View source for Spanish missions in California

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[[Image:Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6588.jpg|thumb|350px|{{Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6588.jpg/credit}}<br/>A view of [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]] in April of 2005. At left is the façade of the first adobe church with its added ''espadaña''; behind the ''campanario'', or bell wall is the "Sacred Garden." The Mission has earned a reputation as the "''Loveliest of the Franciscan Ruins''." <ref>Saunders and Chase, p. 65</ref>]]

The '''Spanish missions in California''' comprise a series of religious outposts established by [[Spain|Spaniards]] of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the [[Catholic]] faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by [[Europe]]ans to colonize the Pacific Coast region, and gave Spain a valuable toehold in the frontier land. The settlers introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into [[Las Californias]]; however, the Spanish occupation of [[California]] also brought with it serious negative consequences to the Native American populations with whom the missionaries came in contact. In the end, the mission system failed in its objective (that being to convert, educate, and "civilize" the indigenous population in order to transform the California natives into Spanish colonial citizens). Today, the missions are among the state's oldest structures and the most-visited historic monuments.

==Precontact==
[[Image:Franciscan missionaries in California.jpg|thumb|300px|{{Franciscan missionaries in California.jpg/credit}}<br/>''The Missionaries as They Came and Went.'' Franciscans of the California missions donned gray habits, in contrast to the brown cassocks that are typically worn today.<ref>Kelsey, p. 18</ref>]]
The current prevailing theory postulates that Paleo-Indians entered the Americas in successive waves from [[Asia]] via a land bridge called "Beringia" that connected eastern [[Siberia]] with present-day [[Alaska]] (when sea levels were significantly lower, due to widespread glaciation) between about 15,000 to 35,000 years ago.<ref>Leffingwell, p. 9</ref> The remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island are among the traces of a very early habitation in California, dated to the last ice age (Wisconsin glaciation) about 13,000 years ago.<ref>Jones and Klar 2007, p. 53: "''Understanding how and when humans first settled California is intimately linked to the initial colonization of the Americas''."</ref><ref>Oakley, p. 1172</ref> The first humans are therefore thought to have made their homes among the southern valleys of California's coastal mountain ranges some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago; the earliest of these people are known only from archaeological evidence.<ref>Paddison, p. 333: The first undisputable archaeological evidence of human presence in California dates back to ''circa'' 8,000 BCE.</ref><ref>Jones and Klar 2005, pp. 369-400: Recent research suggests that the Chumash may have been visited by Polynesians between 400 and 800 CE, nearly 1,000 years before Columbus reached [[North America]]. Although the concept was generally rejected for decades and remains controversial, studies published in peer-reviewed journals have given the idea greater plausibility.</ref> Over the course of thousands of years, California's diverse group of first settlers (later known as "Indians") evolved into hundreds of separate tribal groups, with an equally diverse range of languages, religions, dress, and other customs.<ref>Margolin, pp. 2-6</ref> By the time of the earliest European contacts, California was the most densely populated area north of Mexico.<ref>Paddison, p. x</ref> The cultural impacts resulting from climactic changes and other natural events during this broad expanse of time were negligible; conversely, European contact was a momentous event, which profoundly affected California's native peoples.<ref>Paddison, p. xiv: "''These missionaries, along with the soldiers, merchants, and settlers who emigrated to California before 1848, brought terrible changes to its Indian population''."</ref>

==History==
===Early exploration and contact===
[[Image:Wikiup.jpg|thumb|300px|{{Wikiup.jpg/credit}}<br/>Many native cultures built cone-shaped huts (''wikiups'') made of willow branches covered with brush or mats made of tule leaves. The shelters were utilized primarily for sleeping or as refuge in cases of inclement weather. Europeans generally regarded such contrivances as "''...evidence of the Indians' inability to fashion more sophisticated structures''."&nbsp;<ref>Rawls, p. 29: In the late 1780s, [[France|French]] naval officer and explorer Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse described the native dwellings in and around Monterey&mdash;consisting of long poles stuck in the ground and drawn together to form arches, then covered with thatch&mdash;as "''...the most miserable that are to be met with among any people''." [[England|British]] naval officer and explorer George Vancouver documented similar conditions as observed during his 1792 visit to the San Francisco Bay area in ''A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean'' (Paddison, pp. 81-82).</ref>]]

Beginning in 1492 with the voyages of [[Christopher Columbus]], the Kingdom of Spain sought to establish missions to convert the pagans in ''Nueva España'' ("[[New Spain]]," consisting of the [[Caribbean]], [[Mexico]] and most of what today is the Southwestern United States) to Roman Catholicism, in order to facilitate colonization of these lands awarded to Spain by the Catholic Church, including that region known as [[Alta California]].<ref>The Spanish claim to the Pacific Northwest had dated back to a 1493 papal bull (''Inter caetera'') and rights contained in the 1494 [[Treaty of Tordesillas]]; these two formal acts gave Spain the exclusive rights to colonize all of the Western Hemisphere (excluding Brazil), including the exclusive rights to colonize all of the the west coast of North America.</ref><ref>The term "Alta California" as applies to the mission chain founded by Serra refers specifically to the modern-day U.S. State of California.</ref><ref>Paddison, p. xii: Despite Vizcaíno's recommendations, the Spanish government felt that Alta California was too distant to effectively colonize, and at the same time too close to Mexico to warrant the establishment of a port at San Diego; s royal order prohibiting further exploration of the region was issued in 1606.</ref><ref>Leffingwell, p. 10: Father [[Antonio de la Ascensión]], a Carmelite priest 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 that missions be established in the region, a venture that would involve military as well as religious personnel.</ref> However, it was not until 1741&mdash;the time of the Vitus Bering expedition, when the territorial ambitions of Tsarist Russia towards North America became known&mdash;that King Philip V felt such installations were necessary in Upper California.<ref>Morrison, p. 214: During his voyage of exploration along the Pacific Coast of North America in 1579, Sir Francis Drake claimed the region (which he dubbed ''Nova Albion'', latin for "New Britain") in the name of [[England]], a full generation before the first landing in Jamestown, Virginia. In order to preserve an uneasy peace with Spain, and to avoid having Spain threaten England's claims in the New World, both the discovery of and claim on New Albion was ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to be treated as a state secret.</ref><ref>Chapman, p. 216: "''It is usually stated that the Spanish court at Madrid received reports about Russian aggressions 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: California had been visited a number of times since Juan Rodríguez 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 California Gulf Coast in 1735.</ref> California represents the "high-water mark" of Spanish expansion in North America, it being 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 would require a literate population base that the mother country could not supply, the government (with the cooperation of the Church) established a network of missions with the goal of converting the natives to Christianity; the aim was to make converts and tax paying citizens of the indigenous peoples they conquered.<ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 10: "''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> In order to become Spanish citizens and productive inhabitants, the native Americans were required 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 native population in California have been based on a number of different sources (and therefore vary substantially), but indigenous peoples may have numbered as high as 300,000, divided into more than 100 separate tribes or nations.<ref>Rawls, p. 6</ref><ref>Kroeber 1925, p. vi.: "''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 localit. The determination of populational 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>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''." </ref>

On January 29, 1767 King Charles III ordered the Jesuits, who had established a chain of fifteen missions throughout [[Baja California]], forcibly expelled and returned to the home country.<ref>Bennett, p. 15: Due to the isolation of the Baja California missions, the decree for expulsion did not arrive in June of 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, wherupon they left for exile on February 3, 1768.</ref> ''Visitador General'' José de Gálvez engaged the Franciscans, under the leadership of Fray 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, was 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.''"&nbsp;<ref>James, p. 11</ref> It was thereupon decided to call upon the priests of the Dominican Order to take charge of the Baja California missions in order to allow the Franciscans to concentrate on founding new missions in Alta California.<ref>Guest: "''The blueprint for Alta California provided for a system of settlements significantly different from those in Baja California and Sonora. In their original design, both presidios and missions were different from their predecessors to the south. The plan to make the presidios agriculturally productive did not succeed. Neither did the plan for the mission-pueblos as racially integrated nuclei of urban centers, but the ideal of a closer association between missionized Indians and gente de razón, notwithstanding the opposition of the friars, was partially realized. The Spanish government, in its approach to the problem of colonizing Alta California, did not blindly tread the beaten track of past practices and traditions. Willing to correct the mistakes of the past, prepared to experiment with new ideas, ready to change, to modify, to adjust, the civil and military authorities of New Spain and of Alta California were open-minded, flexible, resourceful, and inventive''."</ref>

