.⁠[2]

Spanish missionaries and soldiers moved north from the Valley of Mexico to found missions and presidios. Franciscans established the first mission in the San Antonio area in 1718 and built five along the San Antonio River within 13 years; Mission Espada and Mission San Juan were moved to the San Antonio River in 1731, Mission Concepción was dedicated in 1755 and completed in 1760, and Mission San José had completed its church, convent, mill and granary by 1782. Indigenous residents taught the Spanish irrigation methods, and their food and labor supported the missions.⁠[4]

Texas was under Mexican sovereignty from 1821 to 1836, and from 1824 governors such as Rafael Gonzales headed the state of Coahuila y Texas. An estimated 38,000 settlers moved from the United States into Texas between 1821 and 1836, drawn by offers of 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) per family. By the time of the Texas Revolution there were about 5,000 enslaved people in Texas.⁠[2][3][5][6]

The two-month siege of Bexar ended in December 1835. Antonio López de Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande on February 12, 1836, and reached Bexar on February 23, a month earlier than expected; the next day William Barret Travis wrote his “Letter from the Alamo.” Reinforcements under Captain Albert Martin arrived from Gonzales on March 1, and on March 3 Travis sent a last appeal, rejecting surrender. The Alamo fell on March 6, and Francisco Antonio Ruiz, alcalde of San Antonio, recorded that the bodies of 182 Texans were burned.⁠[7][8]

On March 2, 1836, delegates at Washington-on-the-Brazos adopted the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Earlier, on February 3, 1836, Sam Houston and John Forbes had negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee.⁠[8][9][10]

On March 27, 1836, more than 300 unarmed Texan prisoners were killed at Goliad. On April 21 the Texan army attacked the resting Mexican army at San Jacinto and won in about 18 minutes, capturing Santa Anna the following day.⁠[8][11]

Delegates to the Convention of 1836 hastily drafted a constitution for the republic, borrowing from the U.S. Constitution and Mexican law. In September 1836 Texans voted on officers and the constitution and voted strongly in favor of annexation to the United States. The United States recognized Texan independence on March 3, 1837, and diplomatic relations began on March 6, when the Secretary of State accepted the credentials of the Texan minister William Harris Wharton.⁠[12][11][9]

On August 4, 1837, Texas formally offered annexation to the United States; because of the risk of war with Mexico and the republic’s weak finances, the United States did not accept, and Texas withdrew the offer on October 12, 1838.⁠[11][8]

Sam Houston negotiated with the Texas tribes during both of his administrations, partly because the republic could not afford to be at war with both the Indians and the Mexicans. His successor Mirabeau B. Lamar believed the tribes were conspiring with Mexico and actively supported a policy of extermination and expulsion, which removed the Cherokee and added to the republic’s debt. The Bird’s Fort Treaty was ratified by the Republic of Texas Senate in 1843.⁠[10]

In 1839 the Republic of Texas made Austin its capital; a log cabin with two large rooms, surrounded by an eight-foot stockade, served as the first capitol there.⁠[13]

An annexation treaty was signed on April 11, 1844, but the U.S. Senate rejected it 35 to 16 on June 8. Congress then proceeded by joint resolution: the House passed it on January 25, 1845, the Senate passed an amended version 27 to 25 on February 27, and the House accepted it 132 to 76 on February 28; President John Tyler signed it on March 1. Under its terms Texas kept its public lands and public debt, could later be divided into as many as four additional states, and handed over its military, postal and customs facilities and authority to the federal government.⁠[11][14]

The Texas Congress accepted the U.S. offer in a special session on June 16, 1845, and on July 4 a popularly elected convention meeting in Austin accepted annexation and drafted a state constitution. The annexation ordinance and the constitution went to the voters on October 13; a tally on November 10 showed 4,254 for and 267 against, and the final count compiled on January 1, 1846, was 7,664 for and 430 against. The republic had lasted nine years, eleven months and seventeen days.⁠[11][14][8]

The U.S. House voted 141 to 58, with 21 abstaining, on December 16, 1845, and the Senate 31 to 14, with 7 abstaining, on December 22 to admit Texas as a state, and President James K. Polk then signed the resolution; opposition to admission was especially strong in the North.⁠[11][14]

