Brief history of Texas


Texas was founded back in 16th century where the Spanish conquistadors, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, became the first to visit the region and settled a place called Ysleta in 1682. Three years later, two Frenchmen, Robert Cavelier and Sieur de la Saller, came in and formed an ephemeral French colony at Matagorda Bay. In 1821, some Americans, led by Stephen Austin, settled along Brazos River when the region was under the Mexico government. After an epigrammatic war between the government of Mexico and the American settlers, Texas was later declared as an independent state, Sam Houston as the president. The war became eminent owing to San Jacinto and Alamo battle, which later led to Mexican war because of border disputes in 1846-1848.

Texas is a land gigantic of natural resources making it an industrial and agricultural state. It is the second largest, just after Alaska, in terms of land area. Texas leads in production of cotton, oil, cattle and sheep. Farms and ranches in the area produce poultry and eggs, peanuts, wheat, sugar cane, nursery and green house products, hay, rice, dairy products and all kinds of vegetables and fruits.

Other valuable resources of Texas include cement, salt, bromine, sulphur, asphalt, natural gas, graphite and clays. Oil refining, chemicals, machinery, transportation equipments and food processing are among the major manufacturing industries in the area.

The state receives up to $50 billion annual income from tourism industry. Tourism sites in the area include recreation areas, state parks, and other points of interest such as the Houston's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, the Alamo in San Antonio, the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, the Gulf Coast resort area, and the Big Bend.

The state experienced a significant economic depression and the dust bowl during the World War II, which led to an increment of unemployment especially those who depended on federal relief programs like CCC, FERA and WPA. It is during this period Texas experienced a stock market crash. The state experienced its hottest and driest months in 2011. The state had earlier experienced a 7-year period of lack of water back in 1950s. A severe ecological disaster of drought and wind led to exodus from the area whereby over 500, 000 Americans were left hungry, jobless and homeless. This is why the state is spending millions of dollars in researching on new sources of water as the population is forecasted to double by 2060.

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