Texas, State, southwestern U.S. Area: 268,597 sq mi (695,662 sq km). Population: (2020) 29,145,505; (2023 est.) 30,503,301. Capital: Austin. Texas is the second largest state in both area and population. Much of its perimeter is formed by water: the course of the Red River on the north makes up two-thirds of the state’s boundary with Oklahoma; on the east the state is bordered in part by Arkansas, though the Sabine River forms most of Texas’s eastern boundary with Louisiana; the Gulf of Mexico forms the coastal boundary to the southeast; and the Rio Grande carves a shallow channel that separates Texas from Mexico on the southwest; while the Panhandle section juts northward, forming a counterpart in the western part of Oklahoma; and New Mexico lies to the west. Plains and hills make up the terrain, which ranges from the fertile prairie of the Coastal Plains on the Gulf of Mexico through the central Great Plains grasslands to the arid High Plains of the Panhandle. The ancestors of West Texas Native Americans inhabited the area as long as 37,000 years ago. Some of the peoples later formed the Caddo confederacy. Native Americans, including the Apache, were living in the region when the Spanish arrived in 1528. The first settlement was attempted in 1685 by the French, who claimed the region as part of Louisiana. In 1803 the U.S. acquired the French claim in the Louisiana Purchase but relinquished it to Spain by treaty in 1819. It became part of Mexico at Mexican independence in 1821. In 1836 Texans declared independence from Mexico as the Republic of Texas (see Stephen Austin; Sam Houston). After a 10-year struggle to remain independent, Texas became the 28th U.S. state in 1845. Its boundary with Mexico was confirmed after the Mexican-American War (1848). In the American Civil War it seceded from the Union (1861); it was readmitted in 1870. After the war, railroad building and increased shipping helped expand the economy, and the discovery of oil in 1901 transformed it. While Texas still leads all other states in oil and natural gas production and in petroleum-refining capacity, its manufacture of electronics, aerospace components, and other high-technology items is increasingly important. It is also a leading cotton, cattle, and sheep producer in the U.S.
