According to allpubliclibraries, Texas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. As much in extension as in population it is the second of the states of the United States; it covers 696,200 km² and has a population of 24.7 million, constantly increasing. It limits to the south with Mexico, and with the US states of Louisiana to the east, with Oklahoma to the north, to the northeast with Arkansas, and to the west with New Mexico.
Under the pretext that ” Mexico has crossed the border of the United States and shed American blood on American soil,” President James Polk unleashed the expansionist war that would strip Mexico of the vast territories of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Alta California.. The long-awaited dream of extending the thirteen colonies from the Atlanticcoastline to the Pacific was beginning to be fulfilled. The dispossession started in 1846 would culminate with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in February 1848.
Name
The word Texas comes from the caddo / táyshaʔ /, and is translated as ‘friend’ or ‘ally’. The first Spaniards to explore these lands named the Hasinai that way. Another possible origin of the word is that of the tree “texa” or “texo”, common in that region as well as in others in Spain. There are several tree names in American toponymy, for example, Albuquerque (white oak), Nogales, Fresno, Alamo, etc.
Annexation of Texas
The attempt to annex Texas as a territory and not as a state failed. As a territory it had no representation in Congress and the objective of the American separatists and their southern promoters was to form several slave states in the immense territory that was already a republic recognized by several countries, including France, England and the Netherlands. Texas had to be made into a state, even if the Constitution had to be violated. Santa Ana declared that annexation meant war, which was exactly what the empire wanted it to say.
United States President John Tyler signed the annexation treaty in April 1844. The Senate rejected it by a large majority of 35 to 16. As the country then had 27 states, or 54 senators, two-thirds were 36 senators. The 28 of February of 1845, a few days before handing over the presidency to James Polk, Tyler got Congress in violation of the US Constitution, approved the annexation by a Joint Resolution of Congress for which only approval is needed by a simple majority. On December 29, the annexation of Texas was consummated as the 28th State of the empire.
American intervention
The empire’s troops occupied the extensive semi-desert area between the Nueces and Bravo rivers, in which not a single American lived. General Pedro de Ampudia, the military commander of the city of Matamoros, sent them a message to leave Mexican territory, but General Taylor, on the contrary, began to build Fort Texas. One of his main aides was Colonel Ethan Allen Hitchcock, an honorable intellectual who had chosen a career in arms and was forced to fight against its principles. Hitchcock wrote in his journal:
“Taylor has lost all respect for the just rights of Mexico and is being an instrument of President Polk to push the border further southwest.” [2]
A few days later General Mariano Arista arrived, leading two thousand soldiers, and replaced Ampudia in Matamoros. There was, then, another of the typical terrorist self-attacks of the Yankee empire. On April 25, Taylor ordered 63 soldiers to enter an area where there were hundreds of Mexican soldiers, that is, to commit suicide. Then there was what Polk and Taylor needed: the clash between two very unequal forces, with 16 invading soldiers killed.
President Polk accused Mexico of “spilling ‘American’ blood on United States territory.” On May 13, the US Congress declared war on Mexico. On July 7, the Congress of Mexico declared war on the empire. Congressman Joshua Giddings of the Whig Party opposed his colleagues’ decision, saying:
I cannot participate in the murder of Mexicans on their own soil or in the theft of their country.
Abraham Lincoln would say:
This war is unconstitutional.
On May 8, after an atrocious several-hour bombardment that killed many Mexican soldiers, Taylor’s troops defeated Arista’s in Palo Alto, in which more than 100 Mexicans and only 5 invaders were killed; and, the following day, after another fierce attack by the North American artillery, the battle of Resaca de la Palma took place in which the fight ended hand-to-hand. The Mexicans had more than 300 dead and the aggressors about 120. The defeats in the north of Mexico caused the return to power of Marshal Santa Ana, in August 1846.
On August 19 there were the battles of Padierna and Churubusco and, on September 9, that of Molino del Rey in which there were, in total, almost a thousand deaths. With the Mexican forces defeated, the US troops headed for Chapultepec, the final battle of the war, which took place on September 13, 1847 and in which 7,000 soldiers attacked less than a thousand defenders, with the obvious result. There, the cadets of the Castillo de Chapultepec Military School fell heroically in combat.
The 2 of February of 1848, was signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo by which Mexico lost 54% of its national territory including Texas– and increased agricultural and mineral wealth. The aggression was described by José Martí as a humiliating war.
Recent history
In 2011, a bill was presented to the state legislative chamber that would allow students to carry (short) firearms on university campuses. The proposal was publicly supported by Republican Gov. Rick Perry. Proponents of the measure argued that:
“It is strictly a matter of self-defense (…) I do not want what happened at Virginia Techto be repeated on the University of Texas Campus, where a suicidal madman enters a building and can choose between totally defenseless children like sitting ducks ” [5]
Jeff Wentworth Senator Republican (State) for San Antonio
Among those who showed rejection of the measure from the first moment was William Powers, president of the University, who considered that carrying weapons on campus could trigger situations that get out of control.
Demography
In 2009, Texas had 24,782,302 residents. This makes it the second most populous state in the nation behind only California. Texas is one of four US states in which people of Anglo-Saxon origin are not a majority (the others are California, New Mexico and Hawaii). The population of Latino / Hispanic origin is the fastest growing.
Geography
The geography of Texas is highly varied due to the size of the region. Texas is the second state in the United States by area (after Alaska), representing 7% of the US territory and occupying the southern part of the center of the country.
The relief is organized in levels of longitudinal orientation, with the highest elevations found in the West, where the highest point in Texas is, the Pico Guadalupe (2,667 m). However, the plains, hills and plateaus are the dominant reliefs. The average altitude of the state is 520 m. Due to its size,
Climate
Texas is characterized by a great diversity of climates in which rainfall and temperatures vary with latitude and altitude. Rainfall ranges from 1,538.5 mm in Jasper County to the east to 239.5 mm in El Paso in the west. The warmest recorded temperature was 49 ° C, on August 12, 1936, in Seymour, and on June 28, 1994, in Monahans. The coldest record (-31 ° C) was measured at Tulia on February 12, 1899 and at Seminole on February 8, 1933.
