The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called mission and fortress compound, site of the Battle of the Alamo The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). All but two of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna's perceived cruelty in 1836, and now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas San Antonio is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest city in the United States with a population of 1.3 million. The city is the seat of Bexar County. Located in the American Southwest and the northern part of South Texas, San Antonio is the center of Tejano culture and Texas tourism.[citation needed] The city is.

The compound, which originally comprised a sanctuary and surrounding buildings, was built by the Spanish Empire Territories of the Portuguese empire during the Iberian Union . Territories lost before or due to the Treaties of Utrecht-Baden (1713–1714). Territories lost before or during the Spanish American wars of independence (1811–1828). Territories lost following the Spanish-American War (1898–1899). Territories granted independence during the in the 18th century for the education of local Native Americans Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities. The terminology used to after their conversion to Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity comprises three major branches: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (the two split from one another in 1054 A.D.), and Protestantism (which came into existence during the Protestant Reformation of the 16. In 1793, the mission was secularized Secularisation is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. Secularisation thesis refers to the belief that as societies "progress", particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all and soon abandoned. Ten years later, it became a fortress housing the Mexican Army group the Second Flying Company of San Carlos de Parras, who likely gave the mission the name "Alamo".

Mexican In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico soldiers held the mission until December 1835, when General Martin Perfecto de Cos Martín Perfecto de Cos was a 19th-century Mexican general. He was married to Lucinda López de Santa Anna, sister of Antonio López de Santa Anna. General Cos swept across the Texas plains attacking many small towns and defeating Texas commanders like James Fannin during the Texas Revolution surrendered it to the Texian Army The Texian Army was a military organization consisting of volunteer and regular soldiers who fought against the Mexican army during the Texas Revolution following the siege of Bexar Santa Anna had sent his brother-in-law, General Martin Perfecto de Cos, to Béxar with reinforcements. On October 13, Austin led his forces towards Béxar to confront the Mexican troops. The Texians initiated a siege of the city. A relatively small number of Texian Texians is a name for immigrants from the United States and countries other than Mexico who became residents in the Tejas and Coahuila areas of Mexico, much of which later would be called Texas. Following a war for independence, several unofficial terms were used in the 19th century to denote residents of Texas, including Texasian, Texican, and soldiers then occupied the compound. Texian General Sam Houston Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas, and was elected as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, US Senator for Texas after believed the Texians did not have the manpower to hold the fort and ordered Colonel James Bowie James "Jim" Bowie , a 19th-century American pioneer and soldier, played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution, culminating in his death at the Battle of the Alamo. Countless stories of him as a fighter and frontiersman, both real and fictitious, have made him a legendary figure in Texas history and a folk hero of American culture to destroy it. Bowie chose to disregard those orders and instead worked with Colonel James C. Neill James Clinton Neill was a 19th century American soldier and politician, most noted for his role in the Texas Revolution and the early defense of the Alamo.He was born in North Carolina to fortify the mission. On February 23, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, was a Mexican political leader, general and President who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government. He first fought against the independence from Spain, and then supported it. He rose to the led a large force of Mexican soldiers into San Antonio de Bexar and promptly initiated a siege The siege of the Alamo describes the first 12 days of the Battle of the Alamo. On February 23, Mexican troops under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna entered San Antonio de Bexar, Texas and surrounded the Alamo Mission. The Alamo was defended by a small force of Texians, led by William Barrett Travis and James Bowie, and including Davy Crockett. The siege ended on March 6, when the Mexican army attacked the Alamo; by the end of the Battle of the Alamo The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). All but two of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna's perceived cruelty all or almost all of the defenders were killed. When the Mexican army retreated from Texas at the end of the Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was a military conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836. However, a war at sea between Mexico and Texas would continue into the 1840s. Animosity between the Mexican government and the, they tore down many of the Alamo walls and burned some of the buildings.

For the next five years, the Alamo was periodically used to garrison soldiers, both Texian and Mexican, but was ultimately abandoned. In 1849, several years after Texas was annexed to the United States, the US Army began renting the facility for use as a quartermaster's depot. The US Army abandoned the mission in 1876 after nearby Fort Sam Houston Fort Sam Houston is a U.S. Army post in San Antonio, Texas. Known colloquially as "Fort Sam," it is named for the first President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston was established. The Alamo chapel was sold to the state of Texas, which conducted occasional tours but made no effort to restore it. The remaining buildings were sold to a mercantile company which operated them as a wholesale grocery store.

