1513–1519—The Gulf of Mexico explored by the Spanish.

1521—Following upon the conquest of Mexico by Captain Hernando Cortes, Texas forms a part of that indefinite New Spain.

1528–1536—Texas first entered by white men when the shipwrecked Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Andres Dorantes, with the negro Estavanico (Stephen), cross the interior. They assume it to be a part of Florida.

1540–1684—Penetrated by Coronado, de Soto, and other Spanish officials.

1685—Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, in the name of France takes possession of Matagorda Bay, deeming it one of the mouths of the Mississippi River. Erects inland Fort St. Louis, the first white settlement.

1689—Captain Alonzo de Leon and Father Manzanet, dispatched from Mexico to expel the French, find Fort St. Louis abandoned.

1690—The Spanish from Mexico establish the Mission San Francisco among the Tejas Indians, in East Texas, southwest of present Nacogdoches. The country begins to be called the Land of the Tejas; or “Tejas” (Texas).

1691—Don Domingo Teran de los Rios appointed first Spanish governor of the provinces of Coahuila and Texas.

1714—Captain Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis is sent from the French post at Mobile into Texas, to report upon colonizing it.

1716—The Spanish captain, Domingo Ramon, and party of sixty-four men and women, are sent to locate missions and colonies in East Texas and oppose the French, who have advanced to the Red River.

1718—The Spanish presidio of San Antonio de Bejar (Bexar), the site of the storied town, is founded. Here arises also the mission San Antonio de Valero, predecessor to the famous Alamo.

1720–1722—Other missions and forts are established, along the Sabine River, the Spanish frontier in Texas.

1721—The French claim to the Sabine River, from the east. Captain Bernard de la Harpe is ordered to reoccupy Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay. The landing party are driven off by Indians.

1722–1762—The French out-posts along the Red River and the Spanish out-posts along the Sabine River are separated by only some twenty miles; but the Spanish hold Texas.

1744—The mission later known as the Alamo is rebuilt at San Antonio.

1762—France cedes to Spain all the Province of Louisiana as presumed to be the country from the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande River and the Rocky Mountains. Under Spanish and Mexican rule for virtually seventy-five years, Texas progresses little except through the efforts of American settlers.

1782—By the Revolutionary War the United States succeeds England in North America east of the Mississippi, and becomes the neighbor of Texas.

1797—Philip Nolan, an Irish-American at New Orleans, enters Texas with a party to capture wild horses and to report on the country.

1800—Nolan and a party again enter Texas, in defiance of Spanish protests. Nolan is killed by the Spanish troops and the others are imprisoned.

1800—Spain cedes the Louisiana province back to France.

1803—France sells Louisiana province to the United States. Spain claims that France was under contract not to deliver the province to any other power, and protests the transfer.

1804—The United States claims that the province extends west to the Rio Grande River; Spain denies the right of the United States to any territory west of New Orleans. War is threatened.

1806—United States troops encamp on the east bank of the Sabine River, in Louisiana; the Spanish troops encamp on the west bank, in Texas. By a truce the United States forces retire to the Red River in Louisiana, and pending a settlement of the Texas boundaries dispute, the strip thirty miles wide between the Red River and the Sabine River is made a Neutral Ground.

1806–1819—The Neutral Ground is the resort of desperadoes, who much annoy the Spanish authorities of Texas.

1811–1812—Lieutenant Augustus Magee, a young American army officer, joins with a Mexican revolutionist, Colonel Gutierrez de Lara, in an attempt to seize Texas from Spain. The project fails.

1817–1821—The freebooter, Captain Jean Lafitte, Frenchman, occupies the Island of Galveston; reigns there under the title “Lord of Galveston.”

1818—Generals Lallemand and Rigault, French officers under Napoleon, establish a French colony, entitled the Champ d’Asile (Field of Refuge), twelve miles up the Trinity River. They are soon driven out by the Spanish troops.

