I pass a home with the Texas Lone Star emblem on it. This kind of décor is very common in Texas. The “Lone Star” can be found in many different kinds of goods — jewelry, T-shirts, hats, sunglasses, lampshades, etc. It is rare to go very far in any Texas city without seeing the Texas Lone Star emblem. There is a great deal of independent pride that is attached to the emblem. I was raised in Oklahoma where I learned about Indian tribes in state history classes, so I don’t know a lot about Texas history. But I do know that it used to be an independent country. The Lone Star is a representation of that bold independence. Let’s learn more about the confident and self-assured individuals who came together and formed the state of Texas.
The recorded history of Texas begins with the arrival of the first Spanish conquistadors in the region of North America now known as Texas in 1519, who found the region occupied by numerous Native American tribes. The name Texas derives from táyshaʼ, a word in the Caddoan language of the Hasinai, which means "friends" or "allies." Native Americans' ancestors had been in what is now Texas, more than 10,000 years ago as evidenced by the discovery of the remains of prehistoric Leanderthal Lady, the skeletal remains of a prehistoric woman found at the Wilson-Leonard Brushy Creek Site — an ancient Native American campsite — in the city of Cedar Park, Texas, by the Texas Department of Transportation. During the period of recorded history from 1519 AD to 1848, all or parts of Texas were claimed by five countries: France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas and the United States of America, as well as the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Pre-Colombian history
According to Wikipedia, as of the colonial period, Texas was largely divided between six culture groups. The Caddoan peoples occupied the area surrounding the entire length of the Red River, and at the time of initial contact with Europeans they formed four collective confederacies known as the Natchitoches, the Hasinai, the Wichita & the Kadohadocho or Caddo. Along the Gulf Coast region were the Atakapa tribes. Southward from the Atakapa, along the Gulf Coast to the Rio Grande river, at least one Coahuiltecan tribe — a culture group primarily from Northeast Mexico — was located. The Puebloan peoples, situated largely between the Rio Grande & Pecos rivers were part of an extensive civilization of tribes that lived in what are now the states of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. While the northernmost Puebloan groups faced a cultural collapse due to a drought, many of the southern tribes survive to the present. North of the Pueblos were the Apachean tribes who although commonly referred to as a single nation, were actually a culture group. Finally, north of the Apacheans, in the northern current-day Texas Panhandle region, were the Comanches.
Native Americans determined the fate of European explorers and settlers depending on whether a tribe was kind or warlike. Friendly tribes taught newcomers how to grow indigenous crops, prepare foods and hunting methods for the wild game. Warlike tribes made life difficult and dangerous for explorers and settlers through their attacks and resistance to European conquest. Many Native Americans died of new infectious diseases, which caused high fatalities and disrupted their cultures in the early years of colonization.
Three federally recognized Native American tribes reside in present-day Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas. A remnant of the Choctaw tribe in East Texas still lives in the Mt. Tabor Community near Overton, Texas.
Early Spanish exploration
The first European to see Texas was Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, who led an expedition for the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, in 1520. While searching for a passage between the Gulf of Mexico and Asia, Álvarez de Pineda created the first map of the northern Gulf Coast. This map is the earliest recorded document of Texas history.
Between 1528 and 1535, four survivors of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Estevanico, spent six and a half years in Texas as slaves and traders among various native groups. Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore the interior of Texas.
French colonization of Texas
Although Álvarez de Pineda had claimed the area that is now Texas for Spain, the area was essentially ignored for over 160 years. Its initial settlement by Europeans occurred by accident. In April 1682, French nobleman René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle had claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France. The following year, he convinced King Louis XIV to establish a colony near the Mississippi, essentially splitting Spanish Florida from New Spain.
La Salle's colonization expedition left France on July 24, 1684 and soon lost one of its supply ships to Spanish privateers. A combination of inaccurate maps, La Salle's previous miscalculation of the latitude of the mouth of the Mississippi River and overcorrecting for the Gulf currents led the ships to be unable to find the Mississippi. Instead, they landed at Matagorda Bay in early 1685, 400 miles west of the Mississippi. In February, the colonists constructed Fort Saint Louis.
After the fort was constructed, one of the ships returned to France, and the other two were soon destroyed in storms, stranding the settlers. La Salle and his men searched overland for the Mississippi River, traveling as far west as the Rio Grande and as far east as the Trinity River. Disease and hardship laid waste to the colony, and by early January 1687, fewer than 45 people remained. That month, a third expedition launched a final attempt to find the Mississippi. The expedition experienced much infighting, and La Salle was ambushed and killed somewhere in East Texas.
