The History of Texas in 11 Minutes

Home of the fastest road in the USA, the largest  state capitol building in the nation, and a mass   bigger than any country in Europe – Texas has  a history almost as large as everything in it… The history of the great state of Texas  technically begins at around 9200 BC at least.  

Paleo-Indians were the early inhabitants of the  territory and by the first AD years, Texas boasted   a considerable indigenous population already. By  the time the North American continent began to be   colonized, there were about 6 main native cultural  groups in Texas alone. This meant that the fate of  

The early European colonists would depend vastly  on how the locals responded to their presence… The first European explorer to map the Texas  Gulf Coast was Alonso Alvarez de Pineda in 1519,   although it wouldn’t be for nearly another  decade until a Spaniard actually journeyed into  

The North American interior, and thus, Texas.  This next expedition began in 1528 under the   lead of Panfilo de Narvaez but quickly turned  into an utter disaster. Hurricanes and savage   storms battered the expedition and sunk two  of the fleet’s ships, killing already a good  

Chunk of the initial 600 men. The survivors were  still aimed for a landing in modern-day Tampico,   Mexico but as luck would have it, they were  instead blown off course toward Florida, not far   off from today’s Tampa Bay. Now, Narvaez opted  to divide his troops into two groups – one on  

Land and one still on the ships – to explore the  northern coast of Florida. These expeditions were   intended to meet up once more at an unspecified  harbor, but yet again the plan would fail. There   was no harbor where the fleet could dock and the  300 who had traveled by land were under siege  

From the local Indigenous tribes, as well as from  starvation and disease. These explorers were dying   by the masses now and only a few months later,  around 90 remained. Conditions were no better   than thus far however and when the final group  of explorers were swept onto Galveston Island,  

They were swiftly abducted by the Natives and more  would continue to succumb to disease, starvation,   and now the harsh conditions of their new  situation. Eight years later, 90 became 4… Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes  de Carranza and his slave Estevanico,  

And Alonso del Castillo Maldonado were the only  remaining members of Narvaez’s journey. The final   survivors attempted on their own to explore what  they could of the modern Southwestern portion of   the United States and the very top of Mexico,  but they would soon join ranks with a group  

Of slave catchers they found in Sinaloa in 1536.  Finally, the expedition would reach Mexico City,   and eventually the few survivors  left returned to their Spanish homes. The French, however, were no less interested  than Spain. While the Spaniards failed to   follow up their early expeditions with  the establishment of any real settlements,  

The French managed to do it  without even intending to… It all started in the late 1600s when a  French nobleman by the name of Robert Cavelier  de La Salle decided to explore  along the Mississippi River with   the purpose of finding a way to create  a better buffer between France’s North  

American territories and those belonging  to Spain. Stumbling across the Gulf of   Mexico, La Salle would soon claim the whole  of the Mississippi River Valley for France. After returning to France, he then attempted  to convince the king to set up a settlement at  

The mouth of the Mississippi to help fend off  the nearby Spaniards in addition to trying to   convert more of the Indigenous population  to French Christianity. When King Louis   The fourt-shirts/” target=”_blank”>teenth finally gave his approval,  La Salle was sent back to begin the colony…

Navigational faults would eventually lead  La Salle to instead create a settlement   further west off the coast of Mexico, but  this colony would scarcely survive 3 years   before finally succumbing to incursions from  the Natives, disease, and other difficulties. The Spanish would soon hear of the French colony  nonetheless and decided that they should remove  

“this thorn which has been thrust into the heart  of America” – however, the Karan-kawa and disease   had already done so for them. Realizing  the collapse of France’s settlement and   the possibilities now to found a Spanish one,  Alonso De Leon was sent off to first establish  

A mission in eastern Texas in 1690. This launched  a period of on/off interest in Texas by Spain as   clashes with the Natives seemed to continuously  dissuade the Spaniards from doing much more. Real   efforts appeared to only come in the early 18th  century after a Franciscan missionary attempted to  

Seek support from the French for establishing new  missions in Texas. Spain would almost immediately   move to reoccupy the territory and keep the  French out, which they did fairly well. At least,   they were better at defending themselves from  the French than from the local Indigenous.

