San Antonio

==History==
{{Main|History of San Antonio}}
{{For timeline|Timeline of San Antonio}}
At the time of European encounter, the [[Payaya people]] lived near the [[San Antonio River|San Antonio River Valley]] in the [[San Pedro Springs]] area. They called the vicinity ''[[Yanaguana (San Antonio)|Yanaguana]]'', meaning "refreshing waters". In 1691, a group of Spanish explorers and [[missionary|missionaries]] came upon the river and Payaya settlement on June 13, the feast day of [[Anthony of Padua|St. Anthony of Padua]].<ref name=":0" /> They named the place and river "San Antonio" in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jun2004/Feature2.asp#F1 |title=San Antonio: The City of St. Anthony |work= St. Anthony Messenger Magazine Online |publisher=Americancatholic.org |date= June 2004 |access-date=June 30, 2010}}</ref>

{{Historical affiliations
| float = left
| width = 21em
| {{flag|Spanish Empire|1718}} (1718–1821)
| {{flag|Mexico|1823}} (1821–1836)
| {{Flagicon image|Flag of Texas (1839–1879).svg|size=23px}} [[Republic of Texas]] (1836–1845)
| {{flag|United States}} (1846–1861)
| {{flag|Confederate States|1863}} (1861–1865)
| {{flag|United States}} (1865–present)
}}
It was years before any Spanish settlement took place. [[Antonio de Olivares|Father Antonio de Olivares]] visited the site in 1709, and he was determined to found a mission and civilian settlement there. The viceroy gave formal approval for a combined mission and presidio in late 1716, as he wanted to forestall any French expansion into the area from their colony of [[Louisiana (New France)|''La Louisiane'']] to the east, as well as prevent illegal trading with the Payaya. He directed [[Martín de Alarcón]], the governor of [[Coahuila y Tejas]], to establish the mission complex. Differences between Alarcón and Olivares resulted in delays, and construction did not start until 1718.<ref name="tshaonline.org" /> Olivares built, with the help of the [[Payaya Indians|Payaya]] and the [[Pastia people]], the [[Alamo Mission in San Antonio|Misión de San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo)]], the [[Presidio San Antonio de Bexar]], the bridge that connected both, and the [[Acequia Madre de Valero (San Antonio)|Acequia Madre de Valero]].<ref name="Adina" />

The families who clustered around the presidio and mission were the start of Villa de Béjar, destined to become the most important town in [[Spanish Texas]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/alarcon-martin-de|title=Martin de Alarcon|publisher=Texas State Historical Society|work=Handbook of Texas|last=Chipman|first=Donald E.|access-date=June 23, 2021}}</ref> On May 1, the governor transferred ownership of the Mission San Antonio de Valero (later famous as The Alamo) to Fray Antonio de Olivares.<ref name="Adina" /> On May 5, 1718, he commissioned the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar ("Béjar" in modern Spanish orthography) on the west side of the San Antonio River, one-fourth league from the mission.<ref name="tshaonline.org" />

On February 14, 1719, the Marquis of [[San Miguel de Aguayo, Texas|San Miguel de Aguayo]] proposed to the king of Spain that 400 families be transported from the [[Canary Islands]], [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], or [[Havana]] to populate the province of Texas. His plan was approved, and notice was given the [[Canary Islanders]] (''[[isleños]]'') to furnish 200 families; the [[Council of the Indies]] suggested that 400 families should be sent from the Canaries to Texas by way of Havana and [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]]. By June 1730, 25 families had reached [[Cuba (island)|Cuba]], and 10 families had been sent to Veracruz before orders from Spain came to stop the re-settlement.<ref name="TXHand" />

Under the leadership of [[Juan Leal Goraz]], the group marched overland from Veracruz to the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar, where they arrived on March 9, 1731. Due to marriages along the way, the party now included 15 families, a total of 56 persons. They joined the military community established in 1718. The immigrants formed the nucleus of the villa of San Fernando de Béxar, the first regularly organized civil government in Texas. Several older families of San Antonio trace their descent from the Canary Island colonists. María Rosa Padrón was the first baby born of Canary Islander descent in San Antonio.<ref name="TXHand" />

