Texas is a state geographically located in the South Central United States. Texas is known as the Lone Star State. Austin is the state capital. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, with an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km˛) and a growing population of 23.9 million. Houston is the state's largest city. The Dallas/Fort Worth area is the largest metropolitan statistical area.

Traveling from east to west, the landscape of Texas gradually evolves from that of the Deep South into that of the desert Southwest, going from piney woods to semi-forests of oak and cross timbers, into rolling plains and prairie, then finally to desert in the Big Bend. These wide open spaces of the Texas prairie have lent currency to the phrase that "everything is bigger in Texas". Due to its long history as a center of the American cattle industry, Texas is associated throughout much of the world with the image of the cowboy.

Historically and culturally, partly due to settlement patterns and its membership in the Confederacy, Texas has close ties to the American South. However, having once been both a Spanish and Mexican possession, it can also be classified as a Southwestern state. While residents acknowledge these categories, many claim an independent "Texan" identity superseding regional labels.

Spain was the first European country to claim Texas. In 1836 it became the independent Republic of Texas. In 1845 it joined the United States as the 28th state. Texas is the only state to enter the United States by treaty instead of territorial annexation. The state's annexation was part of a chain of events that led to the Mexican-American War and the U.S. Civil War. The discovery of oil in the early 1900s led to an economic boom in the state. It has become economically diversified with a growing base in high technology.

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