The Spanish learned of the French colony in late 1685. Feeling that the French colony was a threat to Spanish mines and shipping routes, King Carlos II's Council of War recommended the removal of "this thorn which has been thrust into the heart of America. The greater the delay the greater the difficulty of attainment." Having no idea where to find La Salle, the Spanish launched 10 expeditions — both land and sea — over the next three years. The last expedition discovered a French deserter living in Southern Texas with the Coahuiltecans.
The Frenchman guided the Spanish to the French fort in late April 1689. The fort and the five crude houses surrounding it were in ruins. Several months before, the Karankawa had become angry that the French had taken their canoes without payment and had attacked the settlement, sparing only four children.
Establishment of Spanish colony
News of the destruction of the French fort "created instant optimism and quickened religious fervor" in Mexico City. Spain had learned a great deal about the geography of Texas during the many expeditions in search of Fort Saint Louis. In March 1690, Alonso De León led an expedition to establish a mission in East Texas. Mission San Francisco de los Tejas was completed near the Hasinai village of Nabedaches in late May, and its first mass was celebrated on June 1.
On January 23, 1691, Spain appointed the first governor of Texas, General Domingo Terán de los Ríos. On his visit to Mission San Francisco in August, he discovered that the priests had established a second mission nearby, but were having little luck converting the natives to Christianity. The Indians regularly stole the mission cattle and horses and showed little respect to the priests. When Terán left Texas later that year, most of the missionaries chose to return with him, leaving only three religious people and nine soldiers at the missions. The group also left behind a smallpox epidemic. The angry Caddo threatened the remaining Spaniards, who soon abandoned the fledgling missions and returned to Coahuila. For the next 20 years, Spain again ignored Texas.
After a failed attempt to convince Spanish authorities to reestablish missions in Texas, in 1711 Franciscan missionary Francisco Hidalgo approached the French governor of Louisiana for help. The French governor sent representatives to meet with Hidalgo. This concerned Spanish authorities, who ordered the reoccupation of Texas as a buffer between New Spain and French settlements in Louisiana. In 1716, four missions and a presidio were established in East Texas. Accompanying the soldiers were the first recorded female settlers in Spanish Texas.
The new missions were over 400 miles from the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista. Martín de Alarcón, who had been appointed governor of Texas in late 1716, wished to establish a way station between the settlements along the Rio Grande and the new missions in East Texas. Alarcón led a group of 72 people, including 10 families, into Texas in April 1718, where they settled along the San Antonio River. Within the next week, the settlers built mission San Antonio de Valero and a presidio, and chartered the municipality of San Antonio de Béxar, now San Antonio, Texas.
The following year, the War of the Quadruple Alliance pitted Spain against France, which immediately moved to take over Spanish interests in North America. In June 1719, seven Frenchmen from Natchitoches took control of the mission San Miguel de los Adaes from its sole defender, who did not know that the countries were at war. The French soldiers explained that 100 additional soldiers were coming, and the Spanish colonists, missionaries and remaining soldiers fled to San Antonio.
The new governor of Coahuila and Texas, the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo, drove the French from Los Adaes without firing a shot. He then ordered the building of a new Spanish fort Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes, located near present-day Robeline, Louisiana, only 12 miles from Natchitoches. The new fort became the first capital of Texas, and was guarded by six cannons and 100 soldiers. The six East Texas missions were reopened, and an additional mission and presidio were established at Matagorda Bay on the former site of Fort Saint Louis.
Spanish legacy
Spanish control of Texas was followed by Mexican control of Texas, and it can be difficult to separate the Spanish and Mexican influences on the future state. The most obvious legacy is that of the language; every major river in modern Texas, including the Red River, which was baptized by the Spaniards as Colorado de Texas, has a Spanish or Anglicized name, as do 42 of the state's 254 counties. Numerous towns also bear Spanish names.
An additional obvious legacy is that of Roman Catholicism. At the end of Spain's reign over Texas, virtually all inhabitants practiced the Catholic religion, and it is still practiced in Texas by a large number of people. The Spanish missions built in San Antonio to convert Indians to Catholicism have been restored and are a National Historic Landmark.
The Spanish introduced European livestock, including cattle, horses, and mules to Texas as early as the 1690s. These herds grazed heavily on the native grasses, allowing mesquite, which was native to the lower Texas coast, to spread inland. Spanish farmers also introduced tilling and irrigation to the land, further changing the landscape.
