Texas

UH is also home to over 40 research centers and institutes. Evidence, in the form of Galileo's observation of the phases of Venus in 1610, was produced which was completely incompatible with the predictions set forth by the theory. The interdisciplinary research conducted at UH breaks new ground in such vital areas as superconductivity, space commercialization, biomedical engineering, economics, education, petroleum exploration and management. A canonical example of a disproved theory is the geocentric model of the universe proposed by Ptolemy. Its flagship institution is the University of Houston, the only doctoral degree granting extensive research institution in Houston and is the third largest in the state of Texas with an enrollment of over 36,000. A law is a general statement based on observations. The University of Houston System is the largest urban state system of higher education in the Gulf Coast, which has four universities with three located in Houston. Theories and laws are not rungs in a ladder of truth, but different sets of data.

It is the second largest university in the state of Texas and also one of the top 10 largest schools in the nation. This, however, rests on a mistaken assumption of what theories and laws are. Funded research generally exceeds that of all other Texas universities, and Texas A&M ranks among the top ten national universities in research. Some scientific theories (such as the theory of gravity) are so widely accepted that they are often seen as laws. Its flagship institution is Texas A&M University located in College Station and is the state's oldest public institution of higher education. In scientific theories, this then leads to research, in combination with auxiliary and other hypotheses (see scientific method), which may then eventually lead to a theory. The Texas A&M University System is the second largest state university system of higher learning in Texas. Theories start out with empirical observations such as "sometimes water turns into ice." At some point, there is a need or curiosity to find out why this is, which leads to a theoretical/scientific phase.

In 2004, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas was ranked the 16th highest ranking medical school in the United States, with four of Texas' eleven Nobel laureates.^[5]. Instead, theories remain standing until they are disproved, at which point they are thrown out altogether or modified to fit the additional data. Four of the seven medical schools of Texas are within the University of Texas System. In science, a theory is not considered fact or infallible, because we can never assume we know all there is to know. Seven doctoral programs at UT Austin rank in the top 10 in the nation and 22 degree programs rank in the top 25, according to a comprehensive study of the quality of graduate schools conducted by the United States National Research Council. A theory is an established paradigm that explains all or much of the data we have and offers valid predictions that can be tested. The University of Texas at Austin was once the largest institution in the United States, but it is now one of the top three largest by population and is the nation's 52nd ranked university[4]. But in science and generally in academic usage, a theory is much more than that.

In 2004, The University of Texas at Austin, which is the largest institution in the UT System and in the state of Texas, maintained an enrollment of 50,377 students. As noted above, in common usage a theory is defined as little more than a guess or a hypothesis. UT System institutions enrolled a total of 182,752 students in fall 2004 making it one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation. The process of accepting theories, or of extending existing theory, is part of the scientific method. The University of Texas System, established by the Texas Constitution in 1876, consists of nine academic universities and six health institutions. Theories are more likely to be accepted if they connect a wide range of phenomena. Census estimates. Theories which are simpler, and more mathematically elegant, tend to be accepted over theories which are complex.

Population figures are as of the 2004 U.S. Theories can become accepted if they are able to make correct predictions and avoid incorrect ones. The following table lists population figures for those metropolitan areas, in rank of population. A theory is also different from a physical law in that the latter is a model of reality, whereas the former is an explanatory statement of what has been observed, explaining the why and how of the observed physical law. Texas has two metropolitan divisions within the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA. The latter is a statement of mathematical fact which logically follows from a set of axioms. Census introduced "metropolitan divisions" within some metropolitan areas. The former is a model of physical events and cannot be proved from basic axioms.