After forming in 1892, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas The Daughters of the Republic of Texas is a sororal association dedicated to perpetuating the memory of Texas pioneer families and soldiers of the Republic of Texas (DRT) began trying to preserve the Alamo. In 1905, Adina de Zavala and Clara Driscoll successfully convinced the legislature to purchase the buildings and to name the DRT permanent custodians of the site. For the next six years, de Zavala and Driscoll quarrelled over how to best restore the mission, culminating in a court case to decide which of their competing DRT chapters controlled the Alamo. As a result of the feud, Texas governor Oscar B. Colquitt Oscar Branch Colquitt was the 25th Governor of Texas from January 17, 1911 to January 19, 1915. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Gov. Colquitt defended the actions of the Texas Rangers who allegedly crossed into Mexico in pursuit of the body of Clemente Vergara in March 1914 briefly took the complex under state control and began restorations in 1912; the site was given back to the DRT later that year. The legislature took steps in 1988 and again in 1994 to transfer control of the Alamo to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is a Texas state agency that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitats. In addition, the agency is responsible for managing the state's parks and historical areas. Its mission is to manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor but the attempt failed after then-governor George W. Bush George Walker Bush ( /ˈdʒɔrdʒ ˈwɔːkər ˈbʊʃ/ ; born July 6, 1946) was the 43rd President of the United States, serving from 2001 to 2009, and the 46th Governor of Texas, serving from 1995 to 2000 vowed to veto any bill removing the DRT's authority.

Mission

In 1716, the Spanish government established several Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called missions in East Texas According to the Handbook of Texas, the East Texas area "may be separated from the rest of Texas roughly by a line extending from the Red River in north central Lamar County southwestward to east central Limestone County and then southeastward to Galveston Bay", though some separate the Gulf Coast area into a separate region. The isolation of the missions—the nearest Spanish settlement, San Juan Bautista, Coahuila was over 400 miles (644 km) away—made it difficult to keep them adequately provisioned.^[5] To assist the missionaries, the new governor of Spanish Texas Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. Although Spain nominally claimed ownership of the territory, which comprised part of modern-day Texas, including the land north of the Medina and Nueces Rivers, the Spanish did not attempt to colonize the area until after discovering evidence of the failed French, Martín de Alarcón, wished to establish a way station between the settlements along the Rio Grande The Rio Grande is a river that forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is the fourth or fifth longest river system in the and the new missions in East Texas.^[6] In April 1718, Alarcón led an expedition to found a new community in Texas.^[7] On May 1, the group erected a temporary mud, brush, and straw structure near the headwaters of the San Antonio River The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in north central San Antonio, approximately four miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the Guadalupe River about ten miles from San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is.^[6][7] This building would serve as a new mission, San Antonio de Valero, named after Saint Anthony of Padua Fernando Martins de Bulhões, venerated as Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, is a Portuguese Catholic saint who was born in Lisbon, Portugal where he lived most of his life, to a wealthy family and who died in Padua, Italy and the viceroy of New Spain, Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzmán Sotomayor y Sarmiento, Marquess of Valero. The mission, headed by Father Antonio de Olivares, was located near a community of Coahuiltecans Coahuiltecan is a general name for a historic group of related [[ndigenous peoples who lived in the southern Texas region near the Rio Grande. They spoke related languages and some of the people lived along the Gulf Coast and its islands. The earliest Spanish explorers to make contact with the natives in this region described a prosperous and and was initially populated by three to five Indian converts from Mission San Francisco Solano near San Juan Bautista.^[7][8] One mile (two km) north of the mission, Alarcón built a presidio. Close by, he founded the first civilian community in Texas, San Antonio de Bexar San Antonio is the second largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh largest city in the United States. The city is characteristic of other Southwest urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city. It was the fourth-fastest-growing large city in the nation from 2000-2006 and the fifth- (now San Antonio, Texas).^[6][7]

Within a year, the mission moved to the western bank of the river, where it was less likely to flood.^[8] Over the next several years, a chain of missions San Antonio Missions National Historical Park preserves four of the five Spanish frontier missions in San Antonio, Texas. These outposts were established by Catholic religious orders to spread Christianity among the local natives. These missions formed part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, and were established nearby.^[9] In 1724, after remants of a Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South or South Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico. These states are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States. All Gulf States are located in the Southern region of the United States hurricane destroyed the existing structures at Mission San Antonio de Valero, the mission was moved to its current location.^[10] At the time, the new location was just across the San Antonio River from the town of San Antonio de Bexar, and just north of a group of huts known as La Villita.^[11]