1819–1821—Dr. James Long, an American merchant of Natchez (Mississippi), with a company of seventy-five adventurers, invades Texas, declares it an independent republic, but finally is defeated and shot.

1820—Moses Austin, from Missouri, petitions Mexico to be permitted to bring into Texas 300 colonists from the United States, but he dies before he can complete his project.

1821—Mexico separates from Spain, and Texas is now Mexican territory.

1821—Stephen Fuller Austin, son of Moses Austin, and to be known as the “Father of Texas,” brings in from New Orleans the first of the American colonists, who settle on the lower Brazos River.

1823—Mexico issues a general colonization law, encouraging the settlement of Texas by foreigners, upon tracts granted by the government.

1823—The town of San Felipe de Austin in the Austin colony on the Brazos is founded—the first American town in Texas.

1825—The State of Coahuila and Texas (as the two Mexican provinces were known) passes a more liberal colonization law, and settlement by Americans proceeds rapidly.

1827—The United States, still wishing to acquire Texas, offers Mexico $1,000,000 for the province to the Rio Grande River, or $500,000 to the Colorado River, about half-way. Mexico rejects the offers.

1828—The United States accepts Mexico’s contention that the Sabine River shall be the boundary in the south between the two nations.

1829–1830—Alarmed by the increase of settlers from the United States, Mexico passes several laws much restricting immigration and the rights of colonists.

1832—The American colonists support General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who aspires to supplant the unfair Anastasio Bustamante in the presidency of Mexico. They rise against the Mexican commandants at Nacogdoches, and at Anahuac and Velasco on the Gulf, and expel them.

1832—October 1 the “people of Texas” meet in first general convention at San Felipe, and ask for a state government separate from Coahuila.

1833—Santa Anna becomes president of Mexico.

1833—Hoping now for aid from Santa Anna, on April 1 the Texans meet in another convention, and draw up a plan for separate state government. Stephen Austin bears the petition to Mexico. He is arrested.

1834—Coahuila, with which Texas is still linked, is torn by quarrels between its Mexican factions, in which Texas is little concerned except as an outsider. Santa Anna grants an audience to Stephen Austin, the prisoner, but decides that Texas cannot be separated from Coahuila, and that 4000 Mexican troops should be sent in, to preserve order.

1835—The local revolution in Coahuila continues, and Santa Anna appoints a governor of his own making, for Coahuila and Texas. The Americans in Texas are much incensed at such dictatorship, and Mexican officials, driven out by Santa Anna’s policies, join with the colonists.

1835—June 30 Captain William B. Travis, of the Anglo-Texans, leads a party against the port of Anahuac, where import duties were being collected. The Mexican officers there are expelled.

1835—August 31 Stephen Austin is landed at the mouth of the Brazos, after a year and a half imprisonment by the Mexican government. At a banquet at Brazoria he advises a general consultation to insist upon the rights of Texas to be governed under the liberal Mexican constitution of 1824, which granted that the Mexican states should be administered by elected officials, like the states of the United States. The consultation is called for October 15.

1835—At the close of September the town of Gonzales refuses to deliver over a six-pounder cannon, demanded by the Mexican officials at San Antonio de Bejar. On October 2 the Texas volunteers drive off the Mexican troops sent to take the cannon. This Battle of Gonzales is styled the Lexington of Texas. The colonists continue to gather; advance is made against San Antonio; the Mexicans are defeated, October 28, at the battle of the Horseshoe, near Concepcion Mission; on December 11 San Antonio is captured. In the south Goliad and Victoria have been taken. As the result of the campaign, not a Mexican soldier remains in arms in Texas.

1835—November 1 the general consultation meets at San Felipe. It declares for the rights of state government under the Constitution of 1824, draws up a plan for temporary state administration, elects state officers, appoints Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the Texan army to be raised, and delegates commissioners to get aid from the United States.

1836—Santa Anna organizes an army to subjugate Texas. Volunteers from the United States continue to arrive, to help the Texan cause, but a quarrel arises between Governor Smith and the council, over the conduct of the war.