The first regular session of the Texas Legislature began on February 16, 1846, and ended on May 13, 1846. On February 19, 1846, J. Pinckney Henderson took the oath as the first governor (serving until December 21, 1847), completing the transfer of government and ending diplomatic relations between the republic and the United States.⁠[15][16][9]

Annexation and a dispute over the land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River led to the Mexican-American War. U.S. troops invaded Mexico in February 1847, and Winfield Scott captured Mexico City on September 14, 1847. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed on February 2, 1848, ended Mexico’s claim to Texas, and the land Mexico ceded later became parts of New Mexico, UtahUtahUtah is a U.S. state bordered by Idaho to the north, Wyoming to the northeast, Colorado to the east, Arizona to the south and Nevada to the west, with its capital at Salt Lake City. It was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, as the 45th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 3,271,616 residents.Open the full entry, NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western United States bordered by Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California; its capital is Carson City. It was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, as the 36th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,104,614.Open the full entry, ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry, California and western ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry.⁠[17]

As part of the Compromise of 1850, a bill proposed by Senator James A. Pearce of Maryland had Texas give up about 67 million acres north and west of a line running from the 100th meridian at the 36°30′ parallel west to the 103rd meridian, south to the 32nd parallel and west to the Rio Grande, in return for $10 million in 5 percent U.S. bonds, at least half of which was to retire the public debt of the Republic of Texas. Texas voters approved by a three-to-one majority, and Governor Peter H. Bell signed the act on November 25, 1850.⁠[18]

In 1853 the state built a limestone capitol on Capitol Square; it burned on November 9, 1881. The Constitution of 1876 set aside 3 million acres of public land in the Panhandle to pay for a new capitol, which was built by the Capitol Syndicate, including John and Charles Farwell of Chicago, in exchange for the land that became the XIT Ranch. Elijah E. Myers’s design was chosen in a national competition in 1880.⁠[13]

The builders used Texas Sunset Red Granite from Granite Mountain in Burnet County, shipping 188,518 cubic feet of it over a specially built railroad. The cornerstone was laid on March 2, 1885; more than 1,000 people worked on the building in 1886, and the finished capitol had 392 rooms, 924 windows and 404 doors. In February 1888 the Goddess of Liberty, made of 80 pieces of zinc, was hoisted to the top of the dome, and the capitol was officially dedicated on May 16, 1888, with more than 20,000 people attending that week’s festivities.⁠[13]

The number of enslaved people in Texas grew from about 5,000 at the time of the Texas Revolution to about 30,000 by annexation, and the 1860 census counted 182,566, more than 30 percent of the state’s population. Most lived on large cotton plantations in East Texas and worked as field hands; Texas law barred owners from killing or maiming enslaved people, but whipping was a common punishment. Slaveholders controlled most of the state’s wealth and dominated its politics by the Civil War.⁠[6]

The Secession Convention met in Austin in January 1861, adopted the Ordinance of Secession on February 1 and the Declaration of Causes on February 2, and voters then approved secession. On March 1 the Provisional Confederate Government accepted Texas as a state, and on March 5 the convention approved an ordinance accepting Confederate statehood. Governor Sam Houston opposed secession and was removed from office after refusing to swear allegiance to the Confederacy.⁠[19][17]

During the war Texans defended against Native American attacks, Mexican encroachments, and federal gunboats and soldiers; federal forces held the lower Gulf Coast but could not move far inland. John H. Reagan served as Confederate Postmaster General. The last battle of the Civil War was fought on Texas soil after the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865.⁠[17][19]

On June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger read General Order No. 3 at Galveston, announcing under a federal proclamation that “all slaves are free,” more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. From 1866 African Americans in Texas held large annual celebrations, which they called Emancipation Day and which became known as Juneteenth. House Bill 1016, passed by the 66th Legislature, declared June 19 “Emancipation Day in Texas,” a legal state holiday from 1980, and on June 17, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday.⁠[20][17]