[[File:Viceroyalty of New Spain Location 1819 (without Philippines).png|left|thumb|upright=.8|San Antonio was part of the Spanish [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]]. ]]
During the Spanish[[Greater San Antonio|–]]Mexican settlement of Southwestern lands, which took place over the following century, Juan Leal Goraz Jr. was a prominent figure. He claimed nearly 100,000 sq miles (153,766 acres) as Spanish territory and held some control for nearly three decades; this area stretched across six present-day states. San Antonio was designated as Leal Goraz's capital. It represented Mexican expansion into the area. With his robust military forces, he led exploration and establishing Spanish colonial bases as far as [[San Francisco|San Francisco, California]]. Widespread bankruptcy forced Leal Goraz Jr.'s army back into the current boundaries of Mexico; they fell into internal conflict and turmoil with neighboring entities.

San Antonio grew to become the largest Spanish settlement in Texas; it was designated as the capital of the Spanish, later [[Mexican Texas|Mexican, province of Tejas]]. From San Antonio, the [[Old San Antonio Road|Camino Real]] (today Nacogdoches Road), was built to the small frontier town of [[Nacogdoches]]. Mexico allowed [[European Americans|European American]] settlers from the United States into the territory; they mostly occupied land in the eastern part. In 1835, when [[Antonio López de Santa Anna]] unilaterally abolished the [[1824 Constitution of Mexico|Mexican Constitution of 1824]], violence ensued in many [[states of Mexico]]. which led to many short-lived independent republics.<ref>John H. Jenkins, ed., ''Papers of the Texas Revolution'' (10 vols.; Austin: Presidial Press, 973), p.13</ref> This, in addition to Mexico's abolition of slavery, and cultural differences between the Texians and the Mexicans, led to the [[Texas Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://digital.library.shsu.edu/digital/collection/p243coll3/id/2243/ | title=CONTENTdm }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/marchapril/statement/south-freedom | title=South to Freedom }}</ref>

In a series of battles, the [[Texian Army]] succeeded in forcing Mexican soldiers out of the settlement areas east of San Antonio, which were dominated by Americans. Under the leadership of [[Benjamin Milam|Ben Milam]], in the [[Siege of Béxar#Battle|Battle of Bexar]], December 1835, [[Texian]] forces captured San Antonio from forces commanded by General [[Martin Perfecto de Cos]], Santa Anna's brother-in-law. In the spring of 1836, Santa Anna marched on San Antonio. A volunteer force under the command of [[James C. Neill]] occupied and fortified the deserted Alamo mission.<ref name="Papers" />

Upon his departure, the joint command of [[William B. Travis|William Barrett Travis]] and [[James Bowie]] were left in charge of defending the old mission. The [[Battle of the Alamo]] took place from February 23 to March 6, 1836. The outnumbered Texian force was ultimately defeated, with all of the Alamo defenders killed. These men were seen as "martyrs" for the cause of Texas freedom and "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry in the Texian Army's eventual success at defeating Santa Anna's army.<ref name="Papers" />

[[Juan Seguín]], who organized the company of [[Tejano]] patriots, who fought for Texas independence, fought at the [[Battle of Concepción]], the [[Siege of Bexar]], and the [[Battle of San Jacinto]], and served as mayor of San Antonio. He was forced out of office due to threats on his life by sectarian newcomers and political opponents in 1842, becoming the last Tejano mayor for nearly 150 years.<ref>Gonzalez, Juan. ''Harvest of Empire''. Penguin, 2000.</ref>

[[File:San Antonio, Texas in 1886.jpg|thumb|Lithograph of San Antonio in 1886]]
In 1845, the United States finally decided to annex Texas and include it as a state in the Union. This led to the [[Mexican–American War]]. Though the U.S. ultimately won, the war was devastating to San Antonio. By its end, the population of the city had been reduced by almost two-thirds, to 800 inhabitants.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fisher|first=Lewis F.|title=Saving San Antonio: the precarious preservation of a heritage|publisher=Texas Tech University Press|location=Lubbock|year=1996}}</ref> Bolstered by migrants and immigrants, by 1860 at the start of the [[American Civil War]], San Antonio had grown to a city of 15,000 people.

