Mission Period (1769-1834): The Setting Of Our FILM

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

The history of Mission San Juan Capistrano is similar to that of two other nearby missions in that it was relocated to the San Antonio area from East Texas in 1731. Its purpose was also similar to that of the other missions, namely to convert Native American groups to Christianity, assimilate them into Spanish society, and promote settlement in the region. In addition to its early history, the mission compound itself was constructed in a form typical of other San Antonio-area missions, including a church and plaza surrounded by a defensive wall formed from stone Indian quarters. The compound included other ancillary structures such as a granary, convent, workshops, and other storage facilities.

In the early 1700's, the country of Spain sent many explorers to the western world to claim land and find riches. When California was founded by several Spanish explorers, like Cabrillo, and De Anza, Spain decided to send missionaries to build missions. There are a total of 21 missions built in California. Mission Santa Ines was the 19th mission and was built to share the European God with the Indians and how to eat and dress like Europeans. Father Tapis wanted to make the Indians Christians and

The Spanish Colonial Era lasted from 1521 to 1898. To begin with, a system of missions and presidios, designed to spread Christianity and to establish control over the region were built. The missions were managed by friars from the order of St. Francis, and were placed in lands that had been home to Native Americans for thousands of years. The missionaries hoped to spread Christianity and the Spanish culture to native groups. Also, presidios were the missions’ secular counterpart. The earliest were small garrisons of Spanish soldiers who protected travel along roadways. In addition, towns began to grow around the presidios and the missions, the presidios’ role evolved into protecting not only roads, but also the developing Spanish missions

The Spanish in contact with California occurred in the mid 1530s when Cortez’s men ventured to Baja California. They began to sail north to Alta California and established 21 missions. The expedition to Alta California was the last greatest expansion of Spain’s empire in North America. The missions were a series of religious and military settlements established by the padre. The Spanish constructed the missions to gain control and power over the land in California. San Francisco Solano Mission was the last mission established in Sonoma, the Valley of the Moon, resulted an important historical event in California and the existence of the California flag. The Spanish arrival to California created a major impact to the lives of the native Indians, and there were many significant events occurred among the Spaniards, the native Indians, and the Americans before California became a part of America.

Junipero Serra became involved with the missions when the Jesuits were expelled from New Spain and Serra was chosen to take over the missions. He had a complete new vision for the missions that included forcing the natives to live on the mission and attend mass twice everyday. Women were to be separated from men so that there would be no possibility of sin in the missions. Serra’s ultimate goal for the missions was to convert as many natives as possible because he believed in the power and greatness of his religion(Castillo 55-70). In his lifetime, Serra founded nine missions and converted around 5,000 natives in present day California(PBS.org). Spain was more than pleased with Serra’s work with the missions because they felt it gave Spain control over Alta California. They encouraged the missions and began sending more friars to aid in the process that Serra had created(Castillo 70-75).

Because of this the pope require Spain to spread Catholicism around the Americas. The Spanish say that their main goal of colonization was to rescue the Indians from their barbaric ways, and to prevent them from becoming Protestants. They did not want to eliminate the Indians, instead they wanted to help change them into obedient Christians. Along with Spain's goal of

The early voyages by the Portuguese and Spanish were motivated by gold, trade and the spread of the Catholic faith through religious conversion. The voyages of a few adventurers show that the Spanish and Portuguese goals were to spread Catholicism, expand trade, and expand the kingdom of the Spanish and the Portuguese to the new lands they’ve discovered. These adventures were Christopher Columbus who attempted to find a new route to Asia to extend Spain’s trade and to colonize, Bartholomew Columbus and his successful founding of Santo Domingo, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his

Mission San Juan had its origins in East Texas in 1716 as San José de los Nazonis, but was permanently relocated in 1731 on the banks of the San Antonio River. San Juan had fertile farmland and pasturelands, and by mid-1700s, the mission was an active supplier of agricultural produce, such as peaches, melons, pumpkins, grapes, peppers, and corn. It also supplied products such as wood, cloth, and leather goods that the mission’s Indian produced.

The Spanish were motivated to conquer and explore external lands in the West by riches. After the muslim religion had quickly spread not just in Asia and Africa, but in Europe too, the crusades began. The crusades set to reconquer holy Christian lands, including in Asia, which exposed the Europeans to expensive spices and other valuable goods. Furthermore, when Columbus landed in the Americas, although he thought he was in India, he states in his journal that his main priority was to find gold and/or other riches. The Spanish, as well as many other Europeans, believed there was gold and the spices found in Asia, in the Americas. With this belief in mind, the Spanish imprisoned the Taínos so the Indians would tell them where these riches could

One of the goals when Cortes, Pizarro, and Columbus came to the Americas was to spread Christianity. The Natives, on the other hand, resisted being converted which led to violence. The Spaniards thought themselves superior to the Natives and treated them as animals. Though they called themselves Christians, they rode the backs of the Natives, and killed them for sport. In New England, when the Puritans arrived they also felt uneasy about the presence of the Natives, though the Natives were not aggressive towards them.

The primary motive of the Jesuit missionaries was world evangelization, living the Gospel to go and teach all nations (Cushner, 105). The second motivation of the missionaries is not as flattering. The mindset of the 16th century missionary was the absolute certainty that the West and the missionaries who were its representatives had already achieved the highest rung of cultural superiority. A little more flattering, the missionaries’ final motive was that they were engaged in a unique enterprise, an attempt to fulfill the Christian vision of the world, one that united God and man in a special way (Cushner, 106). But what connects the two groups? Cushner believes that it is the motivations of the Spanish Government. The government saw

The original motivations for the Spaniards going to the New World were to spread Christianity and grow wealthy; however, when they arrived, the actions of the Spaniards against the natives of the Americas did not reflect these original goals and led to unanticipated consequences. One such unexpected consequence was a reliance on slave labor. In order to accomplish the work necessary to make the profits that the Spaniards had expected, they turned to the natives as a work force. This need for laborers led the Spanish to enslave the natives, which led to conflict and cruelty, which went against the initial goal of spreading Christianity; if the prospective converts are being mistreated by those hoping to do the converting, the conversion itself becomes much more difficult due to the negative relationship. The Spaniards strongly believed that it was their sacred duty to “save” the faithless natives of the Americas by introducing them to God, and so they did all they could to see this happen, despite the negative impacts on the relationship between the natives and the Spaniards. This also made it more difficult to easily exploit the resources of the region against the wishes of the natives, because the growing bitterness between the Spanish and the natives made it impossible to successfully work together in an economic setting in the same way as the Dutch and the French. Thus, the actions of the Spaniards upon reaching the New World worked mostly against their original goals of

The time period Europeans started to develop officially began in the 15th century and lasted through the 16th century. This period of time symbolizes the time of exploration when Europeans started to explore around the world by land in search of new trading routes, wealth, and knowledge. Many nations were in search of goods, however, the spark for exploration was the curiosity of the new routes for spice and silk exchanges. The impact of the Europeans development would affect the society permanently in the future. Therefore, religion was not the most important factor leading Europe to explore in the 15th and 16th centuries. Instead economics was the most important reason followed by religion and technological advances.

William Carey was an English missionary. He was known as the “father of modern missions”. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society. He translated the bible into Bengali, Sanskrit and other languages and dialects used in India.