===Mission Period (1769 &ndash; 1833)===
{{Image|Canyon of the Little Christians.jpg|left|300px|{{Canyon of the Little Christians.jpg/credit}}<br/>The first recorded baptisms in Alta California were performed in "The Canyon of the Little Christians."&nbsp;<ref name="engelhardtSJCM258">Engelhardt 1922, p. 258</ref>}}
On July 14, 1769 Gálvez sent the expedition of [[Junípero Serra]] and Gaspar de Portolà from Loreto, in Baja California, to found a mission at San Diego and presidio at Monterey, respectively.<ref>Yenne, p. 10</ref><ref>Ives, p. 21: "''The route followed by the Serra expeditions (plural) from Loreto to San Diego has been the subject of much study, much field work, and much argument...Even among professional historians, the magnitude of the Serra and related journeys is seldom realized. The first part, from Loreto to San Diego, equals a trip...from New York City to Lansing, Michigan. The journey of the military party, which led to the discovery of San Francisco Bay, equalled a trip...from New York City to Fort Dodge, Iowa''."</ref> As the planned colonizatiion of Upper California was to be a spiritual as well as a military endeavor&mdash;with the founding of missions and conversion of Indians given at least equal weight to the establishment of ''presidios''&mdash;the attempt to settle the northern country became known as the "Sacred Expedition."&nbsp;<ref>Engstrand</ref> En route to Monterey, Fathers [[Francisco Gómez]] and [[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, Father Gómez baptized the baby, giving her the name "Maria Magdalena," while Father Crespí baptized the older child, naming her "Margarita;" these were the first recorded baptisms in Alta California.<ref>Leffingwell, p. 25</ref> The expedition's soldiers dubbed the spot ''Los Cristianos''.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 258: Today, the site (located at 33°25′41.58″N, 117°36′34.92″W on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County) is referred to more commonly as ''La Cañada de los Bautismos'', literally "The Gorge of the Baptisms," or simply ''Los Christianitos'', "The Little Christians" and is designated as California Historical Landmark [http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=21478 #562].</ref> The group continued northward but missed Monterey Harbor and returned to San Diego on January 24, 1770. Near the end of 1771 the Portolà Expedition arrived at San Francisco Bay; between 1774 and 1791, the Spanish Crown sent forth a number of expeditions to explore the Pacific Northwest.

[[Image:Don Fernando Rivera violates Church asylum.png|thumb|300px|right|{{Don Fernando Rivera violates Church asylum.png/credit}}<br/>Captain Fernando Rivera y Moncada violated ecclesiastical asylum at Mission San Diego de Alcalá on March 26, 1776 when he forcibly removed a neophyte in direct defiance of the ''padres''. Missionary Father [[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 excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for his actions. <ref>Engelhardt 1920, p. 76</ref>]]
Each mission was to be turned over to a secular clergy and all the common mission lands distributed amongst the native population within ten years after its founding, a policy that was based upon Spain's experience with the more advanced tribes in Mexico, [[Central America]], and [[Peru]].<ref>Robinson, p. 28</ref> In time, it became apparent to Father Serra and his associates that the Indian tribes on the northern frontier in Alta California would require a much longer period of acclimatization.<ref name="engelhardtMAM3-18">Engelhardt 1908, pp. 3-18</ref> None of the California missions ever attained complete self-sufficiency, and required continued (albeit modest) financial support from mother Spain.<ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 13</ref><ref>Ives, p. 21: "''...the support of the California Missions required perhaps ten million mule-miles of travel...from Loreto to San Diego''."</ref> Mission development was therefore financed out of ''El Fondo Piadoso de las Californias'' ("The Pious Fund of the Californias," which had its origin in 1697 and consisted of voluntary donations made by individuals and religious bodies in Mexico to members of the Society of Jesus) to enable the missionaries to propagate the Catholic Faith in the area then known as California. Starting with the onset of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, this support largely disappeared and the missions and their converts were left on their own (as of 1800, native labor had made up the backbone of the colonial economy).<ref>Rawls, p. 106</ref> 

Arguably "''the worst epidemic of the Spanish Era in California''" was known to be the measles epidemic of 1806, wherein one-quarter of the mission Indian population of the San Francisco Bay area died of the measles or related complications between March and May of that year.<ref>Milliken, pp. 172-173, 193</ref> In 1811, the Spanish Viceroy in Mexico sent an ''interrogatorio'' (questionnaire) to all of the missions in Alta California regarding the customs, disposition, and condition of the Mission Indians.<ref>Kroeber, p. 1</ref> The replies, which varied greatly in the length, spirit, and even the value of the information contained therein, were collected and prefaced by the Father-Presidente with a short general statement or abstract; the compilation was thereupon forwarded to the viceregal government.<ref>Kroeber, p. 2: "''Some of the missionaries evidently regarded compliance with the instructions of the questionnaire as an official requirement which was perfunctorily performed. In many cases no answers were given various questions at certain of the missions''."</ref> The contemporary nature of the responses, no matter how incomplete or biased some may be, are nonetheless of considerable value to modern ethnologists. 

[[Image:Luiseno drawing early 1800s.jpg|thumb|250px|{{Luiseno drawing early 1800s.jpg/credit}}<br/>Pablo Tac, who lived at Mission San Luis Rey in the 1820s and 1830s, penned this drawing depicting two young men wearing skirts of twine and feathers with feather decorations on their heads, rattles in their hands, and (perhaps) painted decorations on their bodies.<ref>Kelsey, p. 4</ref>]]
Russian colonization of the Americas reached its southernmost point with the 1812 establishment of Fort Ross (''krepost' rus''), an agricultural, scientific,and fur-trading settlement located in present-day Sonoma County, California.<ref>Nordlander, p. 10</ref> In November and December of 1818, several of the missions were attacked by Hipólito Bouchard, "''California's only pirate''."&nbsp;<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.</ref> A French privateer sailing under the flag of [[Argentina]], ''Pirata Buchar'' (as he was known to the locals) worked his way down the California coast, conducting raids on the installations at Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Juan Capistrano, with limited success.<ref>Jones, p. 170</ref> Upon hearing of the attacks, many mission priests (along with a few government officials) sought refuge at Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, the mission chain's most isolated outpost. Ironically, Mission Santa Cruz (though ultimately ignored by the marauders) was ignominiously sacked and vandalized by local residents who were entrusted with securing the church's valuables.<ref>Young, p. 102</ref> 