In 2003, the U.S. A theory is different from a theorem. The two largest are ranked among the top 10 United States metropolitan areas. Most theory evolves from hypotheses, but the reverse is not true: many hypotheses turn out to be false and so do not evolve into theory. Texas has 25 metropolitan areas (MSAs) defined by the United States Census Bureau. There are two uses of the word theory; a supposition which is not backed by observation is known as a conjecture, and if backed by observation it is a hypothesis.
. In engineering practise, to avoid confusion with a physical model (e.g., the winged rockets built by Convair to test the Whitcomb area rule for the F-106 supersonic aircraft), the above are called "mathematical models".

cities.^[3]. So one can see how a theory is a model of reality that explains certain scientific facts yet may not be a true picture of reality and another more accurate theory can later replace the previous model. Austin and Fort Worth are in the top 20 largest U.S. Mathematical calculations could be made for the prediction of where the planets would be to a great degree of accuracy, so that this model of the planetary system survived over 1500 years until the time of Copernicus. to have three cities with populations exceeding one million (California has two; no other state has more than one) — Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas, which are also among the 10 largest cities of the United States. This could actually be built into a literal model and illustrated as a model. Texas is the only state in the U.S. Retrograde motion of the planets was explained by smaller circular orbits of individual planets.

Census estimates within city limits. In Ptolemy's planetary model, the earth was at the center, the planets and the sun made circular orbits around the earth, and the stars were on a sphere outside of the orbits of the planet and the earth. Photographs of the downtowns of those six cities are displayed to the right, in order of each city's population according to 2004 U.S. The Greeks formulated theories that were recorded by the astronomer Ptolemy. Ranked by population of cities (incorporated municipalities), the six major cities in Texas are Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso. An example of how theories are models can be seen from theories on the planetary system. global cities as Houston and Dallas ranked "Gamma World City" by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network (GaWC). Therefore, the model created in his theory is based on the assumption that light maintains a constant velocity (or more precisely the speed of light is a constant).

Texas has two out of eleven U.S. He assumed that both of these were correct and formulated his theory based on these assumptions by simply altering the Galilean transformation to accommodate the lack of addition of velocities with regard to the speed of light.
. that the "addition of velocities" is valid (Galilean transformation) and that light did not appear to have an "addition of velocities" (Michelson-Morley experiment). Females made up 50.4% of the population. He took two phenomena that had been observed i.e. Census data reports 7.8% of Texas's population as under 5, 28.2% under 18, and 9.9% over 64 years. An example of using assumptions to formulate a theory is when Albert Einstein put forth his Special Theory of Relativity.

African Americans, who historically made up one-third of the state population, are concentrated in those parts of East Texas where the ante-bellum cotton plantation culture was most prominent. Since we must start somewhere, we must have assumptions, but at least let us have as few assumptions as possible." (See Ockham's razor). Much of east, central, and north Texas is inhabited primarily by Texans of White Anglo Saxon Protestant heritage, primarily descended from the British Isles. On the other hand, it seems obvious that assumptions are the weak points in any argument, as they have to be accepted on faith in a philosophy of science that prides itself on its rationalism. The largest reported ancestry groups in Texas include: Mexican (24.3%), African American (11.5%), German (9.9%), American (7.2%), and Irish (7.2%). (If there were, it would no longer be an assumption.) It is better to consider assumptions as either useful or useless, depending on whether deductions made from them corresponded to reality. All data comes from the United States Census state population estimates.^[2]. An assumption according to Asimov is "something accepted without proof, and it is incorrect to speak of an assumption as either true or false, since there is no way of proving it to be either.

In August 2005, it was announced by the United States Census that Texas has become the fourth minority-majority state in the nation (after Hawaii, New Mexico, and California).^[1] According to the Texas state Data Center, if current trends continue, Hispanics will become a majority in the state by 2030. Arguments or theories always begin with some premises - "arbitrary elements" as Hawking calls them (see above), which are here described as "assumptions". People from mainland China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Pakistan and other countries have settled in Texas. In Understanding Physics, Asimov spoke of theories as "arguments" where one deduces a "scheme" or model. In recent years, the Asian population in Texas has grown, especially in Houston and in Dallas. This is a view shared by Isaac Asimov. Texans of German descent dominate much of central and southeast-central Texas and one county in the area, Lavaca, is predominantly Czech. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single repeatable observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory.".

The influence of the diverse immigrants from Europe survives in the names of towns, styles of architecture, genres of music, and varieties of cuisine. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. After the European revolutions of 1848, German, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Czech and French immigration grew, and continued until World War I. According to Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time, "a theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations." He goes on to state, "any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it. In fact, the largest family in Texas today is of German descent, along with the majority of the white population in Texas. A theory makes generalizations about observations and consists of an interrelated, coherent set of ideas and models. Frontier Texas saw settlements of Germans, particularly in Fredericksburg and New Braunfels. In many instances, this is seen to be the construction of models of reality.

