Prior to the arrival of Alvarez de Pineda and other European explorers, numerous tribes of the Indians of Texas occupied the region between the Rio Grande to the south and the Red River to the north.
In 1540, the Spanish conquistador Vasquez de Coronado set out to find the seven cities of gold. For two years he and his men trekked through present-day New Mexico, West Texas, and as far north as Kansas, fighting Indians and leaving behind horses and cattle, but never finding any gold.
During his search, Coronado encountered the Teyas (or Tejas) Indians. Some scholars believe that Texas got its name from those Indians; others believe it came from the Caddo Indian word tayshas, which means "friend."
The Spanish Colonial era in Texas began with a system of missions and presidios, designed to spread Christianity and to establish control over the region. The missions were managed by friars from the order of St. Francis – the Franciscans — and were placed in lands that had been home to Native Americans for thousands of years.
The Spanish continued to colonize, and in 1718, the Mission San Antonio de Valero was established in what is today the city of San Antonio, and Franciscan padres began converting local Indians to Catholicism.
In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain. Soon after, Stephen F. Austin negotiated a contract with the new Mexican government to lead roughly 300 families, mainly Protestants from the southern United States to colonize along the Brazos River.
On March 2, 1836, Texas formally declared its independence from Mexico. The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos, now commonly referred to as the “birthplace of Texas.
It joined the United States in 1845 as the 28th state. Texas seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States during the American Civil War. In 1870 Texas was officially readmitted into the Union following the period of Reconstruction.
Brief history of Texas
