TEXAS, FLAG OF

U.S. state flag consisting of a vertical blue stripe at the hoist bearing a large white star; the fly end is horizontally divided white over red. Prior to the 1836 declaration of Texan independence from Mexico, the Lone Star State had a number of flags. English-speaking settlers and filibusters from the United States hoisted different banners as symbols of their self-declared republics. The flag of the Texan Republic that James Long attempted to establish circa 181920 had 13 red and white horizontal stripes and a white star on a red canton. Two stripes, white over red, represented the 1826 Republic of Fredonia, and a number of other striped flags later appeared. One, created by Sarah Dodson, had vertical stripes of blue-white-red with a star on the hoist stripe. It is supposed to have flown over Washington-on-the-Brazos when Texas independence was proclaimed March 2, 1836. The first official (though nonnational) Texas flag was based on the green-white-red vertical tricolour of Mexico. It was established on November 3, 1835, for use by local ships. The date 1824 on the centre stripe emphasized adherence to the federalist policies of the 1824 Mexican constitution and, hence, opposition to centralist control. That flag is believed to have flown at the Alamo when it was besieged by Mexican forces in 1836. The first official national flag of Texas, adopted on December 10, 1836, was blue with a central yellow star. The republic's naval flag resembled the banner displayed by James Long in 1819, except that the canton was blue rather than red. The colours and the stripes and star symbols in the Texas flag were derived from those of the U.S. flag. The present state flag was originally adopted on January 25, 1839, as the second national flag of the Republic of Texas. There was no change in the design when Texas became a state of the United States in 1845, or in 1861 when it became part of the Confederacy. Whitney Smith History The forerunners of the West Texas Indians lived in camps that were made perhaps as much as 37,000 years ago. Possessing only crude spears and flint-pointed darts, these hunters survived primarily on wild game. In the more fertile areas of East Texas, some of the tribes established permanent villages and well-managed farms and evolved political and religious systems. Forming a loose federation in order to preserve peace and to provide for mutual protection, they came to be known as the Caddo confederacies. By 1528, when the first Europeans entered the interior of Texas, the area was sparsely settled, but the culture and habitation of the Indians exerted measurable influence on the later history of the region. Settlement By the 1730s the Spanish had sent more than 30 expeditions into Texas. San Antonio, which by 1718 housed a military post and a mission, had become the administrative centre. Missions, with military support, were established in Nacogdoches in East Texas, Goliad in the south, and near El Paso in the far west. The French also explored Texas. The explorations of Robert Cavelier, Lord de La Salle, and his colony at Matagorda Bay were the bases of French claims to East Texas. Anglo-American colonization gained impetus when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 and claimed title to lands as far west as the Rio Grande. By 1819, however, the United States had accepted the Sabine River as the western boundary of the Louisiana Territory. Moses Austin secured permission from the Spanish government to colonize 300 families on a grant of 200,000 acres. When Mexico became an independent country in 1821, his son, Stephen F. Austin, received Mexican approval of the grant. He led his first band of settlers to the area along the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers. By 1832 Austin's several colonies had about 8,000 inhabitants. Other colonies brought the territory's Anglo-American population to about 20,000.