Other population groups in Texas also exhibit great diversity. inanimate things, events, or the behaviour of animals). Perhaps numerically Mexican-Texans dominate south, south-central, and west Texas and are a significant part of the work force of cities of Dallas and Houston. Humans construct theories in order to explain, predict and master phenomena (e.g. Tejanos are the largest ancestral group in southern Duval County. Yet a California Academy of Sciences exhibit on fossils included this line: "Scientists have a number of theories about why ammonites develop spines on their shells" (emphasis added; from Morrison, 2005). Some are recent arrivals from Mexico, Central America, or South America, while others, known as Tejanos (though interestingly everyone in Texas is known as a Tejano in Spanish), have ancestors who have lived in Texas since before Texan independence, or at least for several generations. Even scientists tend to use the now common definition in everyday speech and writing, being more careful in published material.

More than one-third of Texas residents are of Hispanic origin and may be of any racial groups. 39):. As of 2004, the state has 3,450,500 foreign-born residents (15.6% of the state population), of which an estimated 1.2 million are illegal aliens (illegal aliens account for more than one-third of the foreign-born population in Texas and 5.4% of the total state population). In everyday English, a theory is (Morrison, 2005, p. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 663,161 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 218,722 people. This change can be seen in modern dictionaries which now list theory as a "guess or hunch" in preference to the former scientific definition that used to be the dominant one. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,155,182 people (that is 1,948,398 births minus 793,216 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 881,883 people into the state. Most troublesome for the scientific community is the fact that, in common speech, theory has almost the opposite meaning from its use in the sciences.

As of 2005, the state has an estimated population of 22,859,968, which is an increase of 388,419, or 1.7%, from the prior year and an increase of 2,008,176, or 9.6%, since the year 2000. A hypothesis, however, is still vastly more reliable than a conjecture, which is at best an untested guess consistent with selected data and often simply a belief based on non-repeatable experiments, anecdotes, popular opinion, "wisdom of the ancients," commercial motivation, or mysticism. The people of Texas, historically often known as Texians, are now generally referred to as Texans. Unfortunately, usage of the term theory is muddled by scientists in such examples as string theory and various theories of everything, which are more correctly characterized at present as a bundle of competing hypotheses or a protoscience. The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), in Galveston, also contains the only non-governmental Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in the United States. For a given body of theory to be considered part of established scientific knowledge, it is usually necessary for it to characterize a critical experiment, namely an experimental result not predicted by any existing established theory. Other healthcare and medical research centers in the state are the South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio and the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Conversely, at any time in the study of physics there can also be confirmed experimental results that are not yet explained by theory.

Anderson Cancer Center is widely considered one of the world’s most productive and highly-regarded academic institutions devoted to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. It is not uncommon in the history of physics for theory to produce predictions that are later confirmed by experiment; failed predictions, however, also occur, and sometimes work to falsify a theory. D. For example, until recently, black holes were considered theoretical. The M. The term theoretical is used in science to describe a result that is predicted by theory but has not yet been observed. Anderson Cancer Center. This theory is usually taken to be synonymous with classical electromagnetism.

D. A good example is electromagnetic theory, which encompasses the results that can be derived from Maxwell's equations. Some of the academic and research health institutions are Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and The University of Texas M. In physics, the term theory is generally used for a mathematical framework derived from a small set of basic principles, capable of producing experimental predictions for a given category of physical systems. It is where one of the first, and still the largest, air emergency service was created—a very successful inter-institutional transplant program was developed—and more heart surgeries are performed than anywhere else in the world. In this sense, a theory is a systematic and formalized expression of all previous observations made that is predictive, logical, testable, and has never been falsified. These institutions include 13 renowned hospitals and two specialty institutions, two medical schools, four nursing schools, and schools of dentistry, public health, pharmacy, and virtually all health-related careers. In various sciences, a theory is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a certain natural or social phenomenon, thus either originating from or supported by experimental evidence (see scientific method).