By 1819, Spain decided to limit its "reach" in the New World to Northern California due to the costs involved in sustaining these remote outposts; the northernmost settlement therefore is Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in Sonoma in 1823.<ref name="hittell499a">Hittell, p. 499: "''...it [Mission San Francisco Solano] was quite frequently known as the mission of Sonoma. From the beginning it was rather a military than a religious establishment&mdash;a sort of outpost or barrier, first against the Russians and afterwards against the Americans; but still a large adobe church was built and Indians were baptized''."</ref> An attempt to found a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 was aborted.<ref name="hittell499">Hittell, p. 499: "''By that time, it was found that the Russians were were not such undesirable neighbors as in 1817 it was thought they might become...the Russian scare, for the time being at least was over; and as for the old enthusiasm for new spiritual conquests, there was none left''."</ref><ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 154: "''Up to 1817 the "spiritual conquest" of California had been confined to the territory south of San Francisco bay. And this, it might be said, was as far as possible under the mission system. There had been a few years prior to that time certain alarming incursions of the Russians, which distressed Spain, and it was ordered that missions be started across the bay''."</ref><ref>Chapman, pp. 254-255: "''...the Russians and the English were by no means the only foreign peoples who threatened Spain's domination of the Pacific coast. The [[India]]ns and the [[China|Chinese]] had their opportunity before Spain appeared upon the scene. The [[Japan]]ese were at one time a potential peril, and the [[Portugal|Portuguese]] and [[Holland|Dutch]] voyagers occasionally gave Spain concern. The French for many years were the most dangerous enemy of all, but with their disappearance from North America in 1763, as a result of their defeat in the Seven Years' War, they were no longer a menace. The people of the [[United States]] were eventually to become the most powerful outstanding element''."</ref> As the Mexican republic matured, calls for the secularization ("disestablishment") of the missions increased.<ref>Robinson, p. 29: The Spanish ''cortes'', or legislature, issued a decree in 1813 for at least partial secularization affecting all missions in America that was to apply to all outposts which had been operating for ten years or more; however, the decree was never enforced in California.</ref> José María de Echeandía, the first native Mexican to be elected Governor of Alta California, issued his "Proclamation of Emancipation"  (or "''Prevenciónes de Emancipacion''") on July 25, 1826.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 80</ref> All Indians within the military districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey who were found qualified were freed from missionary rule and made eligible to become Mexican citizens. Those who wished to remain under mission tutelage were exempted from most forms of corporal punishment.<ref>Bancroft, vol. i, pp. 100-101: The motives behind the issuance of Echeandía's premature decree had more to do with the his desire to appease "''...some prominent Californians who had already had their eyes on the mission lands...''" than they did with concerns regarding the welfare of the natives.</ref><ref>Stern and Miller, pp. 51-52: Catholic historian Zephyrin Engelhardt referred to Echeandía as "''...an avowed enemy of the religious orders''."</ref> By 1830 even the neophyte populations themselves appeared confident in their own abilities to operate the mission ranches and farms independently; the ''padres'', however, doubted the capabilities of their charges in this regard.<ref>Forbes, p. 201: In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control in all of Upper California stood at 18,683; garrison soldiers, free settlers, and "other classes" totaled 4,342.</ref> Ever-increasing immigration brought pressure to bear on local governments to seize the mission properties and disposses the natives in accordance with Echeandía's directive.<ref>Kelsey, p. 21: Settlers made numerous false claims in order to diminish the natives' stature: "''The Indians are by nature slovenly and indolent''," stated one newcomer. "''They have unfeelingly appropriated the region''," claimed another.</ref> Despite the fact that Echeandía's emancipation plan met was met with little encouragement from the novies who populated the southern missions, he was nonetheless determined to test the scheme on a large scale at Mission San Juan Capistrano. To that end, he appointed a number of ''comisianados'' (commissioners) to oversee the emancipation of the Indians.<ref>Bancroft, vol. iii, pp. 322; 626</ref> The Mexican government passed legislation on December 20, 1827 that mandated the expulsion of all Spaniards younger than sixty years of age from Mexican territories; Governor Echeandía nevertheless intervened on behalf of some of the missionaries in order to prevent their deportation once the law of took effect in California.<ref>Engelhard 1922, p. 223</ref> 

Although Governor José Figueroa (who took office in 1833) initially attempted to keep the mission system intact, the Mexican Congress nevertheless passed ''An Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California'' on August 17, 1833.<ref name="yenne18-19">Yenne, pp. 18-19: In 1833, Figueroa replaced the ''padres'' at all of the settlements north of Mission San Antonio de Padua with Mexcian-born Franciscan priests from the [[College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas]]. In response, Father-Presidente [[Narciso Durán]] transferred the headquarters of the Alta California Mission System to Mission Santa Bárbara, where they remained until 1846.</ref> The Act also provided for the colonization of both Alta and Baja California, the expenses of this latter move to be borne by the proceeds gained from the sale of the mission property to private interests.

===Rancho Period (1834 &ndash; 1849)===
Mission San Juan Capistrano was the very first to feel the effects of this legislation the following year when, on August 9, 1834 Governor Figueroa issued his "Decree of Confiscation."&nbsp;<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 114</ref> Nine other settlements quickly followed, with six more in 1835; San Buenaventura and San Francisco de Asís were among the last to succumb, in June and December of 1836, respectively.<ref>Yenne, pp. 83, 93</ref> The Franciscans soon thereafter abandoned most of the missions, taking with them most everything of value, after which the locals typically plundered the mission buildings for construction materials. In spite of this neglect, the Indian towns at [[Mission San Juan Capistrano|San Juan Capistrano]], San Dieguito, and [[Las Flores Estancia|Las Flores]] did continue on for some time under a provision in ''Gobernador'' Echeandía's 1826 Proclamation that allowed for the partial conversion of missions to ''pueblos''.<ref>Robinson, p. 42</ref> According to one estimate, the native population in and around the missions proper was approximately 80,000 at the time of the confiscation; others claim that the <u>statewide</u> population had dwindled to approximately 100,000 by the early 1840s, due in no small part to the natives' exposure to European diseases for which they lacked immunity, and from the Franciscan practice of cloistering women in the ''convento'' and controlling sexuality during the child-bearing age (Baja California experienced a similar reduction in native population resulting from Spanish colonization efforts there).<ref>Cook, p. 200: When assessing the relative importance of the various sources of the native population decline in California, including [[Old World]] epidemic diseases, violence, nutritional changes, and cultural shock, it is clear that declines tended to be steepest in the areas directly affected by the missions and the California Gold Rush. "''The first (factor) was the food supply...The second factor was disease...A third factor, which strongly intensified the effect of the other two, was the social and physical disruption visited upon the Indian. He was driven from his home by the thousands, starved, beaten, raped, and murdered with impunity. He was not only given no assistance in the struggle against foreign diseases, but was prevented from adopting even the most elementary measures to secure his food, clothing, and shelter. The utter devastation caused by the white man was literally incredible, and not until the population figures are examined does the extent of the havoc become evident''."</ref> 

[[Image:Choir missals at Mission San Luis Rey.jpg|left|thumb|300px|{{Choir missals at Mission San Luis Rey.jpg/credit}}<br/>Illuminated choir missals on display at [[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]] in 1913.<ref>James, p. 215</ref>]]
Pío de Jesus Pico IV, the last Mexican Governor of Alta California, found upon taking office that there were few funds available with which to carry on the affairs of the province. He prevailed upon the assembly to pass a decree authorizing the renting or the sale of all mission property, reserving only the church, a curate's house, and a building for a courthouse. The expenses of conducting the services of the church were to be provided from the proceeds, but there was no disposition made as to what should be done to secure the funds for that purpose. After secularization, Father Presidente Narciso Durán transferred the missions' headquarters to Santa Barbara, thereby making Mission Santa Barbara the repository of some 3,000 original documents that had been scattered through the California missions. The Mission archive is the oldest library in the State of California that still remains in the hands of its founders, the Franciscans (it is the only mission in which they have maintained an uninterrupted presence). Beginning with the writings of Hubert Howe Bancroft, the library has served as a center for historical study of the missions for more than a century. In 1895 journalist and historian Charles Fletcher Lummis criticized the Act and its results, saying:

<blockquote>''Disestablishment&mdash;a polite term for robbery&mdash;by Mexico (rather than by native Californians misrepresenting the Mexican government) in 1834, was the death blow of the mission system. The lands were confiscated; the buildings were sold for beggarly sums, and often for beggarly purposes. The Indian converts were scattered and starved out; the noble buildings were pillaged for their tiles and adobes...''"&nbsp;<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 248</ref>
</blockquote>

===California Statehood (1850 and beyond)===
[[Image:Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita.png|thumb|250px|{{Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita.png/credit}}<br/>Hugo Reid, an outspoken critic of the mission system and its effects on the native populations, at Rancho Santa Anita ''circa'' 1850.]]
By way of confiscation of the missions between 1834 and 1838 the approximately 15,000 resident ''neophytes'' lost the protection of the mission system, along with their stock and other movable property; by the transfer of California to the United States, they were left without legal title to their land. Via the Act of September 30, 1850 Congress appropriated funds to allow the President to appoint three Commissioners to study the California situation and "''...negotiate treaties with the various Indian tribes of California''." Treaty negotiations ensued during the period between March 19, 1851 and January 7, 1852, during which time the Commission interacted with 402 Indian chiefs and headmen (representing approximately one-third to one-half of the California tribes) and entered into eighteen treaties.<ref>Robinson, p. 14</ref> California Senator William M. Gwin's Act of March 3, 1851 created the Public Land Commission, whose purpose was to determine the validity of Spanish and Mexican land grants in California.<ref>Robinson, p. 100</ref> On February 19, 1853 Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany filed petitions for the return of all former mission lands in the state. Ownership of 1,051.44 acres (for all practical intents being the exact area of land occupied by the original mission buildings, cemeteries, and gardens) was subsequently conveyed to the Church, along with the ''Cañada de los Pinos'' (or College Rancho) in Santa Barbara County comprising 35,499.73 acres (143.6623 km²), and ''La Laguna'' in San Luis Obispo County, consisting of 4,157.02 acres (16.8229 km²).<ref>Robinson, pp. 31-32: The area shown is that stated in the ''Corrected Reports of Spanish and Mexican Grants in California Complete to February 25, 1886'' as a supplement to the Official Report of 1883-1884. Patents for each mission were issued to Archbishop Alemany based on his claim filed with the Public Land Commission on February 19, 1853.</ref> As the result of a U.S. government investigation in 1873, a number of Indian reservations were assigned by executive proclamation in 1875. The commissioner of Indian affairs reported in 1879 that the number of Mission Indians in the state was down to around 3,000.<ref>Rawls, pp. 112-113</ref>

