Texas History Top Ten

The Bullock Texas State History Museum's website is filled with artifacts, oral histories, highlights from curators, and interesting stories.

The Texas History Top Ten tool is perfect if you only have a short amount of time, want a broad overview, or want to find hidden gems about a particular topic. 

Texas History Top Ten Lists

Use these lists of the Top Ten items to help expand your content knowledge while planning classroom lessons for your students, or send your students on assignment to explore these Top Ten lists on their own.

African Americans

Since the earliest days of colonization, people of African descent have created culture and community in the land now known as Texas. As Texans continue to work toward equality and justice, African Americans remain an integral part of the Texas story.

American Indians

In a story unfolding over 16,000 years, diverse American Indian groups built empires and rich cultures. That multi-faceted story continues today as many groups keep their traditions and languages alive.

Anglo Colonization

Mexico encouraged Anglo Americans to settle the sparsely-populated Texas territory with land incentives that were hard to resist. From around the United States, settlers packed up their belongings and their newly-issued land grant titles and journeyed toward new futures.

Cattle

The history of Texas cattle ranching is intertwined with the history of the state itself. From the earliest Spanish vaqueros to modern cowboys, ranchers have shaped the social, economic, and political identity of Texas since the 15th century.

Civil War

Texas seceded from the United States in 1861 to join the Confederacy. For the next four years Texans were a part of nearly every battle of the Civil War, while those left on the home front coped with war time realities.

European Exploration

Spanish conquistadors sought out riches in the land now called Texas. Finding none, they largely ignored the region until a French expedition got their attention.

Mexican Americans

While Texas was still part of Mexico, people of Spanish descent began building built communities and culture in what is now Texas, and on lands that were still the homelands of thousands of Native American people.

Oil and Gas

From the time Spindletop blew its oily stack, Texas has never been the same. The creation of the oil and gas industry affected the infrastructure and culture of Texas and also impacts the whole world.

Republic

Texas was an independent republic before accepting annexation to the United States. That brief era was a time of growth, change, and establishing an independent mindset that still exists today.

Women's Suffrage

Thousands of women from different walks of life campaigned tirelessly for the right to vote. On June 28, 1919, Texas approved the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving women the right to vote in national elections.