Question

At the time of the Civil War, the settlements of Anglo southerners in Texas did not extend west much beyond this geographic feature, which separates the Coastal Plains and pine forest regions of the state from the middle and High Plains regions.

Answer 1

The answer is the Balcones Escarpment.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Balcones Escarpment is a geologic fault zone several miles wide that extends in an arc right across Texas from Del Rio to the Red River. In Del Rio it is about 1,000 feet high, and where it extends from San Antonio to Austin where it is about 300 feet high to Waco. It is the Balcones that creates the Hill Country in Texas, and that marks the beginning of the Edwards Plateau and the High Plains beyond. The rich and fertile prairie land that was the foundation of the cotton industry runs up to this escarpment but it acts like a wall. Above that on the plateau the ground is hard and craggy, marking a sharp distinction between farmers to the east on the fertile soils, and ranchers to the west but it was once a barrier for further settlement west.