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The Alamo City's Early History

On June 13 in 1691, a day devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua on the Roman Catholic calendar, a Spanish official exploring the region christened the river San Antonio. In 1709 a second party of Spaniards encountered the river while searching for a site for a new mission and returned to the area in 1718 to found Mission San Antonio de Valero and Villa de Bexar, the outpost established to govern the Texas province. The mission's nickname became the Alamo; ("alamo" means cottonwood) and writings by settlers of the period note the region's groves of trees, its water supply, and its mild climate reminiscent of their home country.

Six missions in all were founded around San Antonio, with a goal of converting the native population to Roman Catholicism. A presidio, or fort, was established near each mission, with soldiers to protect the missionaries. Mission San Antonio was secularized (removed from Church control) in 1793, and the city was incorporated in 1809.

From 1810 to 1821, San Antonio was the site of several major battles in Mexico's fight for independence from Spain. Anglo-American colonization began with 300 families brought to Texas by Stephen F. Austin, whose father envisioned a settlement with ties to neither Spain nor Mexico. By 1835, the settlers' resentment of Mexico had grown into an armed revolt. Mexico's first attempt to quell the rebellion was defeated. In revenge, Mexican dictator Antonio Löpez de Santa Anna brought an army of 5,000 men to attack San Antonio's defenders, a force of fewer than 200 Texans fighting from inside the fortified Alamo. Among those within its walls who held off Santa Anna's troops for 13 days beginning in February 1836, were frontiersman Davey Crockett, soldier Jim Bowie, and Lieutenant Colonel William Travis, who vowed to neither surrender nor retreat.

Statehood

The "Victory or Death" dedication of the Alamo's defenders inspired other insurgents throughout Texas to take up arms against Mexico. Forty-six days after the Alamo fell, Sam Houston's Texans defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, and the Republic of Texas was established. Texas became the twenty-eighth U.S. state. The ensuing period brought an influx of German settlers to San Antonio, which increased the population from about 800 to 8,000 people in 1845. Texas, aligned with the Confederacy in the Civil War, maintained its rough frontier atmosphere until 1877, when the railroad linked the isolated region with the rest of the nation.

The Twentieth Century

World War I solidified San Antonio's position as a military command center; 70,000 troops trained there in 1917 and 1918. San Antonio's Great Flood of 1921 left destruction in its wake, but by 1929 the city's adobe structures were complemented by skyscrapers, the most notable being the Tower Life Building, at one time the tallest office building in the state.

The onset of World War II meant intensive military activity for San Antonio. Lackland Air Force Base, for instance, trained more than one third of the war's air cadets. Expansion of the military complex led to tremendous postwar growth for the city and its environs. The 1968 HemisFair celebration placed an international spotlight on the city, attracting thousands of visitors, including some who decided to make the thriving Sun Belt community their home. By the 1970s the city's population numbered well over 700,000 people, of which more than half were Hispanic. In recent years the city has seen further growth, with the completion of such projects as the expansion of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the completion of the SBC Center, a new home for the Spurs. The Mission Trails project, which will make the area's historic missions more easily accessible, is nearing completion. San Antonio's multifaceted allure currently brings nearly 8 million visitors to the city per year.

Historical Information: San Antonio Conservation Society, 418 Villita Street, San Antonio, TX 78205; telephone (210)224-5711.