There are 42 member institutions in the Texas Medical Center—all are not-for-profit, and are dedicated to the highest standards of patient and preventive care, research, education, and local, national, and international community well-being. The "theory of global warming" refers instead to scientific work that attempts to explain how and why this could be happening. Houston is the seat of the internationally-renowned Texas Medical Center, which contains the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions. For example, "global warming" refers to the observation that worldwide temperatures seem to be increasing. The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling. Theories are typically ways of explaining why things happen, often, but not always after their occurrence is no longer in scientific dispute. In the past 10 years alone (1995-2004), more than $2.89 billion has been spent in Texas for film and television production. A theory is in this context a set of hypotheses that are logically bound together (See also hypothetico-deductive method).

Texas is one of the top filmmaking states in the United States, just after California and New York. All scientific understanding takes the form of hypotheses, or conjectures. Texas's growth is often attributed to the availability of jobs, the low cost of housing (housing values in the Dallas and Houston areas, while generally rising, have not risen at the astronomical rates of other areas such as San Francisco), the lack of a personal state income tax, low taxation and limited regulation of business, limited government (the state legislature of Texas meets only once every two years), and favorable climate. Scientific theories are never proven to be true, but can be disproven. Texas had a gross state product of $764 billion, the third highest in America after California and New York respectively. In scientific usage, a theory does not mean an unsubstantiated guess or hunch, as it often does in other contexts. state in population (after California). The term ‘theoria’ (a noun) was already used by the scholars of ancient Greeks.

The state passed New York in the 1990s to become the second-largest U.S. According to some sources, it was used frequently in terms of ‘looking at’ a theatre stage, which may explain why sometimes the word ‘theory’ is used as something provisional or not completely resembling real. Other important cities include Killeen (home to Fort Hood, the largest military post in the U.S.) and the cities of 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 word ‘theory’ derives from the Greek ‘theorein’, which means ‘to look at’. Other major cities include San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville, Lubbock, Amarillo, Abilene, Beaumont, McAllen, Tyler, Odessa and Midland. . Houston stands at the center of the petrochemical and biomedical research trades while Dallas functions as the center of the agricultural and information technology labor market in Texas. Theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on the context and their methodologies.

The state has two major economic centers: the Greater Houston area and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Other: Obsolete scientific theories - Phlogiston theory. Its economy (circa 2000) relies largely on information technology, oil and natural gas, energy exploration and energy trading, agriculture, and manufacturing. Statistics : Extreme value theory. After World War II, Texas became increasingly industralized. Sociology: Social theory - Critical social theory - Value theory. In 1926 San Antonio had over 120,000 people, the largest population of any city in Texas. Planetary science: Giant impact theory.

Before the oil boom, back to the period of the first anglo settlers, this was cotton farming (as in most of the South). Physics: Theory of relativity - Special relativity - General relativity - Quantum field theory - Acoustic theory - Antenna theory. Contrary to popular mythology, cattle ranching was never Texas's chief industry. Philosophy: Speculative reason. Texas remained largely rural until World War II, with cattle ranching, oil, and agriculture as its main industries. Music: Music theory.
. Mathematics: Axiomatic set theory - Catastrophe theory - Chaos theory - Graph theory - Number theory - Probability theory.

The shift from Democrat to GOP control is due to the GOP's perceived more conservative stance on fiscal and social issues; Texas has historically considered itself a politically conservative state. Literature: Literary theory. Another famous Texas Democrat was longtime speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. Humanities: Critical theory. Senate, and as vice-president and president of the United States. Geology: Continental drift - Plate tectonics. House of Representatives, the U.S. Games: Rational choice theory - Game theory.

One of the most famous Texans was a Democrat: Lyndon Baines Johnson served in the U.S. Engineering: Circuit theory - Control theory - Signal theory - Systems theory. The Democrats controlled a majority in the Texas House and in the state's Congressional delegation until the 2002 and 2004 elections, respectively. Computer science: Algorithmic information theory - Computation theory. Like other Southern states, Texas historically was a one-party state of the Democratic Party. Climatology: Global warming. A court challenge to the legality of the non-Census-timed redistricting was upheld by the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court; the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the case. Chemistry: Atomic theory - Kinetic theory of gases.

