Gonzales County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, adjacent to Greater Austin-San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,653. The county is named for its county seat, the city of Gonzales. The county was created in 1836 and organized the following year. As of August 2020, under strict budgetary limitations, the County of Gonzales governmental body is unique in that it claims to have no commercial paper, regarding it as "the absence of any county debt."

According to the census, all areas county-wide had $188,099,000 in total annual payroll (2016), $550,118,900 (±39,442,212; 2018) in aggregate annual income, and $238,574,000 in total annual retail sales (2012). In 2018, the census valued all real estate in the county at an aggregate $795,242,300 (±74,643,103); with an aggregate $29,058,000 of real estate being listed for sale and $173,100 listed for rent. In the same year, approximately, the top 5% of households made an average of $361,318; the top 20% averaged at $188,699; the fourth quintile at $79,601; the third quintile (median income) at $53,317; the second quintile at $31,238; and the lowest at $13,339. The Texas Almanac rated all categories of land in the county at an aggregate value of $5.6-billion.

Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers were here thousands of years ago; the later Coahuiltecan, Tonkawa, and Karankawa migrated into the area in the 14th century, but lost much of their population by the 18th century due to new infectious diseases contracted by contact with European explorers. The historic Comanche and Waco tribes later migrated into the area and competed most with European American settlers of the 19th century.

Between 1519 and 1685, Hernando Cortez and Alonso Álvarez de Pineda claimed Texas for Spain. Beginning in 1685, France planted its flag on Texas soil, but departed after only five years, and Spain regained the territory. Mexico, including Texas, won its independence from Spain in 1821. Citizens of the United States began to settle in Texas and were granted land and Mexican citizenship.

In 1825, Green DeWitt's petition for a land grant to establish a colony in Texas was approved by the Mexican government. Gonzales was established, named for Rafael Gonzales, governor of Coahuila y Tejas. When Jean Louis Berlandier visited in 1828, he found settler cabins, a fort-like barricade, crop agriculture, and livestock, as well as nearby villages of Tonkawa and Karankawa. The Coahuila y Tejas government sent a six-pound cannon to Gonzales in 1831 for settlers' protection against Indian raids.

In 1835, the colony sent delegates to conventions (1832–1835) to discuss disagreements with Mexico. The Mexican government viewed the conventions as treason, so troops were sent to Gonzales in September 1832 to retrieve the cannon. On October 2, the Battle of Gonzales became the first shots fired in the Texas Revolution. The colonists put up armed resistance, with the cannon pointed at the Mexican troops, and above it a banner proclaimed, "Come and Take It". Commemoration of the event became the annual "Come and Take It Festival". From October 13 – December 9, the Siege of Bexar became the first major campaign of the Texas Revolution.

Gonzales County was established in 1836.

In 1838, Gonzales men founded the town of Walnut Springs (later Seguin) in the northwest section of the county. Two years later, Gonzales men joined the Battle of Plum Creek against Buffalo Hump and his Comanches.