On March 15, 1866, the Constitutional Convention of 1866 approved an ordinance declaring the acts of the Secession Convention null and void and agreed to abolish slavery, and on August 20 President Andrew Johnson proclaimed peace between the United States and Texas. In April 1869 Congress allowed voters in VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, MississippiMississippiMississippi is a state of the United States on the Gulf of Mexico; Jackson is both its capital and its largest city. It was admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,961,279.Open the full entry and Texas to vote on new constitutions; in November 1869 Texans approved a revised constitution and elected a state government, and the legislature then ratified the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. On March 30, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act readmitting Texas to representation in Congress, and on April 16 General Reynolds issued an order promulgating it throughout Texas.⁠[19][12]

A constitution written by the convention of 1875 was ratified by voters the following year; reflecting distrust of government, it reduced officials’ powers, salaries and terms. Texas still operates under it, and it has been amended hundreds of times. A constitutional convention in 1974 intended to draft a modern document ended in failure.⁠[12]

By 1875 the Comanche had been forced onto a reservation in present-day OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma is a U.S. state whose capital is Oklahoma City. It was admitted to the Union on November 16, 1907, as the 46th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,959,353.Open the full entry. The cattle industry then thrived on the West Texas plains, and railroad building opened new links with the wider world; by 1900 the population exceeded three million.⁠[17]

The population grew fourfold between 1900 and 1980, when one-third of Texans were African American or Hispanic, and electronics and aerospace grew in the late 20th century.⁠[17]

On September 8, 1900, a Category 4 hurricane struck Galveston with a storm surge of more than 15 feet and winds above 120 miles per hour; an estimated 8,000 people died, the deadliest weather disaster in U.S. history. The city was leveled and never regained its former status, and the reinforced concrete seawall built after the storm, at first more than three miles long, now extends more than 10 miles and stands 17 feet high.⁠[21]

The 1901 gusher at Spindletop, near Beaumont, opened a new economic era based on oil; oil companies formed, and refining and marketing created jobs. Texas suffered in the Depression of the 1930s and later benefited from wartime industrial growth during World War II.⁠[17]

Sam Rayburn served 17 years as Speaker of the U.S. House. Lyndon B. Johnson was vice president from 1961 to 1963 and president from 1963 to 1969; George H. W. Bush was elected president in 1988 and served until 1993; and George W. Bush was president from 2001 to 2009.⁠[17]

The 2020 census apportionment results released on April 26, 2021, showed that Texas gained 3,999,944 residents between 2010 and 2020, the largest numerical gain of any state; its seats in the U.S. House rose by two, from 36 to 38, with an average of 767,981 people per seat. Accordingly, it has 40 electoral votes in the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections.⁠[22][23][24]

The legislature, the Texas Legislature, has a 31-member Senate whose members serve four-year terms and a 150-member House of Representatives whose members serve two-year terms; elections are held every two years and there are no term limits. Regular sessions convene at noon on the second Tuesday in January of odd-numbered years and may last no more than 140 days, and special sessions, called by the governor, may last no more than 30 days. The lieutenant governor is President of the Senate, and the Speaker is elected by the House at the start of each regular session. The state has 254 counties.⁠[25][15][26]

As of November 2026 the governor is Greg AbbottGreg AbbottGreg Abbott (Gregory Wayne Abbott, born 1957) is an American Republican politician and lawyer who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and as attorney general of Texas, and has been governor of Texas since 2015. On November 3, 2026, he lost his bid for a fourth term to Democrat Gina Hinojosa.Open the full entry, the 48th governor of Texas, who took office on January 20, 2015; he was first elected in 2014 and re-elected to a third term in 2022. Born in Wichita Falls and raised in Duncanville, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University. Before becoming governor he served as a state district judge in Harris County, a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, and the 50th and longest-serving attorney general in Texas history.⁠[16][27]

Texas is the second largest state, after AlaskaAlaskaAlaska is the largest U.S. state by area and borders Canada to the east; its capital is Juneau and its largest city is Anchorage. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 733,391.Open the full entry. It is bordered by Oklahoma to the north across the Red River, by LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state in the southern United States on the Gulf of Mexico, bordered by Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas; its capital is Baton Rouge and its largest city is New Orleans. It entered the Union on April 30, 1812, as the 18th state, and had a population of 4,657,757 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry and Arkansas to the east (the Sabine River forms most of the Louisiana boundary), by the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast, by Mexico to the southwest along the Rio Grande, and by New Mexico to the west. Its regions include the Coastal Plains, the Hill Country, the Edwards Plateau, the North Central Plains, the High Plains, the Trans-Pecos and the Llano Estacado, and its major rivers include the Rio Grande, the Brazos, the Sabine, the Trinity and the Red River.⁠[28]