Over the next several decades, the mission complex expanded to cover 3 acres (1.2 ha).^[11] The first permanent building was likely the two-story, L-shaped stone residence for the priests. The building served as parts of the west and south edges of an inner courtyard.^[12] A series of adobe barracks buildings were constructed to house the mission Indians and a textile workshop was erected. By 1744, over 300 Indian converts resided at San Antonio de Valero. The mission was largely self-sufficient, relying on its 2000 head of cattle and 1300 sheep for food and clothing. Each year, the mission's farmland produced up to 2000 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of bean; cotton was also grown.^[10]

The first stones were laid for a more permanent church building in 1744.^[10] The church, its tower and the sacristy A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records fell down in the late 1750s.^[13] Construction began again in 1758. The new chapel was located at the south end of the inner courtyard. Constructed of 4 feet (1.2 m) thick limestone blocks, it was intended to be three stories high, topped by a dome, with bell towers on either side.^[11] Its shape was a traditional cross, with a long nave In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting. The nave of a church, whether Romanesque, Gothic or Classical, extends from the entry - which may have a and short transept The transept is the area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture. The transept separates the nave from the sanctuary, whether apse, choir, chevet, presbytery or chancel. The transepts cross the nave at the crossing, which belongs equally to the main nave axis and to the transept.^[13] Although the first two levels were completed, the bell towers and third story were never begun.^[11] Four stone arches were erected to support the planned dome, but the dome itself was not built.^[14] As the church was never completed, it is unlikely that is was ever used for religious services.^[13]

The chapel was intended to be highly decorated. Niches were carved on either side of the door to hold statues. The lower-level niches displayed Saint Francis Saint Francis of Assisi was a deacon and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans and Saint Dominic Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán (1170 – August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers (OP), a Catholic religious order. Dominic is the patron saint of astronomers, while the second-level niches contained statues of Saint Clare Saint Clare of Assisi, born Chiara Offreduccio is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to and Saint Margaret of Cortona. Carvings were also completed around the chapel's door.^[11]

Up to 30 adobe Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun. It is similar to cob and mudbrick. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world or mud buildings were constructed to serve as workrooms, storerooms, and homes for the Indian residents. As the nearby presidio was perpetually understaffed, the mission was built to withstand attacks by Apache Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan (Apachean) language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan speakers of Alaska and western Canada. The and Comanche The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Originally, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian culture. There may have been as many as 45,000 raiders.^[12] In 1745, 100 mission Indians successfully drove off a band of 300 Apaches which had surrounded the presidio. Their actions saved the presidio, the mission, and likely the town from destruction.^[9] Walls were erected around the Indian homes in 1758, likely in response to a massacre at the San Saba mission.^[12] The convent and church were not fully enclosed within the 8 feet (2.4 m) walls. The walls were built 2 feet (0.61 m) thick and enclosed an area 480 feet (150 m) long (north-south) and 160 feet (49 m) wide (east-west). For additional protection, a turret housing three cannon was added near the main gate in 1762. By 1793 an additional one-pounder cannon had been placed on a rampart near the convent.^[15]

The population of Indians fluctuated, from a high of 328 in 1756 to a low of 44 in 1777.^[12] The new commandant general of the interior provinces, Teodoro de Croix, thought the missions were largely a liability and began taking actions to decrease their influence. In 1778, he ruled that all unbranded cattle belonged to the government. Raiding Apache tribes had stolen most of the mission's horses, making it extremely difficult to round up and brand the cattle. As a result, when the ruling took effect, the mission lost a great deal of its wealth and was unable to support a larger population of converts.^[16] By 1793, only 12 Indians remained.^{[12][Note 1]} By this point, few of the hunting and gathering tribes in Texas had not been Christianized The historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due to the Christian efforts at proselytism (evangelism). In 1793, Mission San Antonio de Valero was secularized.^[17]

The mission was soon abandoned. Most locals were uninterested in the buildings.^[18] Visitors were often more impressed. In 1828, French naturalist Jean Louis Berlandier visited the area. He mentioned the Alamo complex: "An enormous battlement and some barracks are found there, as well as the ruins of a church which could pass for one of the loveliest monuments of the area, even if its architecture is overloaded with ornamentation like all the ecclesiastical buildings of the Spanish colonies."^[19]

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