==Site selection and layout==
[[Image:San Luis Rey de Francia circa 1910 William Amos Haines.jpg|thumb|300px|right|{{San Luis Rey de Francia circa 1910 William Amos Haines.jpg/credit}}<br/>[[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]], ''circa'' 1910.  This mission is architecturally distinctive because of the strong Moorish lines exhibited.]] 
In addition to the ''presidio'' (royal fort) and ''pueblo'' (town), the ''misión'' was one of the three major agencies employed by the Spanish sovereign to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. ''Asistencias'' ("satellite" or "sub" missions, sometimes referred to as "contributing chapels") were small-scale missions that regularly conducted Divine service on days of obligation but lacked a resident priest;<ref>Harley</ref> as with the missions, these settlements were typically established in areas with high concentrations of potential native converts.<ref>Ruscin, p. 61</ref> The Spanish Californians had never strayed from the coast when establishing their settlements; Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad was located farthest inland, being only some thirty miles (48 kilometers) from the shore.<ref>Chapman, p. 418: Chapman does not consider the sub-missions (''asistencias'') that make up the inland chain in this regard.</ref> Each frontier station was forced to be self-supporting, as existing means of supply were inadequate to maintain a colony of any size. California was literally months away from the nearest base in colonized Mexico, and the cargo ships of the day were too small to carry more than a few months’ rations in their holds. In order to sustain a mission, the ''padres'' required the help of colonists or converted Native Americans, called ''neophytes'', to cultivate crops and tend livestock in the volume needed to support a fair-sized establishment. The scarcity of imported materials, together with a lack of skilled laborers, compelled the Fathers to employ simple building materials and methods in the construction of mission structures.

{{Image|The_Mission_of_St._Carlos_near_Monterrey.jpg|left|300px|{{The_Mission_of_St._Carlos_near_Monterrey.jpg/credit}}<br/>A drawing of Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo prepared by Captain George Vancouver depicts the grounds as they appeared in November, 1792. From ''A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World.''}}
Although the missions were considered temporary ventures by the Spanish hierarchy, the development of an individual settlement was not simply a matter of "priestly whim." The founding of a mission followed longstanding rules and procedures; the paperwork involved required months, sometimes years of correspondence, and demanded the attention of virtually every level of the bureaucracy. Once empowered to erect a mission in a given area, the men assigned to it chose a specific site that featured a good water supply, plenty of wood for fires and building material, and ample fields for grazing herds and raising crops.<ref>Guest: "''Almost from its beginning the pattern of settlement and missions in Alta California symbolized the growing tension between the traditional model of mission colonization in America and the reforming Spanish authorities of the late 18th century. The Laws of the Indies regulated the distances between pueblos of Spaniards and reducciones of Indians. In the case of Mission Santa Clara and Pueblo San Jose, and of Mission Santa Cruz and the Villa de Branciforte, these laws were clearly violated...In both cases a stream of water separated mission and town but this was a circumstance which did little either to alter or even weaken the terms of the law. In each case the close proximity between mission and town was forbidden by still further clauses of the Laws of the Indies''."</ref> The padres blessed the site, and with the aid of their military escort fashioned temporary shelters out of tree limbs or driven stakes, roofed with thatch or reeds (''cañas''). It was these simple huts that would ultimately give way to the stone and adobe buildings which exist to this day.

The first priority when beginning a settlement was the location and construction of the church (''iglesia''). The majority of mission sanctuaries were oriented on a roughly east-west axis to take the best advantage of the sun's position for interior illumination; the exact alignment depended on the geographic features of the particular site. Once the spot for the church was selected, its position would be marked and the remainder of the mission complex would be laid out. The workshops, kitchens, living quarters, storerooms, and other ancillary chambers were usually grouped in the form of a quadrangle, inside which religious celebrations and other festive events often took place.  The ''cuadrángulo'' was rarely a perfect square because the Fathers had no surveying instruments at their disposal and simply measured off all dimensions by foot. Some fanciful accounts regarding the construction of the missions claimed that underground tunnels were incorporated in the design, to be used as a means of emergency egress in the event of attack; however, no historical evidence (written or physical) has ever been uncovered to support these wild assertions.<ref>Engelhardt 1920, pp. 350-351. One such hypothesis was put forth by author by Prent Duel in his 1919 work ''Mission Architecture as Exemplified in San Xavier Del Bac'': "''Most missions of early date possessed secret passages as a means of escape in case they were besieged. It is difficult to locate any of them now as they are well concealed''."</ref>

==Mission life==
[[Image:Death of Father Jayme.jpg|thumb|300px|{{Death of Father Jayme.jpg/credit}}<br/>An illustration depicts the brutal death of Father Luís Jayme by the hands of angry natives at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, November 4, 1775.<ref>Ruscin, p. 12</ref> The uprising was the first of a dozen similar incidents that took place in Alta California during the Mission Period; however, most rebellions tended to be localized and short-lived due to the Spaniards' superior weaponry (native resistance more often took the form of non-cooperation, desertion, and raids on mission livestock).<ref>Paddison, p. 48</ref><ref>Chapman, pp. 310-311: "''Latter-day historians have been altogether too prone to regard the hostility to the Spaniards on the part of the California Indians as a matter of small consequence, since no disaster in fact ever happened...On the other hand the San Diego plot involved untold thousands of Indians, being virtually a national uprising, and owing to the distance from New Spain to and the extreme difficulty of maintaining communications a victory for the Indians would have ended Spanish settlement in Alta California''." As it turned out, "''...the position of the Spaniards was strengthened by the San Diego outbreak, for the Indians felt from that time forth that it was impossible to throw out their conquerors''." See also [[Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción]] and [[Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer]] regarding the ''Yuma'' massacres of 1781.</ref><ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 12: Not all of the native cultures responded with hostility to the Spaniards' presence; Engelhardt portrayed the natives at Mission San Juan Capistrano (dubbed the "''Juaneño''" by the missionaries), where there was never any instance of unrest, as being "''uncommonly friendly and docile.''" Father Juan Crespí, who accompanied 1769 expedition, described the first encounter with the area's inhabitants: "''They came unarmed and with a gentleness which has no name they brought their poor seeds to us as gifts...The locality itself and the docility of the Indians invited the establishment of a Mission for them''."</ref>]]
The Alta California missions were of a type known as ''reduccíones'' (reductions) or ''congregacíones'' (congregations), a concept developed in the late 16th century to be employed wherever the indigenous populations were not already concentrated in native ''pueblos''; Indians were congregated around the mission proper through the use of various means, whereupon they were "reduced" from their "free, undisciplined" state and ultimately converted into civilized members of colonial society.<ref>Rawls, pp. 14-16</ref> A total of 146 Friars Minor, all of whom were ordained as priests (and mostly Spaniards by birth) served in California between 1769&ndash;1845. 67 missionaries died at their posts (two as martyrs: ''Padres'' [[Luís Jayme]] and [[Andrés Quintana]]), while the remainder returned to Europe due to illness, or upon completing their ten-year service commitment.<ref>Leffingwell, pp. 19, 132</ref> As the rules of the Franciscan Order forbade friars to live alone, two missionaries were assigned to each settlement, sequestered in the mission's ''convento''.<ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 20: Priests were paid an annual salary of $400.</ref> To these the governor assigned a guard of five or six soldiers under the command of a corporal, who generally acted as steward of the mission's temporal affairs, subject to the fathers' direction.<ref name="engelhardtMAM3-18">Engelhardt 1908, pp. 3-18</ref>

