Missions of California - the founding steps

Missions are important historical architectures scattered around California. They were built by the Spanish priests in the early 18th century and these served as the conversion centers of the locals into Christianity. The lands of the Churches were given to the locals after their downfall and they form the landings of California. These form the crux of tourism today as most of the tourist goes to California only to visit them.

The foundation

Missions were founded by the catholic priests of Spain in the areas of America in the 18th century. A string of 21 religious and military buildings were set up, 19 being on the coasts and 2 in the inlands. These missions were set up in order to preach Christianity and make the areas colonies of Spain.

Groups of catholic priests of the Franciscan order were deployed by the king of Spain to America for this conversion, civilization and colonization under the name of Missions of California.

The workings

The missionaries were nomadic in nature, they didn’t stay at one place for a long time, and therefore, they built along the 21 missions on their tenure of stay. They would teach only a particular group of natives at a time, they taught these people work skills and educated them. The natives lived in the adjourning areas of the building. After completing the task of converting and education one group, they would abandon the mission turning them into Churches which were looked after a native parish and move into another building with the motive of converting another group of people.

What were their objectives?

The objectives of the missions were clear and loud. They were:

• Conversion: the natives were converted into Christianity. They were given religious lessons, taught the script and were baptized. They were made disciples of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Colonization: the main idea of the mission was to colonize the lands and bring them under the King of Spain. They wanted to turn all the areas on the coastal line into Spanish colonies.
• Civilization: they wanted to civilize the indigenous people who according to them were uncivilized and uncultured in nature.
• Education: they taught the people how to read and write in English and also taught them the Spanish language.
• Vocational training: the locals were taught different skills like cattle rearing, weaving, brick making and construction works.

Historical importance

Missions of California turned into historical importance with the passing of the Secularism Act. By this act, the lands of the missions were taken over by the Governments and were transferred into the hands of the locals. They located the lands for the local settlements of the native people who were large in numbers. The materials were used from the Churches to build the constructional structures of the lands like houses and offices. The Government gave away land grants to people and this increased the number of public and private land holdings all over the place. The new state of developed and expanded California came into the picture with all these settlements.

If you need to know much more about California Missions History visit Old Mission San Luis Rey Museum or schedule Behind the Scenes Tours at this link https://www.sanluisrey.org/museum/

Todd Dawson Is a freelance writer