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“It’s why there were wars fought over Texas.”

Remember the crude!

or something like that?

Uhh, I believe your education has let you down, my friend. Oil was many years later, and didn't even have an impact until really 1901, but the value of Texas was understood early on, even if it, its weather, it's critters, and its native inhabitants were Hell on early European explorers from Spain and France. Cabeza de Vaca understood that it was a good location and had good resources in the 1520s or 1530s. Jump ahead 150 years to the 1680s and Robert de LaSalle claiming part of it for the French, knowing that it was good land. Jump ahead another 150 years, Stephen F. Austin understood the value in the early 1800s. Over the centuries, they all faced the problems of the weather, the critters, and the existing inhabitants wanting to hold on, but there was only so many outsiders they could kill before the Europeans and others were finally able to establish a true presence, eventually selling parts of it and fighting over other parts of it.

Oil didn't really come along and have an influence until Spindletop in 1901 helped turn the US into a world-class producer of oil, but people knew that Texas was good farming and ranching country which drew many people in, not to mention coal when it started to be mined, even before Austin showed up in with his colonists. Sure, in the first part of the 1800s, the gold rushes out west were much more glamorous, but things worked out well for Texas in the end. Over time, you had the farming and ranching build up, then around the 1880s, coal mining began in earnest, then 20 years later, oil, then the support companies for the oil industry, then the universities, then military in WWII, the aerospace, medical, and computer companies all took off within a few decades of one another. Over time, all of that built up an incredibly solid and diverse economic foundation for Texas.

That's not to say that we have left our agricultural roots behind - as a recent example, the Texas Department of Agriculture has helped Texas become the second largest exporter of goods to Cuba from the United States, right behind Louisiana. Texas is probably within range of shipping 20% of all American goods to Cuba in 2010 thanks to our farmers, although with this drought, we might have fallen a few notches.

We are also a very diverse state as far as people - many people don't realize that whites make up less than half the state, and with the large international population (over 15% were born outside of the United States), with so many ties overseas, it certainly helps Texas out as far as business opportunities.