Life at the California missions varied slightly throughout the entire system. Once a "gentile" was baptized, he or she became a ''neophyte'', or new believer. This happened only after a brief period during which the initiates were instructed in the most basic aspects of the Catholic faith. But, while many natives were lured to join the missions out of curiosity and sincere desire to participate and engage in trade, many found themselves trapped once they received the sacrament of baptism. To the ''padres'', a baptized Indian was no longer free to move about the country, but had to labor and worship at the mission under the strict observance of the fathers and overseers, who herded them to daily masses and labors. If an Indian did not report for their duties for a period of a few days, they were searched for, and if it was discovered that they left without permission, they were considered runaways. A total of 20,355 natives were "attached" to the California missions in 1806 (the highest figure recorded during in the Mission Period); under Mexican rule the number rose to 21,066 (in 1824, the record year during the entire era of the Franciscan missions).<ref>Chapman, p. 383: "''Over the hills of the Coast Range, in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, north of San Francisco Bay, and in the Sierra Nevadas of the south there were untold thousands whom the mission system never reached...they were as if in a world apart from the narrow strip of coast which was all there was of the Spanish California''."</ref> 

[[Image:Mission San Jose natives.jpg|thumb|300px|left|{{Mission San Jose natives.jpg/credit}}<br/>Georg von Langsdorff, an early visitor to California, sketched a group of ''[[Ohlone|Costeño]]'' dancers at [[Mission San José]] in 1806. "''The hair of these people is very coarse, thick, and stands erect; in some it is powdered with down feathers''," Langsdorff noted. "''Their bodies are fantastically painted with charcoal dust, red clay, and chalk. The foremost dancer is ornamented all over with down feathers, which gives him a monkey-like appearance; the hindermost has had the whimsical idea of painting his body to imitate the uniform of a Spanish soldier, with his boots, stockings, breeches, and upper garments''."&nbsp;<ref>Paddison, p. 130</ref>]]
Young native women were required to reside in the ''monjério'' (or "nunnery") under the supervision of a trusted Indian matron who bore the responsibility for their welfare and education. Women only left the convent after they had been "won" by an Indian suitor and were deemed ready for marriage. Following Spanish custom, courtship took place on either side of a barred window. After the marriage ceremony the woman moved out of the mission compound and into one of the family huts.<ref>Newcomb, p. viii</ref> These "nunneries" were considered a necessity by the priests, who felt the women needed to be protected from the men, both Indian and ''de razón''. The cramped and unsanitary conditions  the girls lived in contributed to the fast spread of disease and population decline. So many died at times that many of the Indian residents of the missions urged the fathers to raid new villages to supply them with more women. As of December 31, 1832 (the peak of the mission system's development) the mission ''padres'' had performed a combined total of 87,787 baptisms and 24,529 marriages, and recorded 63,789 deaths.<ref>Krell, p. 316</ref>

Bells were vitally important to daily life at any mission. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call the Mission residents to work and to religious services, during births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship or returning missionary, and at other times; novices were instructed in the intricate rituals associated with the ringing the mission bells. The daily routine began with sunrise Mass and morning prayers, followed by instruction of the natives in the teachings of the Roman Catholic faith. After a generous (by era standards) breakfast of ''atole'', the able-bodied men and women were assigned their tasks for the day. The women were committed to dressmaking, knitting, weaving, embroidering, laundering, and cooking, while some of the stronger girls would grind flour or carry adobe bricks (weighing 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms, each) to the men engaged in building. The men were tasked with a variety of jobs, having learned from the missionaries how to plow, sow, irrigate, cultivate, reap, thresh, and glean. In addition, they were taught to build adobe houses, tan leather hides, shear sheep, weave rugs and clothing from wool, make ropes, soap, paint, and other useful duties. 

[[Image:Spanish Morning Hymn.png|thumb|300px|{{Spanish Morning Hymn.png/credit}}<br/>"''Ya Viene El Alba''" ("The Dawn Already Comes"), typical of the hymns sung at the missions.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 30</ref>]]
The work day was six hours, interrupted by dinner (lunch) around 11:00 a.m. and a two-hour ''siesta'', and ended with evening prayers and the rosary, supper, and social activities. About 90 days out of each year were designated as religious or civil holidays, free from manual labor. The labor organization of the missions resembled a slave plantation in many respects.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 156: "''The system had singularly failed in its purposes. It was the design of the Spanish government to have the missions educate, elevate, civilize, the Indians into citizens. When this was done, citizenship should be extended them and the missions should be dissolved as having served their purpose...[instead] the priests returned them projects of conversion, schemes of faith, which they never comprehended...He [the Indian] became a slave; the mission was a plantation; the friar was a taskmaster''."</ref> Foreigners who visited the missions remarked at how the priests' control over the Indians appeared excessive, but necessary given the white men's isolation and numeric disadvantage.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 158: "''In 1825 Governor Argüello wrote that the slavery of the Indians at the missions was bestial...Governor Figueroa declared that the missions were <nowiki>'</nowiki>entrenchments of monastic despotism<nowiki>'</nowiki>...''"</ref> Indians were not paid wages as they were not considered free laborers and, as a result, the missions were able to extract surplus value for the goods produced by the Mission Indians to the detriment of the other Spanish and Mexican settlers of the time who could not compete economically with the advantage of the mission system.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 160: "''The fathers claimed all the land in California in trust for the Indians, yet the Indians received no visible benefit from the trust''."</ref> In recent years, much debate has arisen as to the actual treatment of the Indians during the Mission period, and many claim that the California mission system is directly responsible for the decline of the native cultures.<ref>Bennett 1897b, p. 158: "''It cannot be said that the mission system made the Indians more able to sustain themselves in civilization than it had found them...Upon the whole it may be said that this mission experiment was a failure''."</ref> Evidence has now been brought to light that puts the Indians' experiences in a very different context.<ref>Lippy, p. 47: "''A matter of debate in reflecting on the role of Spanish missions concerns the degree to which the Spanish colonial regimes regarded the work of the priests as a legitimate religious enterprise and the degree to which it was viewed as a 'frontier institution,' part of a colonial defense program. That is, were Spanish motives based on a desire to promote conversion or on a desire to have religious missions serve as a buffer to protect the main colonial settlements and an aid in controlling the Indians?''"</ref><ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 10: The missions in effect served as "''...the citadels of the theocracy which was planted in California by Spain, under which its wild inhabitants were subjected, which stood as their guardians, civil and religious, and whose duty it was to elevate them and make them acceptable as citizens and Spanish subjects...it remained for the Spanish priests to undertake to preserve the Indian and seek to make his existence compatible with higher civilization''."</ref> 

<blockquote>''The missionaries of California were by-and-large well-meaning, devoted men...[whose] attitudes toward the Indians ranged from genuine (if paternalistic) affection to wrathful disgust. They were ill-equipped&mdash;nor did most truly desire&mdash;to understand complex and radically different Native American customs. Using European standards, they condemned the Indians for living in a "wilderness," for worshipping false gods or no God at all, and for having no written laws, standing armies, forts, or churches.''<ref>Paddison, p. xiv</ref></blockquote>

It should be pointed out that the California Gold Rush and subsequent American settlement had even more devastating effects on the native populations than did Spanish colonization, homicide being the greatest factor in their reduction.<ref>Cook, p. 44: By Cook's estimates, in 1846 (the year in which California was seized from Mexico) there were about 150,000 Indians in the state, most of these having lived east of the former "Mission Strip" where they would have been beyond Spanish and Mexican reach. By 1855, ten years later, that population had been reduced to 50,000.</ref>

==Mission industries==
{{Image|Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6559.jpg|right|300px|{{Mission San Juan Capistrano 4-5-05 100 6559.jpg/credit}}<br/>A view of the Catalan forges at Mission San Juan Capistrano, the oldest existing facilities (''circa'' 1790s) of their kind in the State of California. The sign at the lower right-hand corner proclaims the site as being "''...part of Orange County's first industrial complex.''"}}

