History
Mission San Antonio de Valero and Villa de Bexar was founded in 1718 by a party of Spaniards as an outpost to govern that region of Texas. It would become the most well-known of all missions in the American Southwest. Reinforced by a presidio, in essence a small fort, the mission grew from a few huts of 200 people to 6 other missions and their own presidios with the goal of converting the local natives to Roman Catholicism. Over time, however, the missionary goal of the outpost was broken up by Indian raids, epidemics and the cultural differences between the natives, soldiers and friars. The San Antonio mission was secularized in 1793, and the city became incorporated in 1809.
Anglo-Americans began colonizing the area soon after, which led to disputes and eventually an armed revolt against the Mexican government in 1835. Dictator Santa Anna responded by pulling together an army of about 5,000 and attacking the Alamo, as so was called the mission in the heart of the city. The 200 defenders were never reinforced and fought to the death; forty-six days later, however, Santa Anna was defeated by the Texans and the Republic of Texas was established. It wasn’t until 1845 that it was made the 28th
U.S. state.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, San Antonio was comprised of a mostly German and Hispanic population. From 1870 to 1920 its population grew to 161,000 people, which made it Texas’s largest city. With the advent of the airplane, San Antonio became a hub for military aviation, and the automobile also enabled surrounding communities to pop up.
The two world wars helped boost San Antonio’s status as a military area and fueled the economy, but also pushed much of the German community out, which led to the Hispanic community’s rise in importance and population, due also to an increased amount of immigration.
By the 1970’s the city had a population of over 700,000, and in 1975 Lila Cockrell became its first woman. Cultural differences began being felt, and poverty levels started increasing with San Antonio’s growth. The Hispanic majority eventually pulled itself together and voted in the first ever Mexican-American mayor of a mayor city in the U.S., which enabled San Antonio to become the greatest example of the growing Latino influence in American politics.
