Six national flags have flown over Texas since the first
European exploration of the region by Cortez in 1519. The six flags are:
Spain was the first European nation to claim what is now
Texas, beginning in 1519 when Cortez was establishing Spanish presence
in Mexico, and Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda mapped the Texas coastline. A
few shipwrecked Spaniards, like Alvar Nunez, Cabeza de Vaca, and
explorers such as Coronado, occasionally probed the vast wilderness,
but more than 100 years passed before Spain planted its first
settlement in Texas: Ysleta Mission in present El Paso, established in
1681. Gradually expanding from Mexico, other Spanish missions, forts
and civil settlements followed for nearly a century-and-a-half until
Mexico threw off European rule and became independent in 1821. The red
and yellow striped Spanish flag after 1785 depicts
a lion of Leon and a castle of Castile on a shield surmounted by a
crown.
Planning to expand its base from French Louisiana,
France took a bold step in 1685, planting its flag in eastern Texas
near the Gulf Coast. Although claimed by Spain, most of Texas had no
Spanish presence at all; the nearest Spanish settlements were hundreds
of miles distant. French nobleman Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la
Salle, founded a colony called Fort St. Louis. But the effort was
doomed by a series of calamities: shipwreck, disease, famine, hostile
Indians, and internal strife resulting in La Salle's murder by one of
his own company. by 1690, France's bold claim to Texas had evaporated.
The French flag features a host of golden Fleurs-de-lis emblazoned on a
field of white, which was actually the French royal ensign for ships
and forts.
For more than a decade after Mexico became independent,
hardy pioneers from the Hispanic south and the Anglo north flowed into
Texas. It was a frontier region for both; Anglo Texans became Mexican
citizens. But divergent social and political attitudes began to
alienate the two cultures. The final straw: Mexican General Santa Anna
scrapped the Mexican federal constitution and declared
himself dictator. Texans revolted and won their independence April 21,
1836, on the battleground of San Jacinto near Houston. Mexico's
intricate flag pictures an eagle, a snake (an image from pre-Columbian
mythology) and cactus on bars of brilliant green, white and red.
During nearly ten years of independence, the Texas
republic endured epidemics, financial crises and still-volatile clashes
with Mexico. But it was during this period that unique accents of the
Texas heritage germinated. Texas became the birthplace of the American
cowboy; Texas Rangers were the first to use Sam Colt's remarkable
six-shooters; Sam Houston became an American ideal of rugged
individualism. Texas joined the United States on December 29, 1845. The
red, white and blue Texas state flag with its lone star (the same flag
adopted by the republic in 1839) today flies virtually everywhere: on
government buildings, schools, banks, shopping malls, and even on oil
derricks.
Sixteen years after Texas joined the union, the American
Civil War erupted. Gov. Sam Houston, urging Texans to stay aloof or
re-establish a neutral republic, was driven from office. Texas cast its
lot with the doomed southerners, reaping devastation and economic
collapse as did all Confederate states. But two events fixed Texas and
Texans as somehow different in the nation's eyes. First, Texas troops
on Texas soil won the final battle of the Civil War, not knowing the
south had capitulated a month earlier. Second, returning Texans found a
population explosion of wild Longhorns, sparking the great cattle-trail
drives that became American legends. The first Confederate flag flown
in Texas was the South's national emblem, "The Stars and Bars" of the
Confederate States of America, although the later-crossed
Confederate battle flag is better known today.
On joining the union, Texas became the 28th star on the
U.S. flag. Shrugging aside defeat and bitter reconstruction after the
Civil
War, the offspring of Texas pioneers marshaled their strengths to
secure a future based on determined self-reliance. First was the fabled
Texas Longhorn, providing beef for a burgeoning nation. Newly turned
topsoil on vast farm acreage yielded bountiful crops. The 20th Century
dawned with the discovery of fabulous sources--gushers roaring in at a
place called Spindletop near Beaumont. By mid-century, modern Texas
industries were sprouting in a fertile climate of advanced technology.
Today under the magnificent "Star Spangled Banner," Texas horizons
continue to expand, thrusting up to the limitless reaches of outer
space.
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