History of Texas

    Texas, also known as the lone star state, officially became a state on December 29th, 1845. Making it the 28th state of the United States. The origin of the name Texas or Tejas came from the Spanish pronunciation of an Indian word meaning "friends" or "allies". A European explorer, Alonso Alvarez de Pineda first claimed the area of Texas for Spain. Several nations have ruled over Texas, they have flown six different flags in their history. The Spanish control of Texas was taken over by Mexico, but a Spanish legacy still remains with Texas. The major rivers and some of the counties still have Spanish names.

   In early 1836, Mexican troops tried to take over Texas. At the battle of the Alamo, the Texan army fought hard. The phrase, "Remember the Alamo" became famous because of this war. Many men died defending the Alamo, including Davy Crockett, but Texas won its freedom. The Alamo is still one of the most famous sites visited in Texas. The Republic of Texas begins to build. They began in 1836 using 5 cities as temporary capitals. In 1837, it was moved to Houston. Then, in 1839, it was moved to Austin where it still remains today.

  Texas is the second largest U.S. State and in the 1800's the main sources of economy were cotton and ranching. Also, in the early 1900's the discovery of oil and the abundance of natural resources were growing. Even today Texas relies on many of these same sources, in fact the number of cattle in Texas almost out numbers the people. Texas also has a long history of farming land, more land is farmed in Texas than any other area.

  The state of Texas has had its share of natural disasters in its history. One of the worst was the Galveston hurricane of 1900. This hurricane is the deadliest hurricane reported in U.S. history. The winds were up to 145 miles per hour, and the reported deaths were about 8,000. The city was destroyed, it was rebuilt with new modifications for future storms. The state of Texas has experienced several of these storms and had to learn from them and rebuild.

  Another part of the state of Texas's history are their universities. As early as the 1800's the first universities appeared in the state. There are 6 state universities and 4 independent, the largest are probably the University of Texas and Texas A & M. They have a great history of academics and sports.

Sources- texas-on-line.com/graphic/history.htm, enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/texas, lsjunction.com/events/events.htm, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/history_of_texas, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/texas.