Texas eventually adopted much of the Anglo-American legal system, but some Spanish legal practices were retained, including homestead exemption, community property and adoption.
Comancheria
From the 1750s to the 1850s, the Comanche were the dominant group in the Southwest, and the domain they ruled was known as Comancheria. Confronted with Spanish, Mexican and American outposts on their periphery in New Mexico and Texas — along with Coahuila and Nueva Vizcaya in northern Mexico — the Comanche worked to increase their own safety, prosperity and power. The population in 1810–1830 was 7,000 to 8,000.
The Comanche used their military power to obtain supplies and labor from the Americans, Mexicans and Indians through thievery, looting and killing, tribute and kidnappings. There was much violence committed by and against Comanche, before and after the European settlement of Texas. Although they made a living partially through raiding and violence — along with hunting/gathering, especially buffalo hunting — the Comanche empire also supported a commercial network with long-distance trade. Dealing with subordinate Indians, the Comanche spread their language and culture across the region. In terms of governance, the Comanche were nearly independent but allied bands with a loosely hierarchical social organization within bands.
Their empire collapsed when their camps and villages were repeatedly decimated by epidemics of smallpox and cholera in the late 1840s, and in bloody conflict with settlers, the Texas Rangers and the U.S. Army. The population plunged from 20,000 to just a few thousand by the 1870s. The Comanche were no longer able to deal with the U.S. Army, which took over control of the region after the Mexican–American War ended in 1848. The long-term imprint of the Comanche on the Indian and Hispanic culture has been demonstrated by scholars such as Daniel J. Gelo and Curtis Marez.
Mexican Texas 1821-1836
The first empresarial grant had been made under Spanish control to Moses Austin. The grant was passed to his son Stephen F. Austin, whose settlers, known as the Old Three Hundred, settled along the Brazos River in 1822. The grant was later ratified by the Mexican government. Twenty-three other empresarios brought settlers to the state, the majority from the United States of America.
Starting in 1821, and in spite of growing Mexican limitations on slavery, U.S. immigrants brought an increasing number of slaves into Texas. By 1825, 69 slave owners owned 443 slaves. Mexico granted Texas a one-year exemption from the national edict of 1829 outlawing slavery, but Mexican president Anastasio Bustamante ordered that all slaves be freed in 1830. To circumvent the law, the colonists converted their slaves into indentured servants "for life." By 1836 there were 5,000 enslaved African Americans in Texas.
Bustamante outlawed the immigration of United States citizens to Texas in 1830. Several new presidios were established in the region to monitor immigration and customs practices. The new laws also called for the enforcement of customs duties, angering both native Mexican citizens or Tejanos and Anglos. In 1832, a group of men led a revolt against customs enforcement in Anahuac. These Anahuac Disturbances coincided with a revolt in Mexico against the current president. Texans sided with the federalists against the current government and after the Battle of Nacogdoches, drove all Mexican soldiers out of East Texas.
Texans took advantage of the lack of oversight to agitate for more political freedom, resulting in the Convention of 1832. Among other issues, the convention demanded that U.S. citizens be allowed to immigrate into Texas, and requested independent statehood for the area. The following year, Texans reiterated their demands at the Convention of 1833. After presenting their petition, courier Stephen F. Austin was jailed for the next two years in Mexico City on suspicion of treason. Although Mexico implemented several measures to appease the colonists, President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's measures to transform Mexico from a federalist to a centralist state provided an excuse for the Texan colonists to revolt.
Texas Revolution
On March 2, 1836, Texans signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Washington-on-the-Brazos, effectively creating the Republic of Texas. The revolt was justified as necessary to protect basic rights and because Mexico had annulled the federal pact. The majority of the colonists were from the United States; they said that Mexico had invited them to move to the country, but they were determined "to enjoy" the republican institutions to which they were accustomed in their native land.
Many of the Texas settlers believed the war to be over and left the army after the initial string of victories. The remaining troops were largely recently arrived adventurers from the United States; according to historian Alwyn Barr, the numerous American volunteers "contributed to the Mexican view that Texan opposition stemmed from outside influences." The Mexican congress responded to this perceived threat by authorizing the execution of any foreigner found fighting in Texas; they did not want prisoners of war.
As early as October 27, Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna had been preparing to quell the unrest in Texas. In early 1836, Santa Anna personally led a 6,000-man force toward Texas. His force was large but ill-trained. Santa Anna led the bulk of the troops to San Antonio de Bexar to besiege the Alamo Mission, while General Jose de Urrea led the remaining troops up the coast of Texas. Urrea's forces soon defeated all the Texian resistance along the coast, culminating in the Goliad Massacre, where they executed 300 Texian prisoners of war. After a 13-day siege, Santa Anna's forces overwhelmed the nearly 200 Texians defending the Alamo and killed the prisoners. "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" became a battle cry of the Texas Revolution.
