Texas

C

Government and Politics

Texas is governed under a constitution adopted in 1876, as amended. The chief executive is a governor, who is popularly elected to a term of four years and may be re-elected any number of times. Other elected state administrative officers include the lieutenant-governor, attorney-general, treasurer, comptroller of public accounts, commissioner of agriculture, and commissioner of general land office. The influential Texas Railroad Commission, made up of three people popularly elected to six-year terms, regulates the state’s production of petroleum, natural gas, and coal, as well as its railways and commercial transport industry.

Legislative authority is vested in a bicameral legislature composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The 31 senators are popularly elected to four-year terms, and the 150 representatives are elected to two-year terms. At a national level, Texas elects 2 senators and 32 representatives to the US Congress. The state casts 34 electoral votes for president.

In both state and national elections, Texas has been a traditional stronghold of the Democratic Party. Among Texas Democrats who played prominent roles in national politics were Sam Rayburn, longtime Speaker of the US House of Representatives (1940-1947, 1949-1953, 1955-1961), and Lyndon B. Johnson, US Senate majority leader (1955-1961), vice-president (1961-1963), and president (1963-1969); another Texan, Jim Wright, was Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989. Since the 1950s the Republican Party has gained strength in the state, and in 1978 a Republican was elected governor for the first time since the late 1860s. In closely contested presidential elections, Texas is usually considered a pivotal state. President George W. Bush served as governor of Texas for six years until he became president.

In the 2006 elections, 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats were returned to represent the state. John Cornyn and Kay Hutchison (both Republican) represent Texas in the Senate. Republican governor Rick Perry (incumbent) beat Chris Bell (Democrat) in 2006.

IV

History

Before the arrival of the Europeans, Texas Native American tribes were many in number and diverse in culture. The Coahuiltecan foraged over south Texas, where game was often scarce, and the Karankawa took their food from both land and sea. The Caddo practised agriculture and lived in permanent homes in east Texas. Along the Rio Grande, the Jumano cultivated irrigated crops, and the Apache and Tonkawa hunted bison (buffalo) on the western plains. In later years the arrival of the Comanche, Cherokee, Wichita, and other groups added to the cultural milieu.

A

Spanish and Mexican Rule

The Spanish explorers who first ventured among these Native Americans arrived only a few years after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. After being shipwrecked, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions lived for several years among the Karankawa. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explored the High Plains in Texas from the vicinity of present-day Lubbock northward into Kansas from 1539 to 1542, while at almost the same time a similar expedition led by Luís Moscoso travelled among the Caddo through a large area of east Texas. These explorations were the basis of Spain’s claim to Texas, but their failure to find treasure and riches led the Spanish to turn elsewhere for more than a century. Spanish interest revived when René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who founded Fort St Louis on Matagorda Bay in 1684, claimed lands for France that included Texas.

To meet the French challenge and to bring Christianity to the Caddo, the Spanish founded missions in eastern Texas in 1690. By 1722, when the area was organized as a province, they had settlements at San Antonio, in eastern Texas, and near the site of present-day Goliad, but Texas remained for the most part a sparsely settled borderland. In 1820, almost three centuries after the first Spanish explorations, Spanish settlers in Texas numbered only about 2,000.

Anglo-American adventurers appeared in the area in about 1800, but significant numbers of Anglo-American immigrants did not arrive until Stephen Austin and other empresarios (colonizers) began to locate settlements in Texas in the 1820s. Although Anglo-American immigration was authorized, first by Spanish officials and after Mexican independence (1822) by Mexican officials, some Mexican leaders doubted the wisdom of the policy. After the United States made offers to buy Texas, and a disgruntled empresario tried to set up an independent Republic of Fredonia in eastern Texas (1827), the Mexican government limited further immigration from the United States into the area. Nevertheless, Anglo-Americans made up the largest portion of a population estimated at between 35,000 and 50,000 (including 4,000 slaves) at the time of the Texas Revolution.

B

Texas Revolution

Texas developed rapidly under Mexican rule, but revolution broke out in the autumn of 1835, when President Antonio López de Santa Anna threw aside Mexico’s democratic constitution and assumed the powers of a dictator. In early fighting, Texan forces, which included both Anglo- Americans and Mexicans, won decisively. By the end of 1835 Mexican troops had been driven south of the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, Texan leaders rejected independence, proclaimed their loyalty to the Mexican constitution, and denounced Santa Anna.

When a large Mexican army led by Santa Anna returned in the spring, prospects for a Texan victory appeared dim. The Alamo, an old Spanish fort at San Antonio, fell in March after all the Texan defenders had been killed, and in the following weeks Mexican troops defeated Texan forces across southern Texas. While the armies fought in early March, a convention of Texans at Washington-on-the-Brazos adopted a declaration of independence, wrote a constitution for a Republic of Texas, and appointed one of their leaders, Sam Houston, commander-in-chief of all Texan armies. The Texan forces, in a dramatic reversal of fortunes on April 21, 1836, defeated the Mexican army in the Battle of San Jacinto, captured Santa Anna, and ended the revolution in victory.

Although never recognized by Mexico, the Republic of Texas functioned as a nation for the next nine years. Despite never being truly secure, it nevertheless won diplomatic recognition from the United States, Britain, and France, maintained law and order, and encouraged immigration to Texas from the United States.

C

Statehood

Most Texans favoured joining the United States. Despite opposition from those within the United States who were against admitting another slave state and those who foresaw that annexation would precipitate a war with Mexico, Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, and the final transfer of authority took place in February 1846. Texans participated actively in the Mexican-American War, which broke out a few weeks later, accepted a compromise that established the current western boundaries of the state, and continued to encourage immigration. By 1860 the population of Texas included citizens from most European nations and Mexico, although the bulk of the people were immigrants from other southern states and 30 per cent of the population were slaves.

When the crisis over slavery led to the American Civil War (1861-1865), Texas cast its lot with the Confederacy. Throughout the war it functioned primarily as a supply source, saw little actual fighting, and suffered less than other Southern states. In like manner, Texas fared relatively well in the Reconstruction period. Political and racial tensions were high and problems were many, but a Republican government, imposed by the victors, ruled generally with moderation and sometimes with vision, as prosperity slowly returned.

The decades after Reconstruction were years of growth and change. By 1880 the Native Americans in the west had been defeated and removed to Indian Territory (now essentially Oklahoma), and railways were being built in every section of the state. Cattle brought wealth to Texas during Reconstruction and for a time thereafter, but the mainstay of the economy was cotton. In a population that increased fivefold between 1860 and 1900, eight out of every ten people lived on farms or in small towns, and most grew cotton.