Our California Missions Website
This website was created by the students at Sunset Elementary school in San Francisco. It was made so they could learn about the importance of the missions and how they helped create California. The students researched the California Missions and lives of the people living in them.
Introducing the California MissionsThe California Missions were founded by Franciscan monks from Spain through way of Mexico. There were established between 1769 and 1833 along the coast of California. There were built a day's ride apart from each other spanning from current day San Diego, the southern most tip of California, to Santa Rosa about 50 miles north of San Francisco. The missions were built as outposts for Spanish trade and military, but their primary purpose was to "civilize" the Native Peoples living in the area by converting them to Christianity and introducing them to European values. They helped the Spanish claim California as their territory by holding back the Russians coming down the coast as fur trappers and later the Americans settlers coming down from Oregon.
The native Peoples living in California numbered over 300,000 in upwards of 100 different tribes or nations before the missionaries arrived. As the missionaries arrived they had the Natives help build the missions and started converting them to Christianity. These new converts were called Neophytes and lived in the mission with the monks. Depending on the monks living at the missions the Native Californians had drastically different interactions with the newcomers. Some of the Fathers who ran the missions were friendly and accepting of the natives who lived in the area others were not as much. There were many small uprising at the missions, but they were mainly local and were quickly put down due to the Spaniards superior weapons. The introduction of the missions to California also brought along other items as well. The missionaries brought with them wheat, wine, olives, as well as cattle, sheep, horses, pigs and goats to be raised on the land. The missionaries also brought with them the many fruit trees California is also famous for, figs, oranges, apples and pears were all introduced during this period. Most of these are a large part of the agriculture of California today and have shaped the landscape we know today. The introduction of the cattle and sheep destroyed many of the plants the Native Californians depended on to gather their food throughout the year also impacting their way of life. And finally, the life at the missions left many of the Natives without any knowledge of their ancestral ways making it very hard for them to return to their previous lives outside the missions. Besides bringing with them agriculture products the missionaries also brought with them smallpox which wiped out upwards of 75% of the Native population of California. These California Missions helped created the state we know and love today, but not without its costs. |