Eras of Texas History
Mr. Salisbury’s Texas History Classes
2012-2013
Research Topics
Name of Era
Approximate Dates
Major Characters (at least 5)
The Eras of Texas History
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Natural Texas and Its People Era
Age of Contact Era
Spanish Colonial Era
Mexican National Era
Revolution and Republic Era
Early Statehood Era
Texas in the CivilWar and Reconstruction Era
Cotton, Cattle, and Railroads Era
Age of Oil Era
Texas in the Great Depression andWorldWar II Era
Civil Rights and Conservatism Era
Contemporary Texas Era
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Natural Texas and Its People
 Approximate Date: Prehistoric Cultures – 1519
 Major Characters: Columbus, “Indians”, Native
Americans, and Professor James Pearce
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Age of Contact
Era
 Approximate Dates: 1519 1700
 Major Characters:
Columbus, King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella, Moors
and the Reconquista,
Conquistadors, Hernan
Cortes, Alvarez de Pineda,
Panfilo de Narvaez, Cabeza
de Vaca, Marcos de Niza
and Estevanico, Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado and
Hernando De Soto, and
Robert Sieur de La Salle
 Name of Era: Spanish
Colonial Era
 Approximate Dates: 1682
- 1821
 Major Characters: Alonso
de Leon, Father Damian
Massanet, Louis
Juchereau de St. Denis
Father Franciso Hidalgo,
The Marques de San
Miguel de Aguayo, The
Hasinai, Lipan Apaches,
Comanches, Wichitas,
and Tonkawas.
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era:
Mexican National
Era
 Approximate
Dates: 1821 - 1836
 Major Characters:
Jose Maria
Morelos y Pavon,
Austin de Iturbide,
Peninsulares,
Criollos, and the
Conservatives.
 Name of Era: Revolution and
Republic Era
 Approximate Dates: 1827 - 1845
 Major Characters: Moses and
Stephen F. Austin, empresarios,
the Old Three Hundred, Mier y
Teran, Captain Juan Davis
Bradburn, William Travis, Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna, Sam
Houston, General Martin Perfecto
de Cos, Jim Bowie, Ben Milam,
J.C Neill, David Crockett, and
James Fannin, David G. Burnett,
Mirabeau Lamar, and Anson
Jones.
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Early
Statehood
 Approximate Dates: 1845 1861
 Major Characters: James
Pinckney Henderson, Jose
Antonio Navarro, James K.
Polk, General Zachary Taylor,
General Winfield Scott,
Hardin Runnels, Robert S.
Neighbors, Johann Friedrich
Ernst, Henri Castro, William
S. Peters, John O.
Meusebach, and Swante
Magnus Swenson.
 Name of Era: Texas in the
Civil War and Reconstruction
Era
 Approximate Dates: 1861 1876
 Major Characters: Sam
Houston, Benjamin Terry,
General Henry Sibley, Dick
Dowling, John Bell Hood,
Albert Sidney Johnston,
Colonel Santo Benavides,
General Richard Taylor,
Andrew J. Hamilton, Edmund
J. Davis, Cynthia Ann Parker,
Quanah Parker, Colonel
Ranald S. Mackenzie and the
Buffalo Soldiers.
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Cotton,
Cattle, and Railroads Era
 Approximate Dates: 1876 1910
 Major Characters: Richard
King, Jesse Chisholm,
John T. Lytle, Charles
Goodnight, Oliver Loving,
cowboys, Mifflin Kenedy,
Joseph Glidden, John
Ireland, John Coffee
“Jack” Hays, William A. A.
“Big Foot” Wallace,
Captain Leander H.
McNelly, and Juan Cortina.
 Name of Era: Age of Oil
Era
 Approximate Dates: 1900 1929
 Major Characters: Isaac
Cline and the Galveston
Hurricane of 1900, Anthony
Lucas and Spindletop,
wildcatters, roughnecks, C.
M. “Dad” Joiner, James
Hogg, William P. Hobby,
Annie Webb Blanton,
Pancho Villa, and James
and Miriam “Pa and Ma”
Ferguson.
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Texas in
 Name: Civil Rights
the Great Depression
and World War II Era
 Approximate Dates:
1929 - 1950
 Major Characters:
Bonnie Parker and
Clyde Barrow, Wilbert
Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel,
Ross Sterling, Bob
Wills, Sam Rayburn,
John Nance Garner,
Samuel Dealey, and
Macario Garcia.
and Conservatism Era
 Approximate Dates:
1950 – 1969
 Major Characters:
Lyndon B. Johnson,
John Connally, Lee
Harvey Oswald, Jack
Ruby, Herman Marion
Sweatt, Lonnie E.
Smith, and Neil
Armstrong.
Eras of Texas History
 Name of Era: Contemporary
Texas Era
 Approximate Dates: 1970 2000
 Major Characters: William
Clements, Barbara Jordan, All
Gonzales, Myra McDaniel,
Michael Dell, H. Ross Perot,
Michael DeBakey, Ann
Richards, George W. Bush,
Frank Dobie, and Nolan
Ryan.