presidio

They’d soon start building their presidio fort a few miles away, the twin foundations of Spain’s God and empire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

Led by a military commander and the Franciscan missionary Fray Junipero Serra, a combined expedition of soldiers and friars reached San Diego in 1769 and built the first mission and fort, or presidio.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

The presidio had yielded to the glass office towers of downtown.

From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2012

The governor was also capitán general of his province, and his capital was usually at the principal presidio or garrison.

From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Herbert Eugene Bolton

The Spaniards burned their forts on the Rio Grande and retired to Caldera, near Zamboanga, where they built a presidio.

From A History of the Philippines by David P. Barrows

The database has informed dozens of articles and books on early California and has allowed thousands of people to trace their own ancestry back to 18th century California pueblos, presidios and Native villages.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2025

Missions, presidios, and pueblos were small polygons of order in the great unruly geometry of Alta California, with wide stretches between them largely ungoverned by the Spanish.

From Slate ● Feb. 9, 2015

Central control.—All important matters of frontier administration, such as the founding of new colonies, presidios, or missions, or the making of military campaigns, were referred by the governors to the viceroy of Mexico.

From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Herbert Eugene Bolton

To Hugo O'Conor, as comandante inspector, fell the task of arranging the line of presidios.

From The Colonization of North America 1492-1783 by Herbert Eugene Bolton

Thus the garrisons at Terrenate and the other presidios lack men, although the visitor thinks it all too much.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 24 of 55 1630-34 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, As Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by James Alexander Robertson