1836—February 22–23 General Santa Anna appears before San Antonio; the few Texas troops there, under Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel James Bowie retire to the Alamo Mission, adjacent, and are closely besieged.

1836—March 2 the Texas delegates in convention at Washington on the Brazos declare for Independence from Mexico. The Republic of Texas is organized.

1836—March 6 the Alamo is taken by storm, by the Santa Anna columns. Of the garrison of 180 or more only three women, a baby, a little girl and a negro boy are spared.

1836—March 11 General Sam Houston arrives at the army camp at Gonzales, and in the night of the 13th, following the news from the Alamo, a retreat is ordered.

1836—March 20 Colonel James Fannin, attempting to retire from Goliad with 400 men, is surrounded, and surrenders, on promise of good treatment.

1836—Palm Sunday, March 27, Colonel Fannin and 320 of his men are massacred, while prisoners, by order of Santa Anna.

1836—April 16 the Mexican column under Santa Anna, having marched clear across Texas, burns Harrisburg, the temporary capital, near Galveston Bay.

1836—April 20 the Texan army under Houston front Santa Anna at the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou, northeast of Harrisburg, and cut him off.

1836—In the afternoon of April 21, by the battle of San Jacinto the Texan army overwhelm the Mexican force and on the next day capture Santa Anna, president of Mexico.

1836—May 14 President Santa Anna signs the treaty by which he recognizes the independence of the Republic of Texas, with boundaries extending on the west to the Rio Grande River.

1836—In September General Houston is enthusiastically elected president of the Republic of Texas. Annexation to the United States is also endorsed by a large majority.

1837—In March the United States recognizes the independence of Texas. Mexico declines to accept the treaty as signed by Santa Anna. Hostilities threaten to be actively renewed.

1839—France acknowledges the Republic of Texas.

1840—Holland and Belgium acknowledge the Republic of Texas.

1840–1843—Texas and Mexico invade each other’s territory, in a fresh series of hostilities. Several forces of Texans are captured and severely treated.

1842—Great Britain acknowledges the Republic of Texas.

1843—Texas and Mexico agree to a truce until commissioners can discuss terms of peace between the two republics.

1843—Mexico announces that the annexation of Texas by the United States would be viewed as a declaration of war.

1844—In April a treaty drawn by President Tyler and the Texas government, providing for annexation, is defeated in the United States senate.

1844—The negotiations for peace between Texas and Mexico having failed, Santa Anna, again president of Mexico, announces that war to recover the “rebellious province” is resumed.

1845—February 28 the Congress of the United States adopts a joint resolution inviting Texas into the Union. President Tyler signs, March 1.

1845—In March the Texas secretary of state has submitted to Mexico a treaty by which Mexico shall recognize the independence of the Texas Republic, on the agreement that there shall be no annexation to the United States. Mexico signs the treaty in May.

1845—June 4 Mexico declares its intention to fight for possession of Texas.

1845—June 18 the Texas Congress, convened in special session to consider the offer of the United States, unanimously rejects the treaty with Mexico and votes for annexation. October 13 the Texas people, in general election, enthusiastically endorse the action of their congress.

1845—July, the American Army of Occupation, under General Zachary Taylor, is ordered to enter Texas and advance to the Rio Grande River.

1846—Hostilities by force of arms open: by the United States to establish the claims of Texas to the Rio Grande River boundary; by Mexico, to retain possession eastward to the Nueces River.

1848—By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, closing the war, Mexico definitely loses Texas to the United States.

1850—By protest from the people of New Mexico, following the close of the war, the state of Texas, whose southwest and west boundary was assumed to the Rio Grande River from its mouth to its source, is rebounded and confined to practically its present generous limits.

Released from Mexican misrule, free to turn its arms against the marauding Indians, and by the payment of $10,000,000 by the United States soon made financially independent, the great State of Texas, 800 miles long, 750 miles wide, has prospered abundantly. The spirit of the Lone Star Republic still lives in the words, always proudly spoken: “I am a Texan.”