- Term
missions
- Broader Term
Religion
- Alternate Term
mission
- Geography
California
- Remarks
Royal Orders from Spain in 1573 said that future settlement in "new discoveries" should be led by missionaries. Franciscan missionaries who went to New Mexico in the 1600s were highly disciplined and strict. They hoped their example would lead corrupt Europeans to repent, and "heathen" Indians to covert to Catholicism. In New Mexico, they tried to destroy native religious practices and get Pueblo people to dress, talk, and act like Spaniards. By 1630, the Franciscans claimed to have performed 86,000 Indian baptisms, but many natives successfully resisted attempts to wipe out their older religious beliefs and culture. After the Pueblo Revolt, the Catholic Church could no longer send missionaries to New Mexico. Instead, they went to other parts of New Spain's northern frontier. In California, the Spanish used Franciscan missionaries, led by Junípero Serra, to conquer the native population. When the Spanish arrived in 1768, there were about 300,000 Indians in California, speaking at least 120 different dialects of seven languages. Using a combination of force and gifts, missionaries and soldiers brought most coastal Indians into the missions. There, they grew Spanish crops, learned Spanish crafts, and herded Spanish livestock. The experience was profoundly disorienting for most. By Mexican independence in 1821, disease and malnutrition had caused the Indian population of California to fall by a third. The missions themselves prospered, however, forming the basis for California's ranching system.
- See Also