The goal of the missions was, above all, to become self-sufficient in relatively short order. Farming, therefore, was the most important industry of any mission. Barley, maize, and wheat were among the most common crops grown. Cereal grains were dried and ground by stone into flour. Even today, California is well-known for the abundance and many varieties of fruit trees that are cultivated throughout the state. The only fruits indigenous to the region, however, consisted of wild berries or grew on small bushes. Spanish missionaries brought fruit seeds over from Europe, many of which had been introduced to the Old World from Asia following earlier expeditions to the continent; orange, grape, apple, peach, pear, and fig seeds were among the most prolific of the imports. Grapes were also grown and fermented into wine for sacramental use and again, for trading. The specific variety, called the ''Criolla'' or "Mission grape," was first planted at Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1779; in 1783, the first wine produced in Alta California emerged from the mission's winery. Mission San Gabriel Arcángel would unknowingly witness the origin of the California citrus industry with the planting of the region’s first significant orchard in 1804, though the commercial potential of citrus would not be realized until 1841.<ref>A. Thompson, p. 341</ref> Olives (first cultivated at Mission San Diego de Alcalá) were grown, cured, and pressed under large stone wheels to extract their oil, both for use at the mission and to trade for other goods. Father Serra set aside a portion of the Mission Carmel gardens in 1774 for tobacco plants, a practice which soon spread throughout the mission system.<ref>Bean and Lawson, p. 37: "''Serra's decision to plant tobacco at the missions was prompted by the fact that from San Diego to Monterey the natives invariably begged him for Spanish tobacco''."</ref>

It was also the missions' responsibility to provide the Spanish forts, or ''presidios'', with the necessary foodstuffs, and manufactured goods to sustain operations. It was a constant point of contention between missionaries and the soldiers as to how many ''fanegas''&nbsp;<ref>A ''fanega'' is equal to 100 pounds.</ref> of barley, or how many shirts or blankets the mission had to provide the garrisons on any given year. At times these requirements were hard to meet, especially during years of drought, or when the much anticipated shipments from the port of San Blas failed to arrive. The Spaniards kept meticulous records of mission activities, and each year reports submitted to the Father-Presidente summarizing both the material and spiritual status at each of the settlements.
  
[[Image:Primitive plow.jpg|thumb|300px|{{Primitive plow.jpg/credit}}<br/>Natives utilize a primitive plow to prepare a field for planting near Mission San Diego de Alcalá.]]
Livestock was raised, not only for the purpose of obtaining meat, but also for wool, leather, and tallow, and for cultivating the land. In 1832, at the height of their prosperity, the missions collectively owned:
* 151,180 head of cattle; 
* 137,969 sheep; 
* 14,522 horses;
* 1,575 mules or burros; 
* 1,711 goats; and 
* 1,164 swine.<ref>Krell, p. 316: As of December 31, 1832.</ref>

All of these animals were originally brought up from Mexico. A great many Indians were required to guard the herds and flocks, which created the need for "''...a class of horsemen scarcely surpassed anywhere.''"&nbsp;<ref name="engelhardtMAM3-18">Engelhardt 1908, pp. 3-18</ref> These animals multiplied beyond the settler's expectations, often overrunning pastures and extending well-beyond the domains of the missions. The giant herds or horses and cows took well to the climate and the extensive pastures of the Coastal California region, but at a heavy price for the Native inhabitants. The uncontrolled spread of these new species quickly exhausted the grasslands and hillsides the Indians depended on for their seed harvests. This problem was also recognized by the Spaniards themselves, who at times sent out extermination parties to kill thousands of excess livestock, when the populations grew beyond their control. Mission kitchens and bakeries prepared and served thousands of meals each day. Candles, soap, grease, and ointments were all made from tallow (rendered animal fat) in large vats located just outside the west wing. Also situated in this general area were vats for dyeing wool and tanning leather, and primitive looms for weavings. Large ''bodegas'' (warehouses) provided long-term storage for preserved foodstuffs and other treated materials.

Each mission had to fabricate virtually all of its construction materials from local materials. Workers in the ''carpintería'' (carpentry shop) used crude methods to shape beams, lintels, and other structural elements; more skilled artisans carved doors, furniture, and wooden implements. For certain applications bricks (''ladrillos'') were fired in ovens (kilns) to strengthen them and make them more resistant to the elements; when ''tejas'' (roof tiles) eventually replaced the conventional ''jacal'' roofing (densely-packed reeds) they were placed in the kilns to harden them as well. Glazed ceramic pots, dishes, and canisters were also made in mission kilns. Prior to the establishment of the missions, the native peoples knew only how to utilize bone, seashells, stone, and wood for building, tool making, weapons, and so forth. The missionaries discovered that the Indians, who regarded labor as degrading to the masculine sex, had to be taught industry in order to learn how to be self-supportive. The result was the establishment of a great manual training school that comprised agriculture, the mechanical arts, and the raising and care of livestock. Everything consumed and otherwise utilized by the natives was produced at the missions under the supervision of the padres; thus, the neophytes not only supported themselves, but after 1811 sustained the entire military and civil government of California.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, p. 211</ref> The foundry at Mission San Juan Capistrano was the first to introduce the Indians to the Iron Age. The blacksmith used the mission’s Catalan furnaces (California’s first) to smelt and fashion iron into everything from basic tools and hardware (such as nails) to crosses, gates, hinges, even cannon for mission defense. Iron was one commodity in particular that the mission relied solely on trade to acquire, as the missionaries had neither the know-how nor the technology to mine and process metal ores. 

No study of the missions would be complete without mention of their extensive water supply systems. Stone ''zanjas'' (aqueducts), sometimes spanning miles, brought fresh water from a nearby river or spring to the mission site. Baked clay pipes, joined together with lime mortar or bitumen, deposited the water into large [[cistern]]s and gravity-fed fountains, and emptied into waterways where the force of the water was used to turn grinding wheels and other simple machinery, or dispensed for use in cleaning. Water used for drinking and cooking was allowed to trickle through alternate layers of sand and charcoal to remove the impurities.

==Missions in present&ndash;day California (U.S.)==
[[Image:Mission San Juan Bautista.jpg|thumb|300px|right|{{Mission San Juan Bautista.jpg/credit}}<br/>A view of the restored [[Mission San Juan Bautista]] and its three-bell ''campanario'' ("bell wall") in 2004.]]
===Founding===
Prior to 1754, grants of mission lands were made directly by the Spanish Crown; however, given the remote locations and the inherent difficulties in communicating with the territorial governments, power was transferred to the viceroys of New Spain to grant lands and establish missions in North America.<ref>Capron, p. 3</ref> The 21 Alta California missions were established along the northernmost section of California's [[El Camino Real]] (Spanish for "The Royal Highway," though often referred to as "The King's Highway"), christened in honor of King Charles III of Spain), much of which is now U.S. Route 101 and several Mission Streets. The mission planning was begun in 1767 under the leadership of Fray Junípero Serra, O.F.M. (who, in 1767, along with his fellow priests, had taken control over a group of missions in Baja California previously administered by the Jesuits). Father [[Pedro Estévan Tápis]] proposed the establishment of a mission on one of California's Channel Islands in 1784, with either Santa Catalina or Santa Cruz Island (known as ''Limú'' to the inhabitants) being the most likely locations, the reasoning being that an offshore mission might have attracted potential converts who were not disposed to associate with a mainland oupost, and would have been an effective measure to restrict smuggling operations.<ref>Bancroft, pp. 33-34</ref> Though Governor José Joaquín de Arrillaga approved the plan the following year, an outbreak of ''sarampion'' (measles) that left some 200 natives dead, coupled with a scarcity of good lands and water, left the success of such a venture in doubt, and no attempt to found an island mission was ever made. In September, 1821 Father Mariano Payeras, "''Comisario Prefecto''" of the California missions, visited Cañada de Santa Ysabel as part of a plan to establish an entire chain of inland missions, with the Santa Ysabel Asistencia as the "mother" mission. The plan never came to fruition, however. Work on the mission chain was concluded in 1823, even though Serra had died in 1784 (plans to establish a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 were canceled).<ref name="hittell499">Hittell, p. 499: "''By that time, it was found that the Russians were were not such undesireable neighbors as in 1817 it was thought they might become...the Russian scare, for the time being at least was over; and as for the old enthusiasm for new spiritual conquests, there was none left''."</ref> Father [[Fermin Lasuen|Fermín Francisco de Lasuén]] took up Serra's work and established nine more mission sites, from 1786 through 1798; others established the last three compounds, along with at least ''asistencias''.<ref>Young, p. 17</ref> At the peak of its development in 1832, the mission system controlled an area equal to approximately one-sixth of Alta California.<ref>Robinson, p. 25</ref> Two short-lived settlements, [[Mission Puerto de Purísima Concepción]] and [[Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer]], though located on the California side of the Colorado River, were founded under the authority of the Arizona mission hierarchy and are therefore not included herein.

