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Texas joined the United States of America as its 28th member state in 1845. It has the postal abbreviation TX.
The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of the Hasinai, tejas, meaning friends or allies; Spanish explorers mistakenly applied the word to the people and their location.
Major state designations and symbols include:
The pledge to the Texas Flag is:
With an area of 690,000 km2, Texas forms the second-largest US state in size after Alaska and the largest state in the contiguous 48 states. It has historically had a "larger than life" reputation, especially in cowboy films.
Texas has borders on the west with New Mexico, on the north with Oklahoma (across the Red River), and on the east with Louisiana (across the Sabine River) and with Arkansas. To the southwest, across the Rio Grande, Texas borders the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. To the southeast of Texas lies the Gulf of Mexico.
Texas lies in the south-central part of the United States of America. Depending on who you talk to (and which part of Texas they come from), Texas forms part of the US South or part of the US Southwest. Texas shares some cultural elements with both regions, with more similarities with the South, especially Arkansas and Louisiana, in East Texas, and more similarities with the Southwest, especially Mexico and New Mexico, in West Texas and South Texas.
On November 6, 1528 shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas.
Texas can claim that 'Six Flags' have flown over its soil: the Fleur-de-lis of France, and the national flags of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America.
Texas formed part of the Spanish colony of New Spain; see Spanish Texas for details.
After Mexican independence in 1821 Texas became a part of Mexico. See Mexican Texas.
Also see Texas Revolution.
Texas became the first, and to date, only, internationally recognized independent state directly admitted to the United States as a constituent state of the union. ( Vermont, which declared itself an independent republic in 1777, and joined the union in 1791, had de facto autonomy but no international recognition. The U.S. annexed both the self-proclaimed California Republic and the internationally-recognized Republic (or Kingdom) of Hawaii, but did not immediately admit them as states.)
The Republic of Texas included all the area now included in the state of Texas, although its self-proclaimed western and northwestern borders extended as far west as Santa Fe and as far northwest as present-day Wyoming, respectively.
Republican Rick Perry has served as Governor of Texas since December 2000; two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and John Cornyn (since 2002)
Texas has a republican constitution with separation of powers and a bill of rights more inclusive than the federal Bill of Rights. The executive branch consists of an elected Governor ("first among equals"), a Lieutenant Governor, a Comptroller of Public Accounts, a Land Commissioner, an Attorney General, an Agriculture Commissioner, three Railroad Commissioners, the State Board of Education, a governor-appointed Secretary of State and the bureaucracy. As a consequence of the state having so many elected officials, the Governor remains fairly weak and has few powers. In popular lore and belief the Lieutenant Governor has more power than the Governor, since he heads the State Senate and appoints committees. The Governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature. He also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections.
The Legislature of Texas has two chambers, a 150-member House of Representatives and a 31-member Senate. The speaker of the house (currently Tom Craddick R- Midland) leads the House, and the Lieutenant Governor (currently Republican David Dewhurst) leads the State Senate. The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years.
The judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States - if not in the world - with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions. Texas has two "highest" courts, the Texas Supreme Court for civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except in the case of some municipal benches, partisan elections choose all of the judges at all levels of the judiciary - the Governor fills vacancies by appointment.
Texas has a total of 254 counties, each run by a county commissioners' court headed by a county judge (elected by the entire county). Every county maintains a constitutionally-required county courthouse.
Texas has five major topographic regions:
Articles on Texas regions:
For the 254 counties of Texas, see: List of Texas counties
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Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its main industries. In 1926 San Antonio had the largest population of any city in Texas with over 120,000 people.
After World War II, Texas became increasingly industralized. Its economy (circa 2000) relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, energy exploration and energy trading, agriculture, and manufacturing. Two major economic centers exist: the Houston Metropolitan Area, centered in Houston, and Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex, centered on those two cities. Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical and NASA/ space trades while Dallas functions as the center of the agricultural and information technology labor market in Texas. Other major cities include San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville, Lubbock, Amarillo, McAllen, Tyler, Odessa and Midland. Other important cities include El Paso, Eagle Pass, and Laredo; these have particular significance due to their location on the border with Mexico, making them important trade points.
The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. state in population (after California). In 2001 Texas had a gross state product of $764 billion. Texas's growth allegedly stems largely from the availability of jobs, the low cost of living, the generally high living-standard, the lack of a state income tax, low taxation of business, limited government (the state legislature of Texas meets only once every two years) and favorable climate.
The people of Texas, historically often known as Texians, now generally class as Texans.
As of 2003, the state had a population of 22,118,509, a large number of them Latinos, some of whom have recently immigrated from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Others, known as Tejanos, have ancestors who have lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations.
Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. After the European revolutions of 1848, German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and French immigration grew, and continued until World War I. The influence of the diverse immigrants from Europe survives in the names of towns, in styles of architecture, in genres of music, in varieties of cuisine, and in many other ways. For example, the manager of the storied King Ranch, Robert J. Kleberg, Sr., came from Germany, and eventually married into the owner's family.
In recent years the Asian population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. People from mainland China, Vietnam, India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and other countries have settled in Texas.
The racial makeup of Texas today comprises:
The most prominent ancestry groups in Texas include Mexican (24.3%), African American (11.5%), German (9.9%), American (7.2%), and Irish (7.2%).
In terms of religious denomination, 28% of Texans regard themselves as Roman Catholic, 21% as Baptist, 8% as Methodist, 7% as " Christian", and 3% as Lutheran. 11% of the population does not profess a religion.
Census data reports 7.8% of Texas's population as under 5, 28.2% under 18, and 9.9% over 64 years. Females made up approximately 50.4% of the population.
Main Article: List of cities in Texas
As of the 2000 Census Texas had 22 Metropolitan Statistical Areas or MSAs and 2 Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas or CMSAs; for a total of 24 metropolitan areas.
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The Houston Oilers, formerly based in Texas, moved to Memphis and later to Nashville, Tennessee, and became the Tennessee Titans. Houston also formerly had the Arena Football League team Houston Thunderbears, and the Minor League Soccer team Houston Hotshots .
Through 2004, El Paso had a minor-league baseball team in the Texas League, the El Paso Diablos, but the club moved to Springfield, Missouri after that season and became known as the Springfield Cardinals.
| Texas | |
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| Regions: Arklatex | Central Texas | Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex | East Texas | Edwards Plateau | Houston Metropolitan Area | North Texas | Northeast Texas | Piney Woods | Rio Grande Valley | Texas Hill Country | Texas Panhandle | Llano Estacado | Southeast Texas | South Texas | West Texas | |
| Largest Metropolitan areas: Abilene | Amarillo | Austin- San Marcos | Beaumont- Port Arthur | Brownsville- Harlingen- San Benito | Bryan- College Station | Corpus Christi | Dallas- Fort Worth | El Paso | Houston- Galveston- Brazoria | Killeen- Temple | Laredo | Longview- Marshall | Lubbock | McAllen- Edinburg- Mission | Odessa- Midland | San Angelo | San Antonio | Sherman- Denison | Texarkana | Tyler | Victoria | Waco | Wichita Falls | |
| See also: List of counties in Texas |
| Political divisions of the United States | |||||||
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