News of the defeats sparked the Runaway Scrape, where much of the population of Texas and the Texas provisional government fled east, away from the approaching Mexican army. Many settlers rejoined the Texian army, then commanded by General Sam Houston. After several weeks of maneuvering, on April 21, 1836, the Texian Army attacked Santa Anna's forces near the present-day city of Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. They captured Santa Anna and forced him to sign the Treaties of Velasco, ending the war.
Republic of Texas 1836-1845
The First Congress of the Republic of Texas convened in October 1836 at Columbia — now West Columbia. It overturned the Mexican prohibition of slavery, although it allowed slaveholders to free their slaves if they desired. Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, died December 27, 1836, after serving two months as Secretary of State for the new Republic. In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas — Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia — before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was moved to the new town of Austin by the next president, Mirabeau B. Lamar.
Internal politics of the Republic were based on the conflict between two factions. The nationalist faction, led by Mirabeau B. Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans and the expansion of Texas to the Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Sam Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful co-existence with Native Americans.
Although Texas governed itself, Mexico refused to recognize its independence. On March 5, 1842, a Mexican force of over 500 men, led by Ráfael Vásquez, invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They soon headed back to the Rio Grande after briefly occupying San Antonio. 1,400 Mexican troops, led by the French mercenary general Adrian Woll launched a second attack and captured San Antonio on September 11, 1842. A Texas militia retaliated at the Battle of Salado Creek. However, on September 18, this militia was defeated by Mexican soldiers and Texas Cherokee Indians during the Dawson Massacre. The Mexican army would later retreat from the city of San Antonio.
Mexico's attacks on Texas intensified the conflict between the political factions in an incident known as the Texas Archive War in 1842. To "protect" the Texas national archives, President Sam Houston ordered them out of Austin. Austin residents, suspicious of the president's motives because of his avowed disdain of the capital, forced the archives back to Austin at gunpoint. The Texas Congress admonished Houston for the incident, and the incident would solidify Austin as Texas's seat of government for the Republic and the future state.
Statehood, war and expansion 1845-1860
On February 28, 1845, the U.S. Congress narrowly passed a bill that authorized the United States to annex the Republic of Texas if it so voted. The legislation set the date for annexation for December 29 of the same year. On October 13 of the same year, a majority of voters in Texas approved a proposed constitution that specifically endorsed slavery and the slave trade. This constitution was later accepted by the U.S. Congress, making Texas a U.S. state on the same day annexation took effect, therefore bypassing a territorial phase.
The Mexican government had long warned that annexation would mean war with the United States. When Texas joined the U.S., the Mexican government broke diplomatic relations with the United States. The United States now assumed the claims of Texas when it claimed all land north of the Rio Grande. In June 1845, President James K. Polk sent General Zachary Taylor to Texas, and by October, 3,500 Americans were on the Nueces River, prepared to defend Texas from a Mexican invasion. On November 10, 1845, Polk ordered General Taylor and his forces south to the Rio Grande into disputed territory that Mexicans claimed as their own. Mexico claimed the Nueces River — about 150 miles north of the Rio Grande — as its border with Texas.
On April 25, 1846, a 2,000-strong Mexican cavalry detachment attacked a 70-man U.S. patrol that had been sent into the contested territory north of the Rio Grande and south of the Nueces River. The Mexican cavalry routed the patrol, killing 16 U.S. soldiers in what later became known as the Thornton Affair. Both nations declared war. In the ensuing Mexican–American War, there were no more battles fought in Texas, but it became a major staging point for the American invasion of northern Mexico.
One of the primary motivations for annexation was the Texas government's huge debts. The United States agreed to assume many of these upon annexation. However, the former Republic never fully paid off its debt until the Compromise of 1850. In return for $10 million, a large portion of Texas-claimed territory — now parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Wyoming — was ceded to the federal government.
Lone Star
The idea of the "lone star" is, in fact, an older symbol predating the flag which was used to symbolize Texans' solidarity in declaring independence from Mexico. A similar lone star was on the "Burnet Flag," which resembled the flag of the short-lived Republic of West Florida. The "Lone Star" is still seen today as a symbol of Texas' independent spirit and gave rise to the state's official nickname "The Lone Star State."
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