In the 1850s [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], the landscape architect who designed [[Central Park]] in New York City, traveled throughout the Southern and [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]] U.S., and published accounts of his observations. In his 1859 book about Texas, Olmsted described San Antonio as having a "jumble of races, costumes, languages, and buildings", which gave it a quality that only [[New Orleans]] could rival in what he described as "odd and antiquated foreignness."<ref>''A Journey Through Texas'', by Frederick Olmsted {{ISBN|978-1-144-80380-1}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/journeythroughte01olms Frederick Law Olmsted, ''A Journey through Texas; or, A Saddle-trip on the South-western Frontier: with a statistical appendix'' (1859)], on-line text at Internet Archive</ref>  Following the Civil War, San Antonio prospered as a center of the cattle industry. During this period, it remained a frontier city, with a mixture of cultures that was different from other U.S. cities.

German immigrants founded smaller surrounding towns such as [[New Braunfels, Texas|New Braunfels]], [[Castroville, Texas|Castroville]], [[Boerne, Texas|Boerne]], [[Comfort, Texas|Comfort]], [[Fredericksburg, Texas|Fredericksburg]], and [[Bulverde, Texas|Bulverde]], all towns far out from San Antonio. However, the Germans were then drawn to San Antonio for work, and many buildings and streets still bear German names such as Wurzbach, Huebner, and Jones Maltsberger, and Wiederstein. The German impact on San Antonio was great, in the early 1900s it is estimated that at least 1/3 of San Antonio was ethnically German. Many descendants of German immigrants in San Antonio spoke [[Texas German]] up to the fifth or sixth generations. Texas German is a dialect of German that evolved when the German language was separated from Germany. Texas German is best described as an anglicized-German dialect with a Texas twang. Many older generations in New Braunfels and Fredericksburg still speak Texas German to this day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.visitsanantonio.com/german-heritage/|title=German Heritage|access-date=May 6, 2020|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806225430/https://www.visitsanantonio.com/german-heritage/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1877, following the [[Reconstruction Era]], developers constructed the first [[railroad]] to San Antonio, connecting it to major markets and port cities. Texas was the first state to have major cities develop by railroads rather than waterways.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} In Texas, the railroads supported a markedly different pattern of development of major interior cities, such as San Antonio, [[Dallas]] and [[Fort Worth]], compared to the historical development of coastal port cities in the established eastern states.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the streets of the city's downtown were widened to accommodate street cars and modern traffic. At that time, many of the older historic buildings were demolished in the process of this modernization.<ref>''Saving San Antonio'' by Lewis F. Fisher {{ISBN|978-0-89672-372-6}}</ref>

Since the late twentieth century, San Antonio has had steady [[population growth]]. The city's population has nearly doubled in 35 years, from just over 650,000 in the 1970 census to an estimated 1.2 million in 2005, through both population growth and land annexation (the latter has considerably enlarged the physical area of the city).<ref>{{cite web|title=POPULATION DISTRIBUTION IN 2005|url=https://www.census.gov/population/pop-profile/dynamic/PopDistribution.pdf|website=United States Census Bureau|access-date=June 10, 2017}}</ref> In 1990, the [[United States Census Bureau]] reported San Antonio's population as 55.6% Hispanic or Latino, 7.0% Black or African American, and 36.2% non-Hispanic white.<ref name="census1" />

The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and The Alamo became [[UNESCO]] World Heritage sites in 2015 and the city was designated a UNESCO "City of Creativity for Gastronomy" in 2017, one of only 26 [[gastronomy]] creative cities in the world.<ref name="PBS-SanAn" />

With the increase in professional jobs, San Antonio has become a destination for many college-educated persons, most recently including African Americans in a [[New Great Migration|reverse Great Migration]] from northern and western areas.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2015/01/15/the-cities-where-african-americans-are-doing-the-best-economically/?sh=37007f50164f |title=The cities where African Americans are doing the best economically|first=Joel|last=Kotkin |date=January 16, 2015|access-date=January 16, 2015|newspaper=[[Forbes]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=August 13, 2021|title=Latinos, Blacks Show Strong Growth in San Antonio as White Population Declines|url=https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Latinos-Black-communities-grow-in-San-Antonio-16385595.php}}</ref>
 
Over 31,000 migrants who requested asylum have been released by the Border Patrol into the city in 2019 during the [[National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2019/09/23/border-crisis-trump-administration-real-cost-tax-money/1739727001/|title=Local governments spend millions caring for migrants dumped by Trump's Border Patrol|first=Alan|last=Gomez|date=September 23, 2018|work=USA Today|language=en|access-date=September 24, 2019}}</ref>