The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed in 1836 and the Texas Republic ratified its own constitution shortly after. In 1837, the U.S. formally recognized Texas as a nation, but the new country struggled economically without any of the resources of its larger neighbors, leading most (but not all) residents to welcome statehood by the time it came through in 1845. Only a little more than a decade passed, however, before the state tried to secede from its national government again, joining with the Confederacy in 1861.
