Origins, Economy, Demographics, and Culture of Texas

Native Americans inhabited Texas lands for over 10,000 years before the arrival of Europeans.
Tribes competed for land, leading to migration and settlement throughout Texas.

Between 1500 and 1776, multiple tribes settled in Texas, arriving from the northern plain states.
The name "Texas" comes from a Spanish word meaning "friendly" or "ally," used by Spanish explorers to describe native populations.
In the 1530s and 1540s, Spanish explorers entered coastal, northern, and eastern Texas.
Over the next two centuries, the Spanish established missions and military outposts.
Expansion into Texas protected the interior of New Spain.
The Spanish colonists' approach to settlement was summarized as "Glory, God, and Gold."
Spain increased taxes on the colonies to pay debts, leading to a revolutionary movement.
New Spain, later known as the United Mexican States, gained independence in 1821.

Tejanos primarily worked in ranching communities near military outposts along Mexico's northern frontier.
They transformed settler life from agrarian to ranching.
Like the Anglos immigrating to Texas, Tejanos resisted centralized authority and favored local self-governance.
They shaped local laws before the revolution and planted the seeds of Texas independence.

Mexico used Texas as a source of economic revenue.
The land-hungry United States threatened Spanish control.
In the 1820s, Mexico aggressively promoted Anglo settlement in Texas.
Empresarios were individuals granted the right to settle new land and recruit new settlers.
Laws in 1830 stopped further immigration into Texas, spurring Anglo illegal immigration.

By 1823, Mexico had banned slavery, but Anglo settlers brought African American slaves under the guise of "contract labor" beginning in 1829.
By 1847, After Texas gained Independence, and joined the U.S. the number of slaves was at approximately 38,753.
Before the Civil War, African Americans faced harsh slave codes.
The Civil War and Reconstruction promised freedom, but "Black Codes" restricted access and relegated African Americans to agricultural labor.
By the 1890s, most African Americans worked as tenant farmers on former plantations.
African Americans established “freedmantowns” on the outskirts of major cities.

Texas as an independent nation would rank tenth in the world.
Texas is home to six of the top fifty companies on the Fortune 500 list.
Gross state product is second highest in the United States.
The Texas economy relies on a mix of agriculture and ranching, oil and natural gas, military and defense, information technology, electric power, and manufacturing.

In Antebellum Texas, three-quarters of all families drew their living from the state’s plentiful farmland.
Corn was prominent in the east, sorghum in the west, wheat in the northern plains, citrus in the south, and rice in the coastal prairies.
Cotton was the most prominent crop.
Since the early 1900s, Texas has been the leading cotton-producing state in the nation, accounting for 25\% of the entire US crop today.
Timber played a major role between 1880 and 1910.
Today, Texas leads the nation in the production of several agricultural staples.

The discovery of a major oil deposit at Spindletop Hill in Beaumont, TX, in 1901 ushered in a new economic era.
By 1940, Texas was the leading oil-producing state in the United States and central to the war effort.
Pumping and production were regulated by the Texas Railroad Commission.
Today, Texas is a world leader in the energy industry.

Texas is the fastest-growing of the large states in the United States today.
"Sunbelt" states, such as Texas, are growing rapidly as baby boomers retire and as jobs move from the industrial northeast and Midwest to the South.
Population growth brings greater sway in presidential elections, more seats in Congress, and thus more power on the national level.
Texas had a population of 20.8 million in 2000 and 29.0 million in 2019.

Population growth has not been uniform across the state; much of the growth has occurred in urban areas.
In 1890, Texas had no urban areas with a population larger than 40,000.
By 1920, four cities—Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio—boasted more than 100,000 each.
Today, the “big six” counties (Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis, and El Paso) account for 47\% of the total population in Texas.

The most significant demographic change has been suburbanization.
This involves population shifts from urban and rural areas to suburban areas adjacent to major cities.
Texas suburbs made up half of the country’s 10 fastest-growing cities in 2016.

Population shifts from rural to urban and suburban centers are changing the center of political power.
Policy priorities follow growing population.
Texas government addresses urban and suburban problems and focuses less on rural issues.
The number of representatives for urban and suburban areas rise.
Political divisions develop between conservative suburbs and liberal urban areas.

Demographic groups have different needs that government must respond to.
Segregation involves the enforced or de facto separation of different racial groups.
Anglos were a clear supermajority in the 1980s.
The rapid rise of the Hispanic population has and will continue to alter the social and political shape of the state.
Residential segregation is prevalent in Texas.
Anglos tend to live in suburbs.
African Americans tend to live in urban areas.
Hispanics tend to live in smaller metropolitan areas.
The foreign-born population is driving some of the growth of the Hispanic population.

Political Culture: a set of shared values and practices held by people that informs their expectations of government and their vision of a just society
Individualistic Political Culture: emphasizes personal achievement, individual freedom, individual enterprise and loyalty to self instead of others
You’re on your own in Texas, to sink or swim, and Texans like it that way
Minimal Government: a government that provides minimal services and interferes as little as possible in the transactions of individuals and institutions