Editing Travis County, Texas (section)

==History==

===Indigenous and Spanish periods===
{{Further|Spanish Texas}}
Evidence of habitation of the [[Balcones Escarpment]] region of Texas can be traced to at least 11,000 years ago. Two of the oldest [[Paleolithic]] archeological sites in Texas, the [[Levi Rock Shelter]] and [[Smith Rock Shelter]], are in southwest and southeast Travis County, respectively.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Hester |first1= Thomas |year= 1986 |title= The Balcones Escarpment: Early Human Populations |journal= Geological Society of America |volume= 6 |issue= 2 |pages= 55–62 |publisher= Abbott, Patrick L. and Woodruff, C. M. |url= http://www.lib.utexas.edu/geo/balcones_escarpment/pages55-62.html |access-date= September 6, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111012081825/http://www.lib.utexas.edu/geo/balcones_escarpment/pages55-62.html |archive-date= October 12, 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref> Several hundred years before [[European ethnic groups|European]] settlers arrived, a variety of [[nomadic]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribes]] inhabited the area. These [[indigenous peoples]] fished and hunted along the creeks, including present-day [[Barton Springs]],<ref name="briefhistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/briefhistory.htm|title=Austin Public Library|website=Austin Public Library|access-date=March 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808180745/http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/briefhistory.htm|archive-date=August 8, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> which proved to be a reliable campsite.<ref name="historycenter10">{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/faq10.htm|title=Austin Public Library|website=Austin Public Library|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> At the time of the first permanent settlement of the area, the [[Tonkawa]] tribe was the most common, with the [[Comanche]]s and [[Lipan Apache people|Lipan Apaches]] also frequenting the area.<ref name="historycenter5">{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/faq5.htm|title=Austin Public Library|website=Austin Public Library|access-date=March 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011005100954/http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/faq5.htm|archive-date=October 5, 2001|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The region (along with all of modern Texas) was claimed by the [[Spanish Empire]] in the 1600s, but at the time no attempt was made to settle the area (or even to explore it fully).<ref>{{citation|last=Chipman|first=Donald E.|title=Spanish Texas, 1519–1821|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin, Texas|year=1992|page=26|isbn=0-292-77659-4}}</ref> In 1691 [[Domingo Terán de los Ríos]] made an inspection tour through East Texas that likely took him through Travis Country. The first European settlers in the area were a group of Spanish [[friars]] who arrived from East Texas in July 1730. They established three temporary [[Mission (station)|missions]], [[Mission Concepcion|La Purísima Concepción]], [[San Francisco de los Neches]], and [[San José de los Nazonis]], on a site by the [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]] near [[Barton Springs]]. The friars found conditions undesirable and relocated to the [[San Antonio River]] within a year of their arrival.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/history/spanish-missions-texas |title= The Spanish Missions in Texas |work= Texas Almanac |publisher= [[Texas State Historical Association]] |access-date= September 10, 2011}}</ref>

===Mexican period===
{{Further|Mexican Texas}}
In 1821 [[Mexico]] won its independence from Spain, and the new government enacted [[General Colonization Law|laws encouraging colonists]] to settle the Texas frontier by granting them land and reduced taxation. Over the next decade, thousands of foreign immigrants (primarily from the United States) moved into Texas; in particular, American [[empresario]] [[Stephen F. Austin]] established one of his colonies near what is now [[Bastrop, Texas]] (in future Travis County) in 1827.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Myths, Misdeeds, and Misunderstandings: The Roots of Conflict in U.S.–Mexican Relations|editor-last=Rodriguez O.|editor-first=Jaime E.|editor2-last=Vincent|editor2-first=Kathryn|location=[[Wilmington, DE]]|year=1997|publisher=Scholarly Resources Inc.|isbn=0-8420-2662-2|contribution=The Colonization and Independence of Texas: A Tejano Perspective|last=de la Teja|first=Jesus F.|page=88}}</ref> Josiah and Mathias Wilbarger, Reuben Hornsby, Jacob M. Harrell, and John F. Webber were early settlers who moved into the area in the early 1830s.

===Republican period===
{{Further|Republic of Texas}}
In 1836 Texas [[Texas Declaration of Independence|declared]] and [[Texas Revolution|won]] its independence from Mexico, forming a new Republic of Texas. After Texas Vice President [[Mirabeau B. Lamar]] visited [[central Texas]] during a [[American bison|buffalo]]-hunting expedition between 1837 and 1838, he proposed that the republic's capital (then located in [[Houston]]) be relocated to a site on the north bank of the [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]]. In 1839 the site was officially chosen as the republic's new capital and given the name [[Waterloo, Texas|Waterloo]]; shortly thereafter the city's name was changed to [[Austin, Texas|Austin]] in honor of [[Stephen F. Austin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/ahc/faq2.htm|title=Austin Public Library|website=Austin Public Library|access-date=March 20, 2018}}</ref> A new county was also established the following year, of which Austin would be the seat; the county was named '''Travis County''', after [[William B. Travis]]. Though the Republic's capital moved briefly back to Houston during the events surrounding the [[Texas Archive War]], by 1845 Austin was again the capital, and it became the capital of the new State of Texas when Texas was [[Annexation of Texas|annexed]] by the United States later that year.

===Civil War and beyond===
{{Further|History of Austin, Texas}}
In 1861 Travis County was one of the few Texas counties to vote against [[Texas in the American Civil War|secession]] from the Union. Since the majority of the state did favor secession, Travis County then became a part of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] for the duration of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. After the Confederacy's defeat, Texas was fully readmitted to the Union in 1870.

From the end of the Civil War to the early twenty-first century, Travis County has experienced steady, rapid population growth (averaging more than a 36% increase every decade from 1870 to 2010), driven largely by the growth of Austin and its suburbs; it is now the fifth most populous county in Texas, after [[Harris County, Texas|Harris]] (Houston), [[Dallas County, Texas|Dallas]], [[Tarrant County, Texas|Tarrant]] ([[Fort Worth, Texas|Fort Worth]]) and [[Bexar County, Texas|Bexar]] ([[San Antonio]]) counties.