===Restoration===
No group of structures in the United States elicits the intense interest inspired by the missions of California (California is home to the greatest number of well-preserved missions found in any U.S. state).<ref>Morrison, p. 214: That the buildings in the California mission chain are in large part intact is due in no small measure to their relatively recent construction; Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded more than two centuries after the establishment of the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and 170 years following the founding of Mission San Gabriel del Yunque in present-day Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1598.</ref> The missions are collectively the best-known historic element of the coastal regions of California:

* All of the missions are owned and operated by the Catholic Church, save for Mission La Purísima Concepción and Mission San Francisco Solano, which are administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation as State Historic Parks;
* Seven mission sites are designated as National Historic Landmarks, fourteen are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and all are designated as California Historical Landmarks for their historic, architectural, and archaeological significance;
* Four of the missions still run under the auspices of the Franciscan Order (San Antonio de Padua, Santa Barbara, San Miguel Arcángel, and San Luis Rey de Francia); and
* Four of the missions (San Diego de Alcalá, San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, San Francisco de Asís, and San Juan Capistrano) have been designated minor basilicas by the Holy See due to their cultural, historic, architectural, and religious importance. 

{{Image|San Juan Capistrano 1880 painting.jpg|left|300px|{{San Juan Capistrano 1880 painting.jpg/credit}}<br/>''Misión San Juan de Capistrano'' by Henry Chapman Ford, 1880. The work depicts the rear of the "Great Stone Church" and part of the mission's ''campo santos''.}}
Because virtually all of the artwork at the missions served either a devotional or didactic purpose, there was no underlying reason for the mission residents to record their surroundings graphically; visitors, however, found them to be objects of curiosity.<ref>Stern and Miller, p. 85</ref> During the 1850s a number of artists found gainful employment as draftsmen attached to expeditions sent to map the Pacific coastline and the border between California and Mexico (as well as plot practical railroad routes); many of the drawings were reproduced as lithographs in the expedition reports. In 1875 American illustrator Henry Chapman Ford began visiting each of the twenty-one mission sites, where he created a historically-important portfolio of watercolors, oils, and etchings. His depictions of the missions were (in part) responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage, and indirectly for the restoration of the missions. The 1880s saw the appearance of a number of articles on the missions in national publications and the first books on the subject; as a result, a large number of artists did one or more mission paintings, though few attempted series.<ref>Stern and Neuerburg, p. 95</ref> The popularity of the missions also stems largely from Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel ''Ramona'' and the subsequent efforts of Charles Fletcher Lummis, [[William Randolph Hearst]], and other members of the "Landmarks Club of Southern California" to restore four of the missions in the early 20th century (San Juan Capistrano, San Diego, San Fernando, and Pala).<ref>Thompson, Mark, pp. 185-186: In the words of Charles Lummis, the historic structures "''...were falling to ruin with frightful rapidity, their roofs being breached or gone, the adobe walls melting under the winter rains''."</ref> Lummis wrote in 1895, 
<blockquote>''In ten years from now&mdash;unless our intelligence shall awaken at once&mdash;there will remain of these noble piles nothing but a few indeterminable heaps of adobe. We shall deserve and shall have the contempt of all thoughtful people if we suffer our noble missions to fall.''&nbsp;<ref>"Past Campaigns"</ref></blockquote> In acknowledgement of the magnitude of the restoration efforts required and the urgent need to have acted quickly to prevent further or even total degradation, Lummis went on to state, <blockquote>''It is no exaggeration to say that human power could not have restored these four missions had there been a five year delay in the attempt.''<ref>Stern and Miller, p. 60</ref></blockquote>
In 1911 author John Steven McGroarty penned ''The Mission Play'', a three-hour pageant describing the California missions from their founding in 1769 through secularization in 1834, and ending with their "final ruin" in 1847. 

[[Image:USNS Mission Capistrano.jpg|thumb|right|300px|{{USNS Mission Capistrano.jpg/credit}}<br/>Between 1944 and 1945, twenty-seven [[USNS Mission Buenaventura (T-AO-111)|''Mission Buenaventura'']]-class fleet oilers were built (two additional vessels were converted to distilling ships after their keels had been laid).<ref>Fleet Oiler (AO) Photo Index</ref> Many of the ships, such as the [[USNS Mission Capistrano (T-AO-112)|USNS ''Mission Capistrano'' (T-AO-112)]] shown above, served with the United States Navy during [[World War II]] and on into the [[Cold War]].]]
Today, the missions exist in varying degrees of architectural integrity and structural soundness. The most common extant features at the mission grounds include the church building and an ancillary ''convento'' (convent) wing. In some cases (at San Rafael, Santa Cruz, and Soledad, for example), the current buildings are replicas constructed on or near the original site. Other mission compounds remain relatively intact and true to their original, Mission Era construction. A notable example of an intact complex is the now-threatened Mission San Miguel Arcángel: its chapel retains the original interior murals created by Salinan Indians under the direction of Esteban Munras, a Spanish artist and last Spanish diplomat to California. This structure was closed to the public in 2003 due to severe damage from the San Simeon Earthquake. Many missions have preserved (or in some cases reconstructed) historic features in addition to chapel buildings. The missions have earned a prominent place in California's historic consciousness, and a steady stream of tourists from all over the world visit them. In recognition of that fact, on November 30, 2004 President George W. Bush signed HR 1446, the "California Mission Preservation Act," into law. The measure will fund $10 million over a five-year period to the California Missions Foundation for projects related to the physical preservation of the missions, including structural rehabilitation, stabilization, and conservation of mission art and artifacts.<ref>[http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ420.108.pdf California Missions Preservation Act]</ref> A change to the California Constitution has also been proposed that would allow for the use of State funds in restoration efforts.<ref>Coronado and Ignatin</ref>

==Mission Trail==
In order to facilitate overland travel, the mission settlements were situated approximately 30 miles (48 kilometers) apart, so that they were separated by one day's long ride on horseback (or three days on foot) along the 600-mile (966-kilometer) long "California Mission Trail."  Father Lasuén is credited for having brought the concept to life in 1798 when he successfully argued that filling in the "spaces" along El Camino Real with additional outposts would provide much-needed rest stops, where travelers could take lodging in relative safety and comfort.<ref>Yenne, p. 132; also, per Bennett 1897b, p. 152: "''With the ten missions first established, the occupation of Alta California may be said to have been completed...They were, however, at wide distances apart, and for the sake of mutual protection and accessibility, as well as for the better conducting of the work of spiritual subjugation of all the Indians, it was necessary that the intervening spaces be settled by additional missions. It was accordingly ordered by the Mexican viceroy, Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte, that five new missions should be established, to be placed on lines of travel as near as might be between the existing missions...''"</ref> Heavy freight movement was practical only via water. Tradition has it that the padres sprinkled mustard seeds along the trail in order to mark it with bright yellow flowers.<ref>Markham, p. 79; Riesenberg, p. 260</ref> 

===In geographical order, north to south===
{{Image|1920 Alta California mission trail.jpg|right|250px|{{1920 Alta California mission trail.jpg/credit}}<br/>An early map illustrating the route of "El Camino Real" in 1821, along with the 21 Franciscan missions in Alta California. The road at this time was merely a horse and mule trail.}} 
* [[Mission San Francisco Solano]], in Sonoma
* [[Mission San Rafael Arcángel]], in San Rafael
* [[Mission San Francisco de Asís]] (Mission Dolores), in San Francisco
* [[Mission San José]], in Fremont
* [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]], in Santa Clara
* [[Mission Santa Cruz]], in Santa Cruz
* [[Mission San Juan Bautista]], in San Juan Bautista
* [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]], south of  Carmel
* [[Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad]], south of Soledad
* [[Mission San Antonio de Padua]], northwest of Jolon
* [[Mission San Miguel Arcángel]], in San Miguel
* [[Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa]], in San Luis Obispo
* [[Mission La Purísima Concepción]], northeast of Lompoc
* [[Mission Santa Inés]], in Solvang
* [[Mission Santa Barbara]], in Santa Barbara
* [[Mission San Buenaventura]], in Ventura
* [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España]], in Mission Hills (Los Angeles)
* [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]], in San Gabriel
* [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]], in San Juan Capistrano
* [[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]], in Oceanside
* [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]], in San Diego

