Texas
Texas
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and Greater Houston areas are the nation's fourth and fifth-most populous urban regions respectively. Its capital city is Austin. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and the Southwestern regions. Most population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, terrain ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, to the desert and mountains of the Big Bend).
Etymology
The name Texas, based on the Caddo word táy:shaʼ (/tə́jːʃaʔ/) 'friend', was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas, by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, specifically the Hasinai Confederacy.
Etymology
During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevas Filipinas ('New Philippines') and Nuevo Reino de Filipinas ('New Kingdom of the Philippines'), or as provincia de los Tejas ('province of the Tejas'), later also provincia de Texas (or de Tejas), ('province of Texas'). It was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, and declared a republic in 1836. The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings, Tejas and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name.