The Alamo

The Alamo’s best-known story lasts thirteen days, but the stone compound in downtown San Antonio had already passed through several lives before Mexican troops surrounded it in February 1836. Founded as Mission San Antonio de Valero in the eighteenth century, it was part of a Spanish colonial system that sought to convert Indigenous communities and anchor Spain’s claim to the region. The mission’s religious and military roles changed over time; by the early nineteenth century, the site had become a military post.

After Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821, the government retained a garrison at the Alamo. In December 1835, during the Texas Revolution, Mexican General Martín Perfecto de Cos surrendered San Antonio to Texian forces. The conflict was not simply a local contest over a single fort: it grew from disputes over political authority, immigration, and the Mexican government’s centralization, alongside the colonists’ defense of slavery and other interests. The compound’s meaning shifted as armies and governments changed around it.