are generations old, millions of years old in some cases. we are doing the same thing, we are taking palpable evidence about the past to try to figure out where we have been so that we know better where we are going. announcer: you can learn more about meadowcroft rockshelter by visiting heinz history center.org, and you can watch this and all other american history tv programs at c-span.org/history. >> television has changed since c-span began 41 years ago, what our mission continues. to provide an unfiltered view of government. already this year, we have brought you primary election coverage, the presidential

impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. you can watch all c-span public affairs programming on television, online or our free radio app. c-span, created by private industry. america's cable television company. brought to you today by your television provider. >> our look at san antonio continues as we hear from historian lewis fisher about the settlement of the city. mr. fisher: we are standing near the geographical center in san antonio, texas. we are in front of what is called the spanish governor's palace in town that was set up here due to the conflict between two european empires, france and spain, in the 18th century. spain had, of course, established itself in latin america and south america and mexico and northern mexico,

especially important to spain because of very rich silver mines. france was over to the northeast in louisiana. it reached up to the northern border of new spain along the red river where it was causing trouble with the indians. looking straight across the empty reaches of texas into the silver mines. the spaniards knew they had that have some sort of defense and they came upon san antonio. in 1618, 302 years ago, san antonio was established here. the first challenge they faced was getting water. the first thing the priests did was to build a church. the second thing they did was

set up a water system. in texas, you have rivers, but you do not have a lot of green fertile areas. to address that, they drew from their experience in spain, which actually came from the roman empire. andstem of air gauge dishes. and --em of your geisha of irrigation ditches. everybody use the same water. they did not know about germs. they wondered how they had epidemics. san antonio was selected, in large part, because it had two major sources of water upstream. we have the headwaters of the san antonio river and the headwaters of the san pedro creek. from those places, the engineers very carefully -- because this

land was flat -- they were able to devise a system which came from those rivers and through channels and followed the line of gravity down through what became san antonio and back into the river. systemonio used that from more than a hundred years. it was not until the end of the 19th century that the system was not in general use, but there still are two at the spanish missions. they are still used by area farmers to water their crops. religion has a very visible role in the community. in addition to what you do not see, you have on main plaza, the cathedral of saint fernanda, which began as the parish church. but we also have five missions

in san antonio, which are now named a world heritage site. alamo,st mission, the which was right here in the city of san antonio. a few years later, there was a second mission as that bushed, which was mission san jose, which has been restored rather elaborately and is the largest and most successful mission in texas. moved frome missions north texas to san antonio. they are scattered along the san antonio river south of downtown. the largest of them is mission concepts eon -- mission largeston, which is the restored church -- spanish church in the united states. we have two smaller ones.

that gives us five missions. it is the largest grouping of spanish missions in the united states. texas was very desirable for its geography and location. as a lot of borderlands are, the control went back and forth between various governmental entities. would suspect san antonio ans. whiplash in the early 19th century. there were six governments up until the 1820's. san antonio was under the control of spain. and then in 1821, there was a revolution in which mexico took control. then came the republic of texas in 1836, which was in relation to the alamo. we have the republic of texas.

and then in 1845, texas was annexed by the united states. in 1861, we have the confederacy in charge. four years later, we are back to the united states. but probably the single factor that shaped san antonio's character and appearance and its being wasand the isolation. we are a couple hundred miles from the texas coast and the only way to reach san antonio was by boxcar from the texas coast. that took a couple days. it was a very difficult city to get to. until san antonio finally got a railroad in 1877. at which point, san antonio began to explode. the tourism business was one of the first that took off because san antonio had been a familiar topic of magazines and other

publications in the united states. sanrters loved to come to antonio and report on what it looked like. there is a great awareness of this. this did not totally please houston where the railroad came from. after the railroad came, one newspaper reported that hordes of people went to san antonio friday and then wood around and come back and tell everyone how queer the city looked. san antonio is probably three hours from the mexican border, but the proximity to mexico has been very beneficial to san antonio long-term because of immigration. when the mexican revolution began in 1910, there was so much violence that mexican citizens

began coming up into texas. they were settled in refugee camps. tens of thousands came to san antonio. they lived in the poorest centers of town. as the generations went on, they became leading citizens in the community. we had henry b gonzalez, who was the first hispanic congressman in the 1950's. that has helped make san antonio the type of place it is today. it would be important for people to realize as they learn about san antonio, simply to understand what a distinctive and diversity san antonio is. how significant its roots are in history and how much it has contributed to the history of the country. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to san

antonio, texas to learn about it s rich history. to learn of -- to learn more about san antonio and other stops, visit c-span.org/citiestour. >> one of the easiest ways to follow presidential candidates this year is on the web at the span.org/campaign2012. you can keep track of the delegate count and a unfiltered campaign coverage with all of the candidates look at it in one place. easy to useit is and it is all there at c-span.org/campion 2020. --/campaign2012. >> up next, history professor laura free examines the career of elizabeth cady stanton, with a focus on her work in the 1850's.