On a 2010 census basis, Texas has a total area of 268,596 square miles (695,662 km²), of which 261,232 square miles (676,587 km²) is land and 7,365 square miles (19,075 km²) is water. The highest point is Guadalupe Peak in Culberson County at 8,749 feet (about 2,667 m), and the lowest is sea level at the Gulf of Mexico; other peaks above 8,000 feet are Bush Mountain (8,631 ft), Shumard Peak (8,615 ft), Bartlett Peak (8,508 ft), Mount Livermore (8,378 ft), Hunter Peak (8,368 ft) and El Capitan (8,085 ft).⁠[29][30][31]

The climate varies widely: the Rio Grande Valley can be very warm in January while the Panhandle may see blizzards, the Gulf Coast is wet and prone to hurricanes, and the Trans-Pecos is the driest region.⁠[28]

Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates put Texas’s population at 31,709,821 on July 1, 2025, second among the states, up 391,243 from 31,318,578 on July 1, 2024, the largest numeric gain of any state; its growth rate of 1.2 percent ranked 4th. Growth came from natural change and net international migration; net international migration from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, was 167,475, second only to FloridaFloridaFlorida is a U.S. state occupying mainly the Florida peninsula, with its capital at Tallahassee; its most populous city is Jacksonville. It entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, and had a population of 21,538,187 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry, although these gains slowed sharply.⁠[32]

Nearly two-fifths of Texans are of Hispanic descent, non-Hispanic whites make up less than half of the population, African Americans slightly less than one-eighth (more than two-fifths of whom live in Dallas and Houston), and Native Americans less than 1 percent. Some four-fifths of Texans live in urban areas, and about one-third live in the metropolitan areas of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio.⁠[5]

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data put Texas’s nominal GDP at $2.93 trillion ($2,932,343.6 million) in 2025, $2.81 trillion ($2,806,089.2 million) in 2024 and $2.68 trillion ($2,678,582.1 million) in 2023.⁠[33]

Cotton and cattle were early pillars of the economy, and petroleum remains a major base, so swings in oil prices strongly affect the state. High-technology industries have reshaped the economy since the 1970s, alongside growth in aerospace, military-related and health industries; NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal agency responsible for the civilian space program, aeronautics research and space science. Established by law in 1958 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has run programs including Mercury, the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station and Artemis.Open the full entry’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is in Houston. Access to water transportation made the coast the center of industry.⁠[5]

The state’s official nickname is “The Lone Star State,” its motto “Friendship” and its song “Texas, Our Texas.” The state bird is the mockingbird, the state flower the bluebonnet (designated in 1901 by the 27th Legislature), the state tree the pecan, the large state mammal the longhorn, the small state mammal the armadillo, the state dish chili con carne and the state sport rodeo.⁠[34]

The state flag’s design was contained in a bill introduced by Senator William H. WhartonWharton SchoolThe Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania. Established through Joseph Wharton’s gift in 1881, it offers undergraduate, MBA, doctoral and executive education.Open the full entry on December 28, 1838; Congress passed it on January 21, 1839, and President Mirabeau B. Lamar approved it on January 25, 1839. The flag has a width-to-length ratio of two to three, with a blue vertical stripe one-third of its length bearing a single white five-pointed star, and white and red horizontal stripes; the red, white and blue stand for bravery, purity and loyalty. The flag is now governed by Chapter 3100 of the Texas Government Code.⁠[35]

Six nations have held sovereignty over Texas, their flags known together as the “Six Flags of Texas”: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and the United States, whose periods of sovereignty were 1845–1861 and 1865 to the present.⁠[2]

Texas.gov: Official website: https://www.texas.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[36]

Office of the Texas Governor: Official website: https://gov.texas.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[27]

Texas State Library and Archives Commission: Official website: https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[26]