Presidio

A presidio (jail, fortification)[1] was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire mainly between the 16th and 18th centuries in areas under their control or influence.

Few presidios were established in the present-day desert frontier regions in northern Mexico to control and confine the existing rebellious indigenous tribes.

[4] Presidios was used to protect the colonial silver ship from rebellious raids from Indians in Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, mainly in Zacatecas and Guanajuato, starting new settlements.

After the Granada War and the completion of the Spanish Reconquista, the Catholic Monarchs took their fight across the Strait of Gibraltar, as the Portuguese had done several generations earlier with the conquest of Ceuta in 1415.

The Spanish North African presidios are listed here in geographical sequence, from West to East, and including neither Spain's Atlantic settlements in the Moroccan far South (e.g. Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña) nor outposts gained after 1830 (e.g. the Chafarinas Islands).