Though still at odds with various local tribes,  in 1762 Spain was finally able to convince the   French to relinquish all claims to the Texas  territory at the end of the Seven Years’ War. The Mexican War of Independence would secure much  of Spain’s former North American colonies as the  

New state of Mexico in 1821. Texas, would be part  of this infant country and the Mexican government   quickly blasted open the door for immigration as  they hoped to bring in more settlers to counteract   the effects of the angry Natives. But, with the  growing population also came growing unrest, and  

By 1836, a new Texas government was formed and a  declaration of independence from Mexico followed. The new Republic of Texas would host the  infamous Battle of the Alamo in short order,   a bloody massacre of Texas defenders that lit a  passion under many Texans who now were even more  

Determined to defeat the Mexicans. The Texas  Revolution subsequently would be successful   in the end, although, the independence fighters  opposing what they saw as the tyrannical rule   of Mexico…soon voted in favor of becoming  a part of the United States. Ironically,   the latter didn’t even want Texas at  first. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van  

Buren shot down the idea initially but  pressure from Great Britain for Texas   to remain sovereign frankly pushed the  Americans toward annexation. Finally,   in 1845, both congresses approved the move  and Texas thus became a state of the U.S.A. This, not surprisingly, triggered discord  between America and Mexico over territorial  

Disputes that would initiate the start of  the Mexican-American War. Though, in the end,   Mexico would technically receive money in exchange  for the full American ownership of Texas as well   as other ceded territories, there wasn’t much  of an option left by the time the war was over.  

Originally, Texas had actually laid claim to these  additional ceded territories, which are now part   of modern-day Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas,  Oklahoma, and New Mexico. But, Texas would   eventually relinquish these claims to the federal  government with the Compromise of 1850 and barely  

Over a decade later, in a drastic turn of events,  Texas chose to leave the United States entirely… With the Civil War coming ever closer,  a period of panic erupted in Texas,   becoming known as the “Texas Troubles”.  There had been rumors of enslaved people  

Suddenly starting fires throughout the  state which led to lynching mobs and a   heavier push against the abolitionist beliefs  of the union. This would eventually push Texas   to hold a vote concerning secession from the  United States, which found a whopping 76% of  

Texans in favor of leaving. As a result, Texas  officially seceded and instead decided to join   the Confederate States of America – a drastic  change from its prior pleas to be annexed. Throughout the war, Texans who still even  loosely supported or wished to be part of  

The Union faced severe consequences for  their dissension, particularly those of   the German and Mexican districts and in  Cooke County in particular. In the latter,   over 100 union supporters were arrested  while over 60 of those were executed.   Civil War era Texas was plagued with such  massacres of unionists and even after  

The Emancipation Proclamation and Junet-shirts/” target=”_blank”>teenth  marked the end of the hostilities in one form,   it also triggered a new wave of violence and  outrage from Confederate veterans. Nevertheless,   Texas would officially rejoin the United  States of America on March 30, 1870… The following phase of Texas’s history marked a  time of difficult reconstruction. Racial divides  

Caused the once-90% black Republican Party in  Texas to lose power to the white Democrats.   This also coincided with a new movement within  the Republican Party that aimed to remove the   freed slaves from power in the party, with  all of this reflecting the overall ongoing  

Black vs. white conflict and racial violence  throughout the former-Confederate state. These   challenges would stretch into the 20th century  as Texas struggled to stabilize itself socially   within the union. Hurricanes, drought, and the  JFK assassination would additionally plague the   great state of Texas over the next century,  making it a tough ride for Texans still.

Video Tags: History of texas,Texas,State of Texas,Texas History,Spanish Exploration,Mexican Settlement,Texas Independence,American Civil War,Agriculture,Oil Industry.,United States of America,Mexican War of Independece,Texas revolution

Video Duration: 00:11:10