USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -When the settlement at San Antonio was built in 1718, what was the significance of its location? It was the first time that native peoples wanted to live in missions. Its location by the coast meant nearness to water supplies. Its midway location between the Rio Grande and East Texas made supplying the missions easier.

Detailed explanation-2: -Beginning in 1718, five mission communities formed along the San Antonio River. These missions were at the northern frontier of New Spain, a territory of the Spanish Empire. These Spanish colonial missions transformed local ways of life by introducing a new religion, farming, and settled communities.

Detailed explanation-3: -Why did the Spanish need a settlement between east Texas and the rio grande ? It would make it to supply the missions and the supply of water, there was 2 much distance.

Detailed explanation-4: -In 1718, Martín de Alarcón stopped along the San Antonio River on his way to supply the east Texas outposts. Establishing there a halfway post between the Rio Grande and east Texas, he founded the presidio of Bexar and the mission of San Antonio de Valero, which came to be known much later as the Alamo.

Detailed explanation-5: -Spain’s primary goals in establishing a settlement in San Antonio were to provide travelers “an intermediate point on the long route between… [the missions]…in eastern Texas and those on the Rio Grande” and to provide defense “against any further French designs on the Matagorda Bay region” (Hoffman 1935: 4).