History of San Diego - Pre-colonial and Colonial Period

Pre-colonial and Colonial Period

The area has long been inhabited by the Kumeyaay Native American people. The first European to visit the region was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. Cabrillo was Portuguese (his name in Portuguese was Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho) but he was a long-term resident of Spanish America. He was commissioned by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza to continue the explorations of California. In 1542, Cabrillo arrived in San Diego Bay, which he named San Miguel. He went ashore, probably in the Ballast Point area of Point Loma, and claimed the land for Spain. His landing is re-enacted every year at the Cabrillo Festival sponsored by Cabrillo National Monument.

The bay and the area of present-day San Diego were given their current name sixty years later by Sebastián Vizcaíno when he was mapping the coastline of Alta California for Spain in 1602. The explorers camped near a Native American village called Nipaguay and celebrated mass in honor of San Diego de Alcala (Saint Didacus of Alcalá). California was then part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain under the Audiencia of Guadalajara.

In May 1602, Vizcaino had left Mexico and beat his way north with two small ships, the San Diego and the Santa Tomas. By November of that year, his ships were anchored in the lee of Point Loma. Markedly different from the conquistadors, Vizcaino had no experience commanding an expedition or conquering rich tribes. Instead, he was a merchant who hoped to establish prosperous colonies. After holding the first Catholic service conducted on California soil on the feast day of San Diego de Alcala, (also the patron saint of his flagship), he renamed the bay. When he left after 10 days anchored there, he was enthusiastic about its safe harbor, friendly natives, and promising potential as a successful colony. After a difficult voyage north during which 40 of his crew died, Vizcaino returned to Mexico, still convinced that San Diego would be the perfect location for a Spanish colony. Despite his enthusiasm, the Spanish were unconvinced, lured, instead, to spend resources seeking the rich trading opportunities in Asia. It would be another 167 years before California gained enough strategic value to generate colonization. When this time arrived, it was San Diego that was selected as Spain's first California settlement.

In 1769, Gaspar de Portolà and his expedition founded the Presidio of San Diego (military post), and on July 16, Franciscan friars Junípero Serra, Juan Viscaino and Fernando Parron raised and 'blessed a cross', establishing the first mission in upper Las Californias, Mission San Diego de Alcala. Colonists began arriving in 1774. In the following year the Kumeyaay indigenous people rebelled against the Spanish. They killed the priest and two others, and burned the mission. Father Serra organized the rebuilding, and a fire-proof adobe and tile-roofed structure was completed in 1780. By 1797 the mission had become the largest in California, with a population of more than 1,400 presumably converted Native American "Mission Indians" relocated to and associated with it. The tile-roofed adobe structure was destroyed by an 1803 earthquake but replaced by a third church in 1813.