History of San Antonio TX
The history of San Antonio TX began at the time the place was christened by a Spanish missionary who trekked in the area in 1691. That day of the said year in the Roman Catholic calendar was devoted to Saint Anthony who was buried in Padua, Italy, for hence the place was named.
San Antonio was discovered not for its rich fauna during the earlier times, but because of the river, which remains to be the focus of the city until today. Indian tribes were attracted to the area to take respite from the heat. The river was especially popular among the Indians who called it Yanaguana, meaning “Place of Restful Waters”.
It wasn’t until 1709 that a second group of Spaniards followed the path of the river in search of site for a new mission. Finding the place a viable site for the new mission, they returned nine years later and founded the Mission San Antonio de Valero and the Villa de Bexar, which was to serve as outpost to govern the province of Texas.
The Mission San Antonio de Valero’s name, later nicknamed the Alamo (Spanish for “cottonwood”), immediately resounded in the greater American southwest. The Alamo predominantly fills much of the history of San Antonio TX, where many bloody battles ensued after locals fought to emancipate themselves from the tyranny of the colonists.
Six missions were founded along the river, in the aim of spreading Catholicism and colonizing the natives. The natives labored for each of the mission’s construction under the supervision of the friars.
The history of San Antonio TX spans three centuries that in the earlier part of construction was all about building missions, expanding Spanish territories, periodic attacks by the Apaches and Comanches, and plagued with cultural differences that resulted in disputes between friars, colonists, and soldiers. The Church, consequently, secularized the mission in 1793, and following that was the incorporation of the city in 1809.
The years 1810 to 1821 saw San Antonio as the seat of Spanish government in the entire Texas, where major battles occurred in Mexico’s struggle for independence from Spain. The colonization of Anglo-American foundation brought 300 families to Texas headed by Stephen F. Austin whose father foresaw to build a settlement with neither ties to Spain nor Mexico.
In the history of San Antonio TX, Mexico’s first attempt to destroy the rebellion was defeated by the patriots inside the fortified Alamo. Enraged at the defeat, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna came back with a 5,000-strong army and attacked the Alamo’s defenders. The first attack came on February 22, 1836 – and after 13 days of incessant assaults, the 200 men inside the fort who were already exhausted and depleted of armaments, fought until their last breath.
After the fall of the Alamo, in the history of San Antonio TX, and Spain’s dwindling power finally reached the brink of collapse, several attempts were made to sell the missions to the Natives who could not afford them. Then, under the decree of President Abraham Lincoln in the later part of the 19th century, the missions were turned over to the Catholic Church, and remained so since then.
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