Editing Spanish missions in California (section)

== History ==

Beginning in 1492 with the voyages of [[Christopher Columbus]], the [[Spain|Kingdom of Spain]] sought to establish missions to convert indigenous people in ''Nueva España'' (''[[New Spain]]''), which consisted of the Caribbean, Mexico, and most of what is now the [[Southwestern United States]]) to Catholicism. This would facilitate [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|colonization]] of these lands [[Inter caetera|awarded]] to Spain by the [[Catholic Church]], including that region later known as ''Alta California''.<ref group=notes>The Spanish claim to the Pacific Northwest dated back to a 1493 [[papal bull]] (''[[Inter caetera]]'') and rights contained in the 1494 [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]; in these two formal acts, Spain gave itself the exclusive right to colonize all of the Western Hemisphere (excluding Brazil), including all of [[History of the west coast of North America|the west coast of North America]].</ref><ref group=notes>The term ''Alta California'' as applies to the mission chain founded by Serra refers specifically to the modern-day United States State of [[California]].</ref><ref>Leffingwell, p. 10</ref><ref group="notes">Leffingwell: The Rev. [[Antonio de la Ascensión]], a [[Carmelites|Carmelite]] who visited San Diego with Vizcaíno's 1602 expedition, "surveyed the area and concluded that the land was fertile, the fish plentiful, and gold abundant." Ascensión was convinced that California's potential wealth and strategic location merited colonization, and in 1620 recommended in a letter to [[Madrid, Spain|Madrid]] that missions be established in the region, a venture that would involve military as well as religious personnel.</ref>

=== Early Spanish exploration ===

Only 48 years after Columbus discovered the Americas for Europe, [[Francisco Vázquez de Coronado]] set out from Compostela, New Spain on February 23, 1540, at the head of a large expedition. Accompanied by 400 European men-at-arms (mostly Spaniards), 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, several Indian and African slaves, and four Franciscan friars, he traveled from [[Mexico]] through parts of the southwestern [[United States]] to present-day [[Kansas]] between 1540 and 1542.<ref>Winship. pp. 32–4, 37</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title=What They Never Told You about the Coronado Expedition|first=R.|last= Flint|journal=Kiva|volume=71|issue=2 |date=Winter 2005|pages=203–217 |doi=10.1179/kiv.2005.71.2.004| jstor = 30246725|s2cid=129070895}}</ref> Two years later on 27 June 1542, [[Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo]] set out from [[Barra de Navidad, Jalisco|Navidad, Mexico]] and sailed up the coast of Baja California and into the region of Alta California.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kelsey |first1=Harry |year=1986 |title=Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo |publisher=The Huntington Library |location=San Marino}}</ref>

=== Secret English claims ===

Unknown to Spain, Sir [[Francis Drake]], an English privateer who raided Spanish treasure ships and colonial settlements, claimed the Alta California region as [[Nova Albion]] for the [[The Crown|English Crown]] in 1579, a full generation before the first English landing in [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]] in 1607. During his [[Francis Drake's circumnavigation|circumnavigation of the world]], Drake anchored in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, establishing friendly relations with the [[Miwok|Coastal Miwok]] and claiming the territory for Queen [[Elizabeth I]]. However, Drake sailed back to England and England (and later Britain) never pressed for any sort of claim regarding the region.<ref name="Morrison, p. 214">Morrison, p. 214</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Drake Claims California for England|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/drake-claims-california-for-england|website=History.com|access-date=11 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924070713/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/drake-claims-california-for-england|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Kelsey|first1=Harry|title=The Queen's Pirate|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kelsey-drake.html|website=The New York Times|access-date=11 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325183051/https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kelsey-drake.html|archive-date=25 March 2016}}</ref><ref>Bancroft, Hubert H.; ''History of California'' Vol. XXII 1846–1848, p. 201, The History Company Publishers, San Francisco, 1882 (Google eBook)</ref>

