Introduction
San Antonio, Texas city with 936,000 people. Industrial, commercial and cultural center. Food, clothing, leather goods, furniture, chemical and electrical industries; also important petroleum refining. In addition, tourism and some military institutions are important. See allcitypopulation for latest population of San Antonio.
The city is the seat of a Roman Catholic Archbishop, of the Roman Catholic St. Mary’s University (1852) and of the Presbyterian Trinity University (1869). The city has museums for visual arts and natural history and a zoo. San Antonio has some beautiful old buildings, around five early-18th-century missions, including The Alamo (now a museum), the cathedral (1749), the former palace of the Spanish governor (1749) and the restored oldest part of town La Villita.
Also worth seeing are La Villita and King William Historic District, two historic districts, and the Paseo del Río, a pedestrian path along the San Antonio River in the center of the city.
History
The city grew up around a Spanish mission (founded 1718), which would later become known as The Alamo. In 1731 a number of families from the Canary Islands settled here. The city remained in Spanish hands until 1821, when it was captured by Mexico from Spain.
In Dec. In 1835, the uprising against Mexico began in San Antonio, which would lead to Texas’s declaration of independence in 1836, after 187 freedom fighters, including the legendary Davy Crockett, were killed in March during the siege of The Alamo.