Congressman Tom DeLay, redrew the districts after the Republicans gained a larger share of the legislature. Biology: Evolution by natural selection - Cell theory. The legislature, with controversial help from U.S. is the most parsimonious explanation, sparing in proposed entities or explanations, commonly referred to as passing Ockham's razor. Districts are usually drawn after the national census every 10 years, but an impasse in the Texas Legislature resulted in the districts being drawn by the courts in 2001. is tentative, correctable and dynamic, in allowing for changes to be made as new data is discovered, rather than asserting certainty, and. Note: The congressional districts in Texas were redrawn in 2003 by the Republican-dominated legislature. makes predictions that might someday be used to disprove the theory,.

The position of Travis County DA is uniquely so-empowered by the Texas Constitution; most states grant this authority to the more broadly elected position of Attorney General. is supported by many strands of evidence rather than a single foundation, ensuring that it probably is a good approximation if not totally correct,. Ronnie Earle is nationally known for leveling charges against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, which were dismissed in court, and against Representative Tom DeLay, which have not yet been resolved. is consistent with pre-existing theory to the extent that the pre-existing theory was experimentally verified, though it will often show pre-existing theory to be wrong in an exact sense,. A notable exception to this trend is the Travis County District Attorney, Ronnie Earle, a Democrat elected by the people of Austin who has served since 1978 with state-wide authority and responsibility for legally prosecuting political mischief. Senators.

House of Representatives is Republican, as are both U.S. The majority of the state's delegation to the U.S. Every executive branch official elected statewide is Republican, as is every member of Texas's two courts of last resort; no Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994. Texas politics are currently dominated by the Republican Party, which has strong majorities in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives.

Other special districts include water supply, public hospitals, and community colleges. School district boundaries are not coaligned with city or county boundaries; it is not uncommon for a school district to cover one or more counties or for a large city to be served by several school districts. In addition to cities and counties, Texas has numerous "special districts." The most common is the independent school district, which (with one exception) has a board of trustees that is independent of any other governing authority. Municipal elections in Texas are nonpartisan, in the sense that candidates do not appear on the ballot on party "lines," and do not run as party "tickets.".

General law cities cannot annex adjacent unincorporated areas without the property owner's consent; home rule cities may annex without consent, but must provide essential services within a specified period of time or the property owner may file suit to be deannexed. One example of the difference in the two structures regards annexation. Otherwise, it is classified as "general law" and has very limited powers. A city may elect "home rule" status (i.e., draft an independent city charter) once it exceeds 5,000 population and the voters agree to home rule.

Cities are classified as either "general law" or "home rule". Texas does not have townships; areas within a county are either "incorporated" (i.e., part of a city, though the city may contract with the county for needed services) or "unincorporated" (i.e., not part of a city, in these areas the county has authority for law enforcement and road maintenance). Counties also have much less legal power than municipalities, for instance, counties in Texas do not have zoning power or eminent domain power (except in very rare circumstances). Certain officials such as the sheriff and tax collector are elected separately by the voters and state law specifies their salaries, but the commissioners court determines their office budgets.

In smaller counties, the county judge actually does perform judicial duties, but in larger counties the judge's role is limited to serving on the commissioners court. The county judge does not have authority to veto a decision of the commissioners court, s/he votes along with the commissioners. Each county is run by a "commissioners court" consisting of four elected commissioners (one from each of four precincts drawn based on population) and a "county judge" elected from all the voters of the county. Texas has a total of 254 counties, by far the most counties of any state.

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 two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, which hears civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The judicial system of Texas has a reputation as one of the most complex in the United States, with many layers and many overlapping jurisdictions. The Legislature meets in regular session only once every two years.

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 House of Representatives has 150 members, while the Senate has 31. The Legislature of Texas, like the legislature of every other state except Nebraska, is bicameral (that is, has two chambers). He or she also appoints members of various executive boards and fills judicial vacancies between elections.

The Governor commands the state militia and can veto bills passed by the Legislature and call special sessions of the Legislature. In popular lore and belief the Lieutenant Governor, who heads the Senate and appoints its committees, has more power than the Governor. President. Partly because of the large number of elected officials, the Governor's powers are quite limited in comparison to other state governors or the U.S.

