Spanish Years: 1776 to 1822

Spain ordered the colonization of the coast north of Nueva Espana [New Spain] in 1769 in response to fears that England and Russia would soon establish territories on America's western coastline. That same year, Don Gaspar de Portola took a Spanish expedition to Alta California and became the first European to see "el brazo del mar" [the arm of the sea], now known as San Francisco Bay.

Seven years later, Juan Bautista de Anza led a Franciscan priest, 193 colonists and soldiers, and 1,000 head of livestock from Sonora, Mexico to the San Francisco Bay. They arrived on June 27, 1776 to establish a presidio [garrison] at the bay's entrance and a religious mission a few miles inland.

"The port of San Francisco…is a marvel of nature, and might well be called a harbor of harbors… I saw none that pleased me so much as this. And I think if it could be well settled like Europe there would not be anything more beautiful in all the world, for it has the best advantages for founding in it a most beautiful city." - Father Pedro Font, 1776

Presidio de San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Assisi became the northernmost bastion of a network of presidios, missions, and pueblos that extended from Mexico and formed the foundation of Spanish colonization strategy. Presidios were fortified military villages that secured and policed frontier areas. Pueblos were communities designed to spread Spanish culture. Missions were religious and agricultural centers where native people were gathered and indoctrinated into Catholicism and the colonial state.

The presidio's role was to control native people and to capture escaped mission Indians, to build communities, and to protect the frontier from foreign invaders. Along with Franciscan missionaries, the Presidio of San Francisco founded five Missions, four pueblos [towns], and numerous ranchos throughout the Bay Area during the Spanish and Mexican periods.

The People of the Presidio

The Presidio of San Francisco's first Spanish colonists came from provinces along the Pacific coast of Nueva Espana; namely Nayarit, Xalisco, and Sinaloa; and later Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Durango, Queretaro, and Zacatecas. These people were not "pure-blooded" Spanish, but were mostly Mestizaje, the product of over 250 years of racial and cultural mixing following the 16th century conquest of Mexico.

The Presidio usually had a smaller population than other three California presidios, having from 200 to 360 residents at any time. Women and children often outnumbered the soldiers, who were frequently elsewhere serving as escoltas [guards] at nearby Hispanic communities.

Changes to the Landscape

The dune scrub and grasslands of the Presidio had little to offer the Spanish colonists. The harsh coastal winds and thin and dry soils made the land of little value for agriculture and provided minimal forage during the dry summers. Nevertheless, the Spanish quickly appropriated Presidio lands and other areas of coastal California to grow imported food crops and to graze cattle.

Livestock grazing had the biggest impact on the landscape. With the arrival of cattle and sheep also came the first appearance of many different exotic plant species. Their seeds were carried in animals' coats, hooves, and blankets, or were imported in livestock feed. Grazing quickly decimated the Presidio's native perennial bunchgrasses and caused soil compaction and erosion.

Spanish settlers also cut the few oaks and other trees near the Presidio for building materials and for fuel. This rapid transformation of the landscape impacted the native people as well, as acorns and grass seeds started to disappear from their traditional harvesting grounds.

The cattle ate the seeds, and new plants could not sprout. In the old times, we didn't see a bad year." - Ohlone man born in Monterey in 1791

Resources

For more information on the Spanish period at the Presidio see:

Langelier, J.P., and Rosen, D.B., 1992. El Presidio de San Francisco: A History under Spain and Mexico, 1776-1846