Houston Oilers play in the famous Astrodome, also home of baseball's
Houston Astros. There are three Texas basketball teams: the Dallas
Mavericks, the Houston Rockets, and the San Antonio Spurs.
Education
The first schools in the Texas region were informal classes for Native
Americans held at the missions of Spanish priests. There were only a few
private schools in the area at the time of the Texas declaration of
independence in 1836. One of the republic's charges against Mexico was that
it had "failed to establish any public system of education."
In 1839 the Republic of Texas began setting aside public land for
education. An act establishing a state school system was passed in 1854. A
permanent school fund was established with a grant of 2 million dollars,
and provision was made for setting up school districts. In 1949 the Gilmer-
Aikin laws reorganized the public school system to equalize educational
opportunities. Common school districts were consolidated from more than
3,000 to fewer than 1,000.
The largest of the state schools is the University of Texas, located in
Austin, with branches at Arlington, Dallas, El Paso, Odessa, San Antonio,
and Tyler; health science centers at Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio;
cancer centers at Houston and Bastrop County; a health center at Tyler; and
a medical branch at Galveston. The divisions of the Texas A&M University
System are located at College Station, Prairie View, Stephenville, and
Galveston.
Some of the other state-supported institutions are Lamar University, at
Beaumont; Midwestern State University, at Wichita Falls; Pan American
University, at Edinburg; Texas Southern University, at Houston; the
University of Houston, also at Houston, with branches at Houston (Clear
Lake City, Downtown College branches) and Victoria; Texas Tech University,
at Lubbock; and Texas Woman's University, at Denton. Other large
institutions include Southern Methodist University, at Dallas; Texas
Christian University, at Fort Worth; Baylor University, at Waco; St. Mary's
University of San Antonio, at San Antonio; Abilene Christian University, at
Abilene; Trinity University, at San Antonio; Rice University, at Houston;
and Texas Wesleyan College, at Fort Worth.
Government and Politics
Under Mexican rule Texas was governed first from Saltillo and then from
Monclova (both in Mexico). In 1835-36 one or more governmental functions
were carried on at San Felipe de Austin, Washington on the Brazos,
Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, and Columbia. Houston served as the capital
in 1837-39; Austin, in 1839-42; and Washington on the Brazos, in 1842-45.
Austin has remained the state capital since 1845. Texas is governed under
its fifth constitution, which was adopted in 1876.
The chief executive officer of the state is the governor, who is elected
every four years. The legislative branch consists of the Senate and the
House of Representatives. Heading the state judiciary is the Supreme Court
and Court of Criminal Appeals.
The Democratic party dominated Texas politics from the beginning of
statehood--with only occasional exceptions--until the 1970s. Sam Houston
was elected governor as an independent in 1859, and Republicans were
elected in 1870 and 1979. Likewise, in presidential elections Texas voted
Democratic in every election after the American Civil War until 1928 and
again until the 1950s. In recent years the Republican party has been
gaining strength. A Dallas oil-drilling contractor, William Clements, was
elected governor in 1978 and reelected in 1986--the first Republican to
head the state since Reconstruction.
John N. Garner of Uvalde was the nation's first vice-president from Texas
(1933-41). Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served from 1953 to 1961, was the
first Texas-born president. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson of Johnson
City became the second president from Texas on Nov. 22, 1963, after the
assassination of John F. Kennedy while riding in a Dallas motorcade. The
governor of Texas, John B. Connally, who was riding in the same car as
President Kennedy, was wounded. Johnson took the oath of office as
president immediately after Kennedy' s death; he was elected president in
1964. George Bush was a resident of Texas when he was elected vice-
president in 1980 and 1984 and when he was elected president in 1988.
Sam Rayburn of Bonham holds the record for length of service as speaker of
the United States House of Representatives--17 years, beginning in 1940.
One of the first African American women to serve in Congress, and the first
from the Deep South, was Barbara Jordan of Houston, first elected in 1972.
The wife of a former governor of Texas, who had been impeached, Miriam A.
Ferguson was the second American woman (by two weeks) to serve as a
governor (1925-27 and 1933-35). More than any other state, Texas has
elected women to high political offices in several of its cities. In the
1980s women were elected to the top post in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio,
Corpus Christi, and El Paso. In 1990 another woman, Ann Richards, was
narrowly elected governor of the state.
HISTORY OF TEXAS
Six national flags have flown over Texas during its colorful history. The
first was Spain's banner, from 1519 to 1685. In 1685 the French explorer La
Salle raised the French flag over a short-lived coastal colony. In 1691
Texas again came under the Spanish flag, which was replaced by the banner
of Mexico in 1821. From 1836 to 1845 the Lone Star banner flew over the
Republic of Texas. The Stars and Stripes became the official flag in 1845,
but during the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, it was replaced by
the Confederate flag.
The first European to visit what is now Texas was Alonso Alvarez de Pineda,
who mapped the coast in 1519. Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish noble, was the
first to explore the area. Shipwrecked near what is now Galveston in 1528,
he was captured by the Karankawa Indians and traveled with them for eight
years before escaping. In 1541 Francisco Coronado crossed the Panhandle in
search of gold. Later, parties of Spaniards camped in the wilderness, but
they left no settlements.
The French explorer La Salle missed the mouth of the Mississippi River in
1685 and sailed into Matagorda Bay. He pushed inland and built Fort St.