There are also a large number of state agencies and numerous boards and commissions. Except for the Secretary of State—who is appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate—each of these officials is elected. The Comptroller decides if expected state income is sufficient to cover the proposed state budget. The executive branch consists of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner, Attorney General, Agriculture Commissioner, the three-member Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the Secretary of State.

The bill of rights is considerably lengthier and more detailed than the federal Bill of Rights, and includes some provisions unique to Texas. As with many state constitutions, it explicitly provides for the separation of powers and incorporates its bill of rights directly into the text of the constitution (as Article I). The Texas Constitution, adopted in 1876, is the second longest in the nation. House of Representatives: 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

Texas has 32 representatives in the U.S. Senate: Kay Bailey Hutchison (since 1993) and John Cornyn (since 2002). Two Republicans represent Texas in the U.S. Bush vacated the office to assume the Presidency.

Republican Rick Perry has served as Governor of Texas since December 2000 when George W. national capitol, but it is less massive. The capitol building is seven feet taller than the U.S. Like several other southern state capitols, it faces south instead of north.

The State Capitol resembles the federal Capitol Building in Washington, DC, but is faced in pink granite and is topped by a statue of the "Goddess of Liberty" holding aloft a five-point Texas star. Austin is the capital of Texas. Texas has no active or dormant volcanoes and few earthquakes, being situated far from an active plate tectonic boundary. A blanket of Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important aquifer.

A few exposures of Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks are found in the central and western parts of the state, and Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas, in the Big Bend area. Oil is found in the Cretaceous sediments in the east, the Permian sediments in the west, and along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas continental shelf. West from this orogenic crest, which is buried beneath the Dallas–Waco–Austin–San Antonio trend, the sediments are Permian and Triassic in age. This sequence is built atop the subsided crest of the Appalachian Mountains–Ouachita Mountains–Marathon Mountains zone of Pennsylvanian continental collision, which collapsed when rifting in Jurassic time opened the Gulf.

It is mostly sedimentary rocks, with east Texas underlain by a Cretaceous and younger sequence of sediments, the trace of ancient shorelines east and south until the active continental margin of the Gulf of Mexico is met. Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico. Texas has five major topographic regions:. The north-south extent is similarly impressive; Dalhart, in the nortwestern corner of the state, is closer to the state capitals of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming than it is to the Texas state capital (Austin).

Texas is so large in its east-west expanse that El Paso, in the western corner of the state, is closer to San Diego, California than to Beaumont, near the Louisiana state line; Beaumont, in turn is closer to Jacksonville, Florida than it is to El Paso. 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. Some regions of Texas are associated with the Southwest more than the South, while other regions are associated with the South more than the Southwest. Southwest.

Texas is considered to form part of the US South and part of the U.S. Texas lies in the south-central part of the United States of America. To the southeast of Texas lies the Gulf of Mexico. To the southwest, across the Rio Grande, Texas borders the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas.

Texas borders New Mexico on the west, Oklahoma on the north (across the Red River), and Louisiana (across the Sabine River) and Arkansas on the east. The state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country.". Austin is the headquarters of Dell and known as "Silicon Hills", Dallas is a famously cosmopolitan metropolis, Houston is a leader in the oil industry, and cultures of San Antonio and El Paso retain their Mexican heritage. Texans pride themselves in a history of tradition, yet there are still new social and technological developments.

In 1870, the United States Congress readmitted Texas into the Union. During the Civil War, Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. President John Tyler suggested that annexation be accomplished by the 'Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States' as it required only a simple majority of members from each chamber of the US Congress for passage. Due to the requirement of the US Constitution (Article II, Section 2) that all treaties be approved by 2/3rds of the Senate, a formal treaty was thus blocked.

These efforts failed due to the ongoing struggle between 'slave', and 'free' states. Prior to the resolution there were several efforts to arrive at a formal annexation treaty. Texas was admited to the Union via a 'Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States' on March 1, 1845. Some confusion has arisen over the annexation of Texas.

