Editing Mission Santa Barbara (section)

===Relations with the Chumash tribe===
Mission Santa Barbara was part of a broader plan by the Kingdom of Spain to protect its claim on Alta California against rival colonial powers (Russia and Great Britain).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=León-Portilla |first=Miguel |year=1985 |title=California in the Dreams of Gálvez and the Achievements of Serra |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1007349 |journal=The Americas |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=428–434 |doi=10.2307/1007349 |jstor=1007349 |s2cid=147317096 |issn=0003-1615}}</ref> The mission was expected to turn the local indigenous people into upstanding Spanish citizens through conversion to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] and by making them productive members of the Spanish colonial economy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=California Indians – California Missions Foundation |url=https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/california-indians/ |access-date=March 17, 2022 |website=californiamissionsfoundation.org}}</ref>

The main economic activity of the missions in the region that was occupied by the local Chumash tribe was animal husbandry and related products (hides and tallow). The average size of the Santa Barbara Mission's herd was a little over 14,000 animals over the 1806–1810 period.<ref name=":2" /> Large numbers of Chumash workers were required to care for this herd and to serve the other needs of the Mission. At the same time, the herds disrupted the sophisticated Chumash system of hunting and gathering, placing the tribes in an increasingly precarious position and aggravating the existing demographic stress caused by epidemics of European diseases against which the Chumash had no immunity.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|author1=Deana Dartt-Newton|author2=Jon M. Friands|title=Little Choice for the Chumash: Colonialism, Cattle and Coercion in Mission Period California|periodical=American Indian Quarterly|date=Summer–Autumn 2006|volume=30 |issue=3/4 |pages=416–430 |jstor=4139021|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4139021}}</ref> Thus, the Chumash often had little choice but to join the mission. A modern source describes the lives of indigenous people in the mission system as being 'controlled by the padres'; it also notes that baptised indigenous peoples 'were not allowed to leave without permission'.<ref name=":0" />

In 1818, two [[Argentina|Argentine]] ships under the command of the French [[privateer]], [[Hippolyte de Bouchard|Hipólito Bouchard]] approached the coast and threatened the young town of Santa Barbara. The padres, led by Fray Antonio Ripoll armed and trained 180 of the neophytes to mobilize for the anticipated attack. They were organized into an infantry unit comprising one-hundred archers that were reinforced by an additional fifty brandishing machetes, and a cavalry unit of thirty lancers.  Father Ripoll named the unit ''"Compañía de Urbanos Realistas de Santa Bárbara".''<ref name="Sandos_1985">{{cite journal|last1=Sandos|first1=James A.|year=1985|title=LEVANTAMIENTO!: The 1824 Chumash Uprising Reconsidered|url=http://mail.militarymuseum.org/Chumash1824.pdf|journal=Southern California Quarterly|volume=67|issue=2|pages=109–133|doi=10.2307/41171145|publisher=Historical Society of Southern California|jstor=41171145 |access-date=October 19, 2021}}</ref> With their help, the [[Santa Barbara Presidio|Presidio]] soldiers confronted Bouchard, who sailed out of the harbor without attacking.<ref>There is a great contrast between the legacy of Bouchard in Argentina versus his reputation in the United States. In Buenos Aires, Bouchard is honored as a brave patriot, while in California he is most often remembered as a pirate, and not a privateer. See [[Hippolyte de Bouchard]].</ref>