Spanish Settlements on the Pacific Coast.
Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
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Spanish Settlements on the Pacific Coast. Image courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. |
In its initial attempts to colonize California, Spain was trying to prevent encroachment of England and Russia on territory that it claimed for itself. Missions were founded with the goal of converting Natives to Catholicism, but were also intended to advance and help consolidate the Spanish Empire. The missionaries and their government associates wanted to bring about a rapid transformation from Indigenous to Spanish culture that included language, dress, social organization, and work, in addition to religious beliefs. The missions were intended quickly to bring about this acculturation and then disband. Once the missionaries had succeeded in converting the Native populations, mission lands and property were to be distributed to the Native converts while the missions themselves were to be turned over to secular clergy.
The missions were founded on carefully selected sites chosen for fresh water availability, the availability of fertile soils for agriculture, and most importantly, the presence of nearby Native population centers. Native people were recruited in various ways. Some recruitment was voluntary; Natives chose to become converts because they saw the missionaries as shamans with a link to the world of the spirits. Others chose to become converts because the missionaries gave gifts. Another method to recruit Natives was to baptize the children. After baptism in the villages, priests would require the children to go back to the mission to learn their new religion and their parents usually chose to join them. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Natives chose to convert at missions because the missions had a good supply of food when traditional resources were dwindling. This lack of resources was due to the establishment of the missions and their accompanying agricultural lands, which destroyed Native food sources. Spanish soldiers assisted by capturing people and forcing them to go to the missions to be converted. Soldiers also assisted in rounding up runaways, for once a person had converted, he were not allowed to reject his vows and return to his ancestral ways.
Life at the missions was difficult for the Natives. At the missions, they were required to perform tasks that seemed unnecessary. They did not understand why they should make cloth when there was no need for clothing in the summer and animal fur was much better cover in the winter. Equally confusing was the need to till the soil when there was an abundance of food available for the gathering (Hemingway 2000). The missions were run in a military style with Native sergeants, corporals, and overseers who reported infractions in the rules to the missionaries. Jean La Perouse, a French explorer who visited California in the late 1700s, compared Mission San Carlos Borromeo with slave plantations in the Caribbean. Although the Natives resisted their conditions through work slowdowns, vandalism of equipment, running away, and revolts, murder of individual missionaries, and raids, the mission system persisted. During the mission period, the population of Natives living between San Diego and San Francisco was decimated. The population fell more than 75 percent, from about 72,000 people in 1769 to about 18,000 by the end of Spanish rule.
Because they were placed in carefully chosen locations, the missions were successful in cultivating abundant agricultural assets. This bounty and the riches of the remaining natural resources (particularly in the San Mateo and Santa Cruz area) eventually attracted the interest of individuals interested in settling, but during the establishment and early years, the harshness of the journey over both land and sea precluded all but the hardiest individuals from attempting the voyage. Missionaries also had difficulty recruiting artisans to work on the missions and to teach Native people their trade. They were usually able to contract them from Mexico City in Mexico for a period of 2–6 years at high pay, but most refused to renew and left to return to Mexico (Kessel 2002). To ensure the long-term success of the mission system, presidios, or military forts, were established near each mission.
Hemingway, H. 2000. From Peace to Present: A Look at the Ohlone Indians [Web page]. Monterey County Historical Society [cited October 20, 2003]. View on-line source.
Kessel, J. L. 2002. Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California. University of Oklahoma Press. 462 pp.
Rawls, J.J. 2000. California History Online [Web site]. California Historical Society [cited October 22, 2003]. View on-line source.
Wright, R.B., ed. 1992. California Mission History [Web page]. Hubert A. Lowman [cited November 6, 2003]. View on-line source.