when i was visiting family recently i realized that one of the biggest differences between Texas and MA is that MA has sooo many towns and cities. i drive through like 4 towns in 20 minutes just on my way to work. in Texas you can drive for two hours and still be in San Antonio somehow
East Texas is a bit more like MA, but scaled way down. Like you can drive for 3 hrs and pass through little rural farming communities that are basically a stop sign, a Dairy Queen, and a post office.
Central Texas was shaped by empresario grants, with little dense cultural enclaves far apart.
Here are the 1825-1833 empresario grants, corresponding to early settlements that became Austin, San Antonio, Houston, etc.
In the Hill Country, the German settlers rebuffed claims by American immigrants, so there wasn't the plantation sprawl of E Texas.