Louis, which two years later was wiped out by Native Americans already
living in the area. Fear of French influence hurried the Spanish into
extending missions into eastern Texas.
By 1800 some 25 missions and a number of presidios had been built in Texas.
The missions had little success in converting the Native Americans to the
alien Spanish culture and failed to attract settlers. A 1795 census found
69 families in San Antonio. The few additional families were mainly at what
are now Goliad and Nacogdoches.
After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States regarded eastern
Texas as its territory. Spain refused to recognize the claim and won
control of about 96,000 square miles (248,639 square kilometers) through
the Adams-Onнs Treaty of 1819. After Mexico gained its independence from
Spain, this boundary (the Sabine River and northward) was confirmed by a
treaty with the United States.
The way to American settlement was opened when Moses Austin of Connecticut
won Spain's consent to settle 300 Anglo-American families in Texas. His
son, Stephen F. Austin, is called the father of Texas because he brought
the first group of colonists to the lower Brazos River in December 1821.
The capital of the settlement was established at San Felipe de Austin, in
present Austin County, in 1823.
Mexico made additional land grants to other settlers. Drawn by an abundance
of public lands where corn and cotton grew, whites from the South and
Southwest and their black slaves swelled the population. As immigration
into Texas from the United States increased, however, Mexico grew more
hostile. Resentment flared in 1826 when American promoters set up the short-
lived Fredonian republic at Nacogdoches. By 1830 the population of Texas
had grown to nearly 25,000, and further American immigration, including the
importation of African American slaves, was forbidden. Disputes with Mexico
increased. After Santa Anna became the dictator of Mexico, the Texans
revolted. The first open battle was fought at Gonzales on Oct. 2, 1835.
Republic of Texas
The Texans held a convention at Washington on the Brazos and adopted a
declaration of independence on March 2, 1836. A constitution modeled after
that of the United States was adopted by the new Republic of Texas.
The most striking event in the Texas war for independence was the heroic
defense of the Alamo in San Antonio. A rebuilt mission, the Alamo was used
as a fort by about 180 Americans. After a siege of 12 days by several
thousand Mexican soldiers under Santa Anna, the Alamo fell on March 6,
1836, and the garrison was wiped out. Later in the month the Mexicans
massacred James Fannin and more than 300 Texas prisoners at Goliad.
"Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Goliad" became Texas war cries.
Independence was won after Gen. Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna on the
banks of the San Jacinto River near Houston on April 21, 1836. In September
Sam Houston was elected president of the republic.
The new nation was hemmed in by the Indian frontier from the Red River to
the hostile Mexican border along the Rio Grande. These threats led to the
development of the famous Texas Rangers, expert horsemen and marksmen. The
Rangers, the oldest state police force in the United States, are now a
branch of the Department of Public Safety.
From 1836 to 1845 the public debt grew from 1 million to 8 million dollars.
Many believed that the future development of Texas would be greater under
the United States. In 1844 a convention voted for annexation and a state
constitution was adopted.
Admission to the Union
The proposed annexation brought a bitter fight in the United States over
the question of slavery. Finally, on Dec. 29, 1845, Texas was admitted to
the Union. The state kept its public lands and reserved the right to divide
into no more than five states.
Disputes with Mexico over boundary lines led to the Mexican War in 1846.
The United States victory in the conflict two years later established the
Rio Grande as the international border as far as El Paso. In 1850 Congress
purchased from Texas for 10 million dollars the claim of that state to some
100,000 square miles (259,000 square kilometers) of land, now part of New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Wyoming.
Just before the outbreak of the American Civil War, slaveholding Texas
seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. Governor Sam Houston
tried to keep the state in the Union but was deposed. Texas was readmitted
in 1870
In the mid-1860s Texas cowboys began driving cattle northward to markets or
ranges. Some of their famous cattle trails were the Chisholm, Western
(Dodge City), Goodnight-Loving, and Sedalia trails. More than 11 million
cattle were herded up these trails before the introduction of railroads
into the area. These cowboys were the inspiration for many dozens of
Western novels and films. Yet in spite of all the Western lore celebrating
the cowboy in song, story, art, and film, the era of the great cattle
drives was short. It was virtually over by 1890, only 20 years after it
began.
The Modern State
Much of the history of modern Texas is connected with the development of
the oil industry. In 1901 Anthony F. Lucas struck oil in the Spindletop
field, near Beaumont. Other great strikes included those of East Texas, the
richest of all, in 1930; Scurry County, in 1949; and Spraberry Field, near
Midland, in 1950. The state especially benefited from the expansion of the
industry, and its associated petrochemicals, after World War II. In 1960
Texas won a 15-year political and legal struggle for title to the offshore
oil in its Gulf of Mexico tidelands. A Supreme Court decision gave the
state mineral rights in an area extending three leagues--about 10 1/2 miles
(17 kilometers)--offshore.
In 1963 the United States ended a border dispute with Mexico by agreeing to
exchange land in the Laredo area. The dispute began about 100 years
earlier, when the channel of the Rio Grande shifted. HemisFair '68, the
first international exposition in a Southwestern state, was held at San
Antonio.
Massive oil spills from tankers have periodically devastated the Texas
shoreline. In October 1989 and, nine months later, in July 1990, there were
major fatal accidents at two Texas petrochemical plants within 10 miles (16
kilometers) of each other, near Houston.