A compromise was reached in that if Texas were divided, any states north of the Missouri Compromise would be free states. Some southerners were pushing for the ability to divide Texas into multiple states, thereby increasing the number of slave states even more. The major stumbling block of annexation, besides the potential for war with Mexico, was the fact that Texas was a slave state and potentially would tip the balance between free and slave states due to its huge size. expansion to the Pacific, and its "Manifest Destiny".

Texas also lay partially in the way of the U.S. could not allow such a tenuous nation to sit right on its border. The U.S. Texas was in a very susceptible position following independence, with a weak government, little industry, and minimal infrastructure.

Annexation was mutually beneficial to Texas and the United States. In 1845, Texas was admitted to the United States as a constituent state of the Union. 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. Later in 1836, the Texians adopted a constitution that formally legalized slavery in Texas.

Santa Anna himself passed into captivity, and on May 14, Republic of Texas officials and General Santa Anna signed the treaty of Velasco. A factor in the defeat of Santa Anna's army at San Jacinto was the time the Texas Army got to gather itself, thanks to a small group of brave men at The Alamo. On April 21, 1836 the Texans won their independence when they defeated the Mexican forces of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. On March 2, 1836, the "Convention of 1836" signed the Texas "Declaration of Independence," declaring Texas an independent nation.

The example of the Centralista forces' suppression of dissidents in Zacatecas also inspired fear of the Mexican government. Other policies that irritated the Texians included the forcible disarmament of Texian settlers, and the expulsion of illegal immigrants from the United States of America. North American settlers in Texas announced they intended to secede from Mexico rather than give up their "right" to slavery, which Mexico had abolished. In 1835, Santa Anna, President of Mexico, proclaimed a unified constitution for all Mexican territories, including Texas.

This group became known as the "Old Three Hundred." The "Conventions" of 1832 and 1833 responded to rising unrest at the policies of the ruling Mexican government. Austin began a colony of 300 American families along the Brazos River in present-day Fort Bend County and Brazoria County, centered primarily in the area of what is now Sugar Land. On 3 January 1823, Stephen F. After Mexican independence in 1821, Texas became part of Mexico and in 1824 became the northern section of Coahuila y Tejas.

Moses was granted 200,000 acres (800 km²) of land of his choice. The governor passed along the favorable idea to his superior Commandant General of the Eastern Interior Province Joaquin de Arredondo. Moses purchased it with the help of Baron Felipe de Bastrop who presented the land scheme to the royal governor of Texas Antonio de Martinez. Moses Austin managed to buy land from the Spanish government in Texas.

Prior to 1821, Texas was part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. He returned to Europe in 1537, where he wrote about his experiences in a work called La relación ("The Tale"). states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on foot from coastal Louisiana to Sinaloa, Mexico, over a period of roughly six years. A member of the Narváez expedition, he was later enslaved by a Native American tribe of the upper Gulf coast, and explored what are now the U.S.

On November 6, 1528 shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas. Currently, there are three federally recognized Native American tribes which reside in Texas: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo of Texas. Native American tribes who once lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Comanche, Cherokee, Kiowa, Tonkawa, and Wichita. 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.

. state in area and California is the most populous.) Texas has historically had a "larger than life" reputation, especially in cowboy films. (Alaska is the largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous 48 states in area.

With an area of 268,820 square miles (696,241 km²) and a population of 22.5 million, Texas is the second largest U.S. Spanish explorers mistakenly applied the word to the people and their location. The state name derives from a word in a Caddoan language of the Hasinai, táyshaʔ (or tejas, as the Spaniards spelled it), meaning friends or allies. It joined the United States in 1845 as the 28th state, after nine years of self governing.

Texas is a state in the South and Southwest regions of the United States. John Cornyn (R). state vegetable — Texas sweet onion. state tartan — Texas Bluebonnet Tartan.

state stone — petrified palmwood. state sport — rodeo. state snack — tortilla chips and salsa. state slogan — "It's like a whole other country".

state native shrub — Texas purple sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)). state shrub — crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). state ship — the Battleship USS Texas (BB-35). state shell — lightning whelk (Busycon perversum pulleyi).

state reptile — Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum), commonly called the "horny toad". state plant — prickly pear cactus. other — jalapeño. native — chiltepin.

state peppers (two)