The Alamo or Mission San Antonio de Valero, in its original name, was the first Spanish mission established along the San Antonio River, established by Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares and the Xarames Indians on May 1, 1718. On May 5, 1718, the town of Bexar was founded, and the Presidio of San Antonio de Béjar and the Acequia Madre de Valero were established there, the town is the origin of the current city of San Antonio in Texas (USA). USA).
This fortress consisted of a church surrounded by other structures, built by the Spanish in the 18th century for the religious and cultural assimilation of indigenous natives of the region (conversion of the Indians to Christianity), and the provision of education to these indigenous people after the conversion. In 1793, the mission was secularized and very soon abandoned. Ten years later the Compañía Volante de San Carlos de Parras or the Alamo de Parras, was established in it, the probable origin of the name «El Álamo».
The soldiers kept the mission in their power until December 1835, when General Martín Perfecto de Cos was defeated by the Tejano Army after the Siege of Béjar. A relatively small number of Texan soldiers then occupied the site. Texan General Sam Houston believed that the Texans did not have enough manpower to keep the fort occupied and ordered Colonel James Bowie to destroy it. Bowie did not follow the order and, in collaboration with Colonel James C. Neil, set about the task of fortifying the mission. On February 23, Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna led an important group of Mexican soldiers to San Antonio de Béjar and quickly began the siege of the fortress. The siege ended on March 6, when the Mexican army attacked the Alamo. By the time the Battle of the Alamo ended most, if not all, of the fortress’s defenders had been killed in the engagement. When the Mexican army withdrew from Texas at the end of the Texas Revolution, it destroyed some of the walls of the Alamo and set fire to parts of the buildings.
For the next five years, the Alamo was periodically used to garrison soldiers, both Texans and Mexicans, but was eventually abandoned. In 1849, several years after Texas was annexed to the United States, the US Army began renting the building as a warehouse for the quartermaster. The US Army abandoned the mission in 1876, after nearby Fort Sam Houston was established. The Alamo Chapel was sold to the state of Texas, which paid occasional visits but made no effort to restore it. The remaining buildings were sold to a merchant company that used them to establish a wholesale grocery store.
The Association of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, after being founded in 1892, began trying to preserve the Alamo. In 1905, Adina Emilia de Zavala and Clara Driscoll managed to convince the legislature to buy the buildings and to appoint the permanent custodial Daughters of the site. For the next six years, de Zavala and Driscoll argued about the best way to restore the mission. The discussion culminated in court, to decide which of both sections of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas were to control the Alamo. As a result of the war, Texas Governor Oscar B. Colquitt briefly placed the complex under state control and began restoring it in 1912. The site was returned to the Daughters towards the end of that year. The legislature took steps in 1988 and 1994 to bring the complex under the control of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department but attempts failed after the governor at the time, George W. Bush, announced that he would veto any attempted legislation that intended to displace the Daughters of the Republic of Texas from control of the Alamo.
