Historically, five major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle, bison, cotton, timber, and oil.

Traveling from east to west, terrain ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, to the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.

[29] Native American tribes who have lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include the Alabama, Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Aranama, Comanche, Choctaw, Coushatta, Hasinai, Jumano, Karankawa, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Tonkawa, and Wichita.

[citation needed] The first president of Texas, Sam Houston, aimed to cooperate and make peace with Native tribes, but his successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, took a much more hostile stance.

They passed through the Caddo lands but turned back after reaching the River of Daycao (possibly the Brazos or Colorado), beyond which point the Native peoples were nomadic and did not have the agricultural stores to feed the expedition.

Miscalculations by René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle resulted in his establishing the colony of Fort Saint Louis at Matagorda Bay rather than along the Mississippi River.

[85] After several weeks of retreat, the Texian Army commanded by Sam Houston attacked and defeated López de Santa Anna's forces at the Battle of San Jacinto.

The nationalist faction, led by Mirabeau B. Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans, and the expansion of the Republic to the Pacific Ocean.

[90] With wide popular support, Texas first applied for annexation to the United States in 1836, but its status as a slaveholding country caused its admission to be controversial and it was initially rebuffed.

[115] In 1901, the Democratic-dominated state legislature passed a bill requiring payment of a poll tax for voting, which effectively disenfranchised most Black and many poor White and Latino people.

[121] World War II had a dramatic impact on Texas, as federal money poured in to build military bases, munitions factories, detention camps and Army hospitals; 750,000 Texans left for service; the cities exploded with new industry; and hundreds of thousands of poor farmers left the fields for much better-paying war jobs, never to return to agriculture.

The region of 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) contains most of the state's largest cities and metropolitan areas as well as 17 million people, nearly 75 percent of Texas's total population.

During the 2014 crisis, many Central Americans, including unaccompanied minors traveling alone from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, reached the state, overwhelming Border Patrol resources for a time.

[230] Other than Mexican, the largest self-reported ancestries in the state as of 2022 were German (8.1%), English (7.9%), Irish (5.8%), those identifying as American (4.6%), Italian (1.9%), Indian (1.9%), Salvadoran (1.4%), Scottish (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.1%), Chinese (1%), Puerto Rican (0.9%), Polish (0.9%), Honduran (0.8%), Filipino (0.8%), and Scotch-Irish (0.7%).

According to the Pew Research Center in 2014, the state's largest historically African American Christian denominations were the National Baptist Convention (USA) and the Church of God in Christ.

Largest in Texas by size and passengers served, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is the second-largest by area in the United States, and fourth in the world with 18,076 acres (73.15 km2).

[331] Trinity Metro also operates the TEXRail commuter rail line, connecting downtown Fort Worth and Northeast Tarrant County to DFW Airport.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) operates light rail lines called METRORail in the Houston area.

[335] Historically, Texas culture comes from a blend of mostly Southern (Dixie), Western (frontier), and Southwestern (Mexican/Anglo fusion) influences, varying in degrees of such from one intrastate region to another.

A popular food item, the breakfast burrito, draws from all three, having a soft flour tortilla wrapped around bacon and scrambled eggs or other hot, cooked fillings.

[348] Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in early Deep Ellum clubs.

The Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth is the oldest continuously running rodeo incorporating many of the state's most historic traditions into its annual events.

STAAR assess students' attainment of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies skills required under Texas education standards and the No Child Left Behind Act.

[400] In May 2006, Texas initiated the program "code red" in response to the report the state had 25.1 percent of the population without health insurance, the largest proportion in the nation.

[416] San Antonio's South Texas Medical Center facilities rank sixth in clinical medicine research impact in the United States.

The vast majority of these have charters for council-manager forms of government, by which voters elect council members, who hire a professional city manager as an operating officer.

[126] The 2003 Texas redistricting of Congressional districts led by Republican Tom DeLay, was called by The New York Times "an extreme case of partisan gerrymandering".

Despite these efforts, the legislature passed a map heavily in favor of Republicans, based on 2000 data and ignoring the estimated nearly one million new residents in the state since then.

Career attorneys and analysts at the Department of Justice objected to the plan as diluting the votes of African American and Hispanic voters, but political appointees overrode them and approved it.

[442] Texas voters lean toward fiscal conservatism, while enjoying the benefits of significant federal investment in the state in military and other facilities achieved by the power of the Solid South in the 20th century.