Important dates [edit]1529: Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, a Spanish explorer, probably became the first European to map the Texas coast.1528-1535: Four survivors of Narváez's expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and Estebanico, spent six and a half years in Texas as slaves and merchants among several native groups.February 18, 1685: La Salle established the Fort of San Luis in the bay of Matagorda, claiming in this way the Texan territory for France.1688: The French colony is massacred.1689: The French physical presence is abandoned, although the French would continue to assert their claims on Texas for the next seventy years.1762: The French abandon their claims on Texas and cede Louisiana to Spain for almost forty years (until 1801-1803).1801: Much of North Texas is returned to France and later sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
