Profiles the colonial history of Texas, such as why it took nearly 200 years to establish the first permanent settlement at San Antonio, how the Louisiana Purchase led to troubles between Spain and the United States, and how Texas became part of Mexico in 1821.

This revised and expanded edition of the authoritative history of Spanish Texas features significant new discoveries throughout. Modern Texas, like Mexico, traces its beginning to sixteenth-century encounters between Europeans and Indians. Unlike Mexico, however, Texas eventually received the stamp of Anglo-American culture, so that Spanish contributions to present-day Texas tend to be obscured or even unknown. Spanish Texas, 1519–1821 undercores...

Simple text and photographs introduce the life of Sam Houston, who served as governor of Texas after helping fight for the region's independence from Mexico.

The era of Anglo-American colonization, while brief, had a great impact on the development of Texas and the United States. Readers will discover what drew Anglo-American settlers to Texas, and what caused hostilities to rise between them and the Mexican Government. Frequent sidebars introduce readers to the key figures of this era.

Sam Houston is remembered in the name of a major city in the place he loved-Texas. Not only did he defeat Santa Anna s army to free Texas from Mexico, he worked hard to make the Republic of Texas a state and, as the Civil War loomed, to keep it in the Union. He served as president of the Republic of Texas, and then as a senator and governor of the state of Texas. But that s not all. Before Andrew Jackson sent him to Texas, Houston had already been...