=== Russian exploration ===

However, it was not until 1741 that the Spanish monarchy of King [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]] was stimulated to consider how to protect his claims to Alta California. Philip was spurred on when the territorial ambitions of the [[Russian Empire]] were expressed in the [[Vitus Bering]] expedition along the western coast on the North American continent.<ref>{{citation|editor1-first=Orcutt William|editor1-last=Frost|title=Bering: The Russian Discovery of America|location=New Haven, Connecticut|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-300-10059-4|url=https://archive.org/details/beringrussiandis0000fros}}</ref><ref>Chapman, p. 216</ref><ref group=notes>Chapman: "It is usually stated that the Spanish court at Madrid received reports about Russian aggression in the Pacific northwest, and sent orders to meet them by the occupation of Alta California, wherefore the expeditions of 1769 were made. This view contains only a smattering of the truth. It is evident from [José de] Gálvez's correspondence of 1768 that he and [Carlos Francisco de] Croix had discussed the advisability of an immediate expedition to Monterey, long before any word came from Spain about the Russian activities."</ref><ref>Bennett 1897a, pp. 11–12</ref><ref group=notes>Bennett: California had been visited a number of times since [[Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo|Cabrillo's]] discovery in 1542, which initially included notable expeditions led by Englishmen [[Francis Drake]] in 1579 and [[Thomas Cavendish]] 1587, and later on by [[Woodes Rogers]] (1710), [[George Shelvocke]] (1719), [[James Cook]] (1778), and finally [[George Vancouver]] in 1792. Spanish explorer [[Sebastián Vizcaíno]] made landfall in [[San Diego Bay]] in 1602, and the famed ''[[conquistador]]'' [[Hernán Cortés]] explored the [[Gulf of California|California Gulf Coast]] in 1735.</ref>

=== Spanish expansion ===

California represents the "high-water mark" of Spanish expansion in North America as the last and northernmost colony on the continent.<ref>Rawls, p. 3</ref> The mission system arose in part from the need to control Spain's ever-expanding holdings in the New World. Realizing that the colonies required a literate population base that the mother country could not supply, the Spanish government (with the cooperation of the Church) established a network of missions to convert the [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous population]] to Christianity. They aimed to make converts and tax-paying citizens of those they conquered.<ref name="Bennett 1897a, p. 10">Bennett 1897a, p. 10</ref><ref group=notes>Bennett: "Other pioneers have blazed the way for civilization by the torch and the bullet, and the red man has disappeared before them; but it remained for the Spanish priests to undertake to preserve the Indian and seek to make his existence compatible with a higher civilization."</ref> To make them into Spanish citizens and productive inhabitants, the Spanish government and the Church required the indigenous people to learn Spanish language and vocational skills along with Christian teachings.<ref>"Old Mission Santa Inés:" Clerical historian [[Maynard Geiger]], "This was to be a cooperative effort, imperial in origin, protective in purpose, but primarily spiritual in execution."</ref>

Estimates for the pre-contact indigenous population in California are based on a number of different sources and vary substantially, from as few as 133,000,<ref name=chapman>{{Cite book|last1=Chapman |first1=Charles E. PhD|year=1921|title=A History of California; The Spanish Period|publisher=The MacMillan Company |location=New York |isbn=978-1148507927}}</ref> to 225,000,<ref name=orfalea>{{cite web|last1=Orfalea|first1=Gregory|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/hungry-souls|title=Hungry for Souls Was Junípero Serra a Saint?|website=Commonweal magazine|access-date=11 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222090906/https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/hungry-souls|archive-date=22 December 2015}}</ref> to [[Population of Native California#Pre-contact estimates|as many as 705,000]] representing more than 100 separate tribes or nations.<ref>Rawls, p. 6</ref><ref>Kroeber 1925, p. vi.</ref><ref group=notes>Kroeber: "In the matter of population, too, the effect of Caucasian contact cannot be wholly slighted, since all statistics date from a late period. The disintegration of Native numbers and Native culture have proceeded hand in hand, but in very different rations according to locality. The determination of population strength before the arrival of whites is, on the other hand, of considerable significance toward the understanding of Indian culture, on account of the close relations which are manifest between type of culture and density of population."</ref><ref group=notes>Chapman, p. 383: "...there may have been about 133,000 [Native inhabitants] in what is now the state as a whole, and 70,000 in or near the conquered area. The missions included only the Indians of given localities, though it is true that they were situated on the best lands and in the most populous centres. Even in the vicinity of the missions, there were some unconverted groups, however." See [[Population of Native California]].</ref>

