the text, we have updated the lists of suggested readings that conclude each chapter. Space limitations permitted the mention of only a small number of titles that have informed our writing or that we think must come to the attention of serious students of the state’s past. Primary material also proved crucial to this endeavor, particularly in the final chapter, whose suggested reading list includes many of the online sources that provided information on contemporary Texas.
Finally, and like its predecessor, the sixth edition offers students and instructors a dynamic website in support of the text, making The History of Texas ideal for traditional as well as online courses.
Over the course of six editions and nearly three decades, we have accumulated more debts than we can acknowledge here. Our greatest thanks, of course, must go to the late Robert A. “Bob” Calvert, a devoted scholar, writer, and teacher who conceptualized this book in the 1980s and contributed directly to the first two editions. Over the course of his long career, Bob influenced thousands of students of Texas history, a subject to which he was ever devoted.
Other scholars who have contributed in varied and important ways include Paul D. Lack, Larry D. Hill, Fane Downs, Charles Martin, Alwyn Barr, William Childs, Jesús F. de la Teja, Walter L. Buenger, Robert Wooster, David La Vere, Randolph B. Campbell, Charldean Newell, Bernard Weinstein, James E. Crisp, Ty Cashion, George N. Green, Carl H. Moneyhon, James Smallwood, Patrick G. Williams, H. Sophie Burton, F. Todd Smith, Paul J. Sugg, Neil Carman, Karen Hadden, Barbara J. Rozek, Paul Carlson, Richard Bruce Winders, and the late Malcolm D. McLean, Dorothy DeMoss, Ben Procter, Barry A. Crouch, Stanley Siegel, Norman D. Brown, and Robert Weddle. In preparing the sixth edition, we gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Andrew J. Torget, Walter L. Buenger, and Paul J. Sugg.
We also owe a special debt of gratitude to our friend and editor for the first five editions, Andrew Davidson, who has continued his long tradition of help and support, even though he has now moved on to other enterprises. It is safe to say that this book would not exist without him.
Arnoldo De León San Angelo
Gregg Cantrell Fort Worth
About the Companion Website
This book is accompanied by a companion website:
https://www.wiley.com/go/calvert6
The website includes the following supplementary materials:
Test Bank
PowerPoint presentations
Student Guide
1 Contact of Civilizations, 1521–1721
The story of Texas begins many thousands of years before the birth of Christ. Between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago nomads from Asia trekked from present‐day Siberia to present‐day Alaska, entering North America in a series of distinct migrations. As they hunted for edible plants and animals, the nomads crossed broad fields of ice that spanned the Bering Strait during this long period of intermittent low sea levels. Even after the Bering Sea finally reclaimed this bridge of ice, other Asians managed to navigate the waters of the strait to arrive in the new continent. More such migrations followed but ultimately ceased, cutting off the early voyagers from humankind elsewhere on Earth.
Scientists now agree that American Indians descended from a relatively small number of parent migrants who contributed to the “founding” gene base. Once the ancestors of the American Indians were cut off from other Asians, natural selection and genetic mutation produced distinctive physical types.
Through the ages, these ancient nomads dispersed throughout the vast lands of North and South America. As bands struck out in different directions in search of fresh sources of game and vegetation, different cultural and linguistic patterns appeared. These cultural patterns further evolved over time as New World peoples began to develop agriculture, around 7000 BC. Once prehistoric societies learned to till the soil and harvest plants, human beings began to exercise some control over nature and develop strong ties to the land. Family units eventually formed into complex social and political organizations. Religious figures emerged as leaders or spiritual advisers, and gender roles became more clearly defined. As each group adapted in order to survive in its local environment, distinctive customs and practices developed, as evidenced by the different types of housing, decoration, clothing, and tools used by the people of particular regions.
The Diversity of New World Cultures
Various groups and cultures spread throughout all regions of the New World. Although historians disagree over population estimates, most concur that more people lived in what we now know as Latin America than remained in North America. At the time of Columbus’s voyage in 1492, roughly twelve million people lived north of the line dividing present‐day Mexico and the United States; between this boundary and the Isthmus of Panama lived an estimated thirty‐five million people; finally, some sixty million people inhabited the continent of South America and the Caribbean Islands.
Of the pre‐Columbian civilizations, that of the Maya has generally been considered the most intellectually advanced. Situated in what are today the Yucatán Peninsula and Guatemala, the Maya, during the height of their civilization (about AD 300 to AD 900), made brilliant advances. For example, the Mayas’ discovery of the zero cipher, well before Arab mathematicians introduced the concept to Europe in the thirteenth century, helped them make significant achievements in architecture, astronomy, and calendrics. Speculation lingers as to why the Mayan civilization declined. A deadly disease may have spread throughout the population, natural catastrophes may have produced food shortages, or a social revolution to undermine the ruling class may have hastened their demise.
Another major civilization thrived for a time at Anáhuac (Valley of México), this of the Toltecs, who raised a mighty empire at Tula until drought and famine forced them to desert their capital city. In 1215, new barbarians named the Méxica, but more commonly known as Aztecs, arrived from unknown parts in the north and built upon the collapsed Toltec empire by establishing themselves in Tenochtitlán, today’s Mexico City. One of the cleanest and most populous cities in the world at the time of its “discovery” by explorers from the Old World, Tenochtitlán contained pyramids, royal palaces, and other large structures; homes for the several social classes; canals crafted from stone that served as waterways for canoes, botanical gardens, and zoos; and causeways connecting the island city to the mainland. Although the Aztecs had a warlike disposition and a penchant for human sacrifice, they abided by strict codes of morality, esteemed education, adhered to an honest and efficient system of legal and political administration, and excelled in various branches of the arts.
In South America, another civilization flourished at the time of the European conquest of the Western Hemisphere. Embracing an area extending from today’s Ecuador to Chile, the Inca civilization had its headquarters in Cuzco,
