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

In 1753 the La Junta missions were restored, and in 1760 were protected by the new presidio of Belén.

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

The presidio of Caldera was destroyed by the Moros.

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

The city of Arebalo or Oton is located in that island, and an alcalde-mayor lives there—who is also the purveyor for the fleets of those islands, and of Mindanao and its presidios.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 36, 1649-1666 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 Edward Gaylord Bourne

For this reason, and because of the fertility of this province, it is better fitted than any other for provisioning and sending aid to the Malucas Islands and to the presidios of Terrenate.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 18 of 55 1617-1620 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

Farther to the south lay Spanish California and the ill-defined region to the eastward over which presidios maintained a shadowy jurisdiction.

From Union and Democracy by Allen Johnson