Texas

The Caddo farmed the forests of the east, and their word for "friend", taysha, gave Texas its name; the Karankawa lived along the Gulf Coast, and the Apache and later the Comanche dominated the plains, where Comanche power checked Spanish and Mexican expansion for more than a century. Spain built missions and presidios from the late 17th century, and San Antonio was founded in 1718 around the mission of San Antonio de Valero, later known as the Alamo.

After Mexico won independence in 1821 it invited American settlers led by Stephen F. Austin, many of whom brought enslaved people. Tensions over authority and slavery led to the Texas Revolution: independence was declared at Washington-on-the-Brazos on 2 March 1836, the Alamo fell on 6 March, and Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto on 21 April. The Republic of Texas lasted until annexation by the United States in 1845, which led to the Mexican–American War. Texas joined the Confederacy, and on 19 June 1865 Union troops in Galveston announced the end of slavery in the state, the origin of Juneteenth, a federal holiday since 2021.

Cattle drives north followed the war. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest natural disaster in US history, and the next year the Spindletop gusher near Beaumont launched the Texas oil boom. Houston grew on oil, its ship channel and, from the 1960s, NASA's Mission Control. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and his successor, Lyndon Johnson, came from the Hill Country. Mexican Americans organised for civil rights, founding LULAC in Corpus Christi in 1929. Since the 1990s Texas has been one of the fastest-growing states.

Texans take pride in having been an independent nation, and the state flag flies everywhere. Cowboy culture remains alive in rodeos, ranching and the Fort Worth Stockyards, while the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the State Fair of Texas in Dallas are major annual events. High-school football on Friday nights, the University of Texas and Texas A&M, and the Dallas Cowboys command enormous followings.

Around 40 per cent of Texans are Hispanic, and Tejano culture, rooted in the Spanish and Mexican era, shapes San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso, where Spanish is heard as often as English. German and Czech settlers of the 19th century left dance halls, polka and the accordion that became central to Tejano and conjunto music. Fiesta San Antonio fills the city each April, New Braunfels holds its Wurstfest sausage festival each autumn, and Juneteenth is celebrated statewide.

Music is a point of pride: western swing, the outlaw country of Willie Nelson, the blues of Houston's Lightnin' Hopkins, the Tejano star Selena and Houston hip-hop. Austin calls itself the "Live Music Capital of the World" and hosts the South by Southwest festival every March. Evangelical Protestant and Catholic churches both have deep roots, and the state is known for its hospitality and its affection for big trucks and big hats.

About 31 million people live in Texas. Houston has about 2.3 million residents, San Antonio about 1.5 million and Dallas about 1.3 million, with Austin close to a million and Fort Worth just over a million; the Dallas–Fort Worth area, with over eight million people, is the largest metropolitan area in the state. El Paso, Corpus Christi, Lubbock and the cities of the Rio Grande Valley are other important centres.

Energy still anchors the economy, with oil and gas from the Permian Basin in the west and refineries and petrochemical plants along the Gulf Coast, but Texas also leads the country in wind power. Houston is a hub for energy, shipping and medicine; Dallas for corporate headquarters and finance; Austin for technology; and San Antonio for military bases and tourism. Texas raises more cattle than any other state, and has no state income tax.

Most people live in sprawling suburbs and drive long distances on multi-lane freeways. Rapid growth has pushed up housing costs, especially in Austin, and current issues include water supply, pressure on the state's separate power grid after the winter storm of 2021, and immigration along the Mexican border.

Central Texas barbecue centres on beef brisket rubbed simply with salt and pepper, smoked for hours over post oak and sold by weight on butcher paper, with sausage from the German and Czech tradition; Lockhart is the legislature's designated barbecue capital of Texas. Chicken-fried steak — beefsteak breaded and fried, under cream gravy — is on every diner menu.

Tex-Mex is the state's other great cuisine: fajitas of grilled skirt steak, enchiladas under chili gravy, melted cheese dip called queso, San Antonio's puffy tacos, and the breakfast tacos of Austin. Chili con carne, the official state dish, is traditionally made without beans. The frozen margarita was first made by machine in a Dallas restaurant in 1971. Czech bakeries sell kolaches, soft buns filled with fruit or cheese, and klobasneks filled with sausage, while Gulf shrimp and oysters are the specialities of Galveston and the coast, and Houston is known for Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish.

Dr Pepper was created in Waco in the 1880s, pecan pie honours the state tree, and Shiner beer comes from a small town brewery founded by German and Czech settlers. The Hill Country around Fredericksburg has become a wine-producing area, and peaches from the same hills are sold at roadside stands in early summer.

Austin has the Texas State Capitol, Sixth Street and South Congress, the LBJ Presidential Library, spring-fed Barton Springs Pool, and, from spring to autumn, the dusk flight of bats from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. San Antonio has the Alamo, the River Walk and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Between them and to the west lies the Hill Country: Fredericksburg's German main street and wineries, the pink granite dome of Enchanted Rock, the dance halls of Gruene and Luckenbach, river tubing around New Braunfels, and the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall.

Houston offers Space Center Houston beside NASA's Johnson Space Center, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel, and the San Jacinto Monument. Dallas has the Sixth Floor Museum overlooking Dealey Plaza and its Arts District; Fort Worth has the Stockyards and their cattle drives, and the Kimbell Art Museum. On the Gulf Coast, Galveston has the Strand, the Bishop's Palace and its seawall, while Padre Island National Seashore protects a long undeveloped barrier island south of Corpus Christi.

Far to the west, Big Bend National Park combines desert, the Chisos Mountains and Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande, with Big Bend Ranch State Park nearby. The region also holds the McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, the art town of Marfa, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park, with the highest point in Texas. In the Panhandle, Palo Duro Canyon and the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo mark the road north.