On January 29, 1767, Spain's King [[Charles III of Spain|Charles III]] ordered the new governor [[Gaspar de Portolá]] to [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus#Spanish Empire and Naples|forcibly expel]] the [[Jesuits]], who operated under the authority of the Pope and had established a chain of fifteen [[Spanish missions in Baja California|missions]] on the [[Baja California Peninsula]].<ref>Bennett, p. 15</ref><ref group=notes>Bennett: Due to the isolation of the Baja California missions, the decree for expulsion did not arrive in June 1767, as it did in the rest of New Spain, but was delayed until the new governor, Portolà, arrived with the news on November 30. Jesuits from the operating missions gathered in [[Loreto, Baja California Sur|Loreto]], whereupon they left for exile on February 3, 1768.</ref> ''Visitador General'' [[José de Gálvez]] engaged the [[Franciscans]], under the leadership of Friar [[Junípero Serra]], to take charge of those outposts on March 12, 1768.<ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 16</ref> The ''padres'' closed or consolidated several of the existing settlements, and also founded [[Misión San Fernando Rey de España de Velicatá]] (the only Franciscan mission in all of Baja California) and the nearby [[Visita de la Presentación]] in 1769. This plan, however, changed within a few months after Gálvez received the following orders: "Occupy and fortify San Diego and Monterey for God and the King of Spain."<ref>James, p. 11</ref> The Church ordered the priests of the [[Dominican Order]] to take charge of the Baja California missions so the Franciscans could concentrate on founding new missions in Alta California.

=== Mission period (1769–1833) ===

[[File:Canyon of the Little Christians.jpg|thumb|left|The first recorded baptisms in Alta California were performed in "[[Los Cristianitos Valley|The Canyon of the Little Christians]]."<ref name="engelhardtSJCM258">Engelhardt 1922, p. 258</ref>]]

On July 14, 1769, Gálvez sent the [[Portolá expedition]] out from Loreto to explore lands to the north. Leader [[Gaspar de Portolá]] was accompanied by a group of Franciscans led by [[Junípero Serra]]. Serra's plan was to extend the string of missions north from the Baja California peninsula, connected by an established road and spaced a day's travel apart. The first Alta California mission and presidio were founded at San Diego, the second at Monterey.<ref>Yenne, p. 10</ref>

En route to Monterey, the Rev. Francisco Gómez and the Rev. [[Juan Crespí]] came across a Native settlement wherein two young girls were dying: one, a baby, said to be "dying at its mother's breast," the other a small girl suffering of burns. On July 22, Gómez baptized the baby, naming her ''Maria Magdalena'', while Crespí baptized the older child, naming her ''Margarita''. These were the first recorded baptisms in Alta California.<ref>Leffingwell, p. 25</ref> Crespi dubbed the spot ''[[San Mateo Creek (Southern California)#History|Los Cristianos]]''.<ref name="engelhardtSJCM258"/><ref group=notes>Engelhardt: Today, the site (located at {{Coord|33|25|41.58|N|117|36|34.92|W}} on [[Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton]] in [[San Diego County, California|San Diego County]]) is in Los Christianitos ("The Little Christians") Canyon, and is designated as ''La Christiana''  [[California Historical Landmark]] [http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=21478 #562] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050711080146/http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=21478 |date=2005-07-11 }}.</ref> The group continued northward but missed Monterey Harbor and returned to San Diego on January 24, 1770. Near the end of 1769 the Portolá expedition had reached its most northerly point at present-day [[San Francisco]]. In following years, the [[List of Spanish monarchs|Spanish Crown]] sent a number of follow-up expeditions to explore more of Alta California.

Spain also settled the [[California]] region with a number of African and [[mulatto]] Catholics, including at least ten of the recently re-discovered [[Los Angeles Pobladores|Los Pobladores]], the founders of [[Los Angeles]] in 1781.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-12-02|title=History|url=https://lacounty.gov/government/about-la-county/history/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES|language=en-US}}</ref>

[[File:Don Fernando Rivera violates Church asylum.png|thumb|[[Captain (OF-2)|Captain]] [[Fernando Rivera y Moncada]] violated [[ecclesiastical]] [[Right of asylum|asylum]] at Mission San Diego de Alcalá on March 26, 1776, when he forcibly removed a 'neophyte' in direct defiance of the ''padres''. Missionary [[Pedro Font]] later described the scene: "...Rivera entered the chapel with drawn sword...con la espada desnuda en la mano." Rivera y Moncada was subsequently [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] from the [[Catholic Church]] for his actions.<ref>Engelhardt 1920, p. 76</ref>]]