===In chronological order===
====Franciscan Establishments (1769&ndash;1823)====
* [[Mission San Diego de Alcalá]] founded in 1769
* [[Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo]] founded in 1770
* [[Mission San Antonio de Padua]] founded in 1771
* [[Mission San Gabriel Arcángel]] founded in 1771
* [[Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa]] founded in 1772
* [[Mission San Francisco de Asís]] (Mission Dolores) founded in 1776
* [[Mission San Juan Capistrano]] founded in 1776
* [[Mission Santa Clara de Asís]] founded in 1777
* [[Mission San Buenaventura]] founded in 1782
* [[Mission Santa Barbara]] founded in 1786
* [[Mission La Purísima Concepción]] founded in 1787
* [[Mission Santa Cruz]] founded in 1791
* [[Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad]] founded in 1791
* [[Mission San José]] founded in 1797
* [[Mission San Juan Bautista]] founded in 1797
* [[Mission San Miguel Arcángel]] founded in 1797
* [[Mission San Fernando Rey de España]] founded in 1797
* [[Mission San Luis Rey de Francia]] founded in 1798
* [[Mission Santa Inés]] founded in 1804
* [[Mission San Rafael Arcángel]] founded in 1817 &mdash; originally planned as an ''asistencia'' to Mission San Francisco de Asís
* [[Mission San Francisco Solano]] founded in 1823 &mdash; originally planned as an ''asistencia'' to Mission San Rafael Arcángel

===''Asistencias'' in geographical order, north to south===
* [[San Pedro y San Pablo Asistencia]], founded in 1786 in Pacifica
* [[Santa Margarita de Cortona Asistencia]], founded in 1787 in Santa Margarita
* [[Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles Asistencia]], founded in 1784 in Los Angeles
* [[Santa Ysabel Asistencia]], founded in 1818 in Santa Ysabel
* [[San Antonio de Pala Asistencia]] (Pala Mission), founded in 1816 in eastern San Diego County

===''Estancias'' in geographical order, north to south===
* [[San Bernardino de Sena Estancia]], founded in 1819 in Redlands
* [[Diego Sepúlveda Adobe|Santa Ana Estancia]], founded in 1817 in Costa Mesa
* [[Las Flores Estancia]] (Las Flores Asistencia), founded in 1823 in Camp Pendleton

==Headquarters of the Alta California Mission System==
* Mission San Diego de Alcalá (1769&ndash;1771)
* Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1771&ndash;1815)
* Mission La Purísima Concepción* (1815&ndash;1819)
* Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1819&ndash;1824)
* Mission San José* (1824&ndash;1827)
* Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (1827&ndash;1830)
* Mission San José* (1830&ndash;1833)
* Mission Santa Barbara (1833&ndash;1846)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Fathers Payeras and Durán remained at their resident missions during their terms as "Father-Presidente," therefore those settlements became the ''de facto'' headquarters (until 1833, when all mission records were permanently relocated to Santa Barbara).<ref name="yenne18-19">Yenne, pp. 18-19: In 1833 Figueroa replaced the ''padres'' at all of the settlements north of Mission San Antonio de Padua with Mexcian-born Franciscan priests from the [[College of Guadalupe de Zacatecas]]. In response, Father-Presidente [[Narciso Durán]] transferred the headquarters of the Alta California Mission System to Mission Santa Bárbara, where they remained until 1846.</ref><ref>Yenne, p. 186</ref>

==Father-Presidents of the Alta California Mission System==
* Father [[Junípero Serra]] (1769&ndash;1784)
* Father [[Francisco Palóu]] (''presidente [[pro tempore]]'') (1784&ndash;1785)
* Father [[Fermín Francisco de Lasuén]] (1785&ndash;1803)
* Father [[Pedro Estévan Tápis]] (1803&ndash;1812)
* Father [[José Francisco de Paula Señan]] (1812&ndash;1815)
* Father [[Mariano Payéras]] (1815&ndash;1820)
* Father José Francisco de Paula Señan (1820&ndash;1823)
* Father [[Vicente Francisco de Sarría]] (1823&ndash;1824)
* Father [[Narciso Durán]] (1824&ndash;1827)
* Father [[José Bernardo Sánchez]] (1827&ndash;1831)
* Father Narciso Durán (1831&ndash;1838)
* Father [[José Joaquin Jimeno]] (1838&ndash;1844)
* Father Narciso Durán (1844&ndash;1846)

The "Father-Presidente" was the head of the Catholic missions in Alta and Baja California. He was appointed by the [[College of San Fernando de Mexico]] until 1812, when the position became known as the "Commissary Prefect" who was appointed by the Commissary General of the Indies (a Franciscan residing in Spain). Beginning in 1831, separate individuals were elected to oversee Upper and Lower California.<ref>Ruscin, p. 196</ref>

==Military Districts==
California during the Mission Period was divided into four military districts. Four ''presidios'', strategically placed along the California coast, served to protect the missions and other Spanish settlements in Upper California.<ref>Engelhardt 1920, p. 228</ref> Each of these garrisons (''comandancias'') functioned as a base of military operations for a specific region. Although independent of one another, a sort of unison or connection existed among the missions of each district, which were organized as follows:

* El Presidio Real de San Diego founded on July 16, 1769 <ref>Leffingwell, p. 22</ref> &mdash; responsible for the defense of all installations located within the '''First Military District''' (the missions at San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel);<ref>Forbes, p. 202: In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control stood at 6,465; garrison soldiers totaled 796.</ref>
* El Presidio Real de Santa Bárbara founded on April 12, 1782 <ref>Leffingwell, p. 68</ref> &mdash; responsible for the defense of all installations located within the '''Second Military District''' (the missions at San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Santa Inés, and La Purísima, along with ''El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula'' [Los Angeles]);<ref>Forbes, p. 202: In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control stood at 3,292; garrison soldiers totaled 613; the population of ''El Pueblo de los Ángeles'' numbered 1,388.</ref>
* El Presidio Real de San Carlos de Monterey (''El Castillo'') founded on June 3, 1770 <ref>Leffingwell, p. 119</ref> &mdash; responsible for the defense of all installations located within the '''Third Military District''' (the missions at San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San Antonio, Soledad, San Carlos, and San Juan Bautista, along with ''Villa Branciforte'' [Santa Cruz]);<ref>Forbes, p. 202: In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control stood at 3,305; garrison soldiers totaled 708; the population of ''Villa Branciforte'' numbered 130.</ref> and 
* El Presidio Real de San Francisco founded on December 17, 1776 <ref>Leffingwell, p. 154</ref> &mdash; responsible for the defense of all installations located within the '''Fourth Military District''' (the missions at Santa Cruz, San José, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Rafael, and Solano, along with ''El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'' [San Jose]).<ref>Forbes, p. 202: In 1831, the number of Indians under missionary control stood at 5,433; garrison soldiers totaled 371; the population of ''El Pueblo de San José'' numbered 524.</ref> 

El Presidio de Sonoma, or "Sonoma Barracks" (a collection of guardhouses, storerooms, living quarters, and an observation tower) was established in 1836 by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (the "Commandante-General of the Northern Frontier of Alta California") as a part of Mexico's strategy to halt [[Russia]]n incursions into the region.<ref>Leffingwell, p. 170</ref> The Sonoma Presidio became the new headquarters of the Mexican Army in California, while the remaining ''presidios'' were essentially abandoned and, in time, fell into ruins.

An ongoing power struggle between church and state grew increasingly heated and lasted for decades. Originating as a feud between Father Serra and Pedro Fages (the military governor of Alta California from 1770 to 1774, who regarded the Spanish installations in California as military institutions first and religious outposts second), the uneasy relationship persisted for more than sixty years.<ref>Paddison, p. 23</ref><ref>Bennett 1897a, p. 20: "''...Junípero had in California insisted that the military should be subservient to the priests, that the conquest was spiritual, not temporal...''"</ref> Dependent upon one another for their very survival, military leaders and mission ''padres'' nevertheless adopted conflicting stances regarding everything from land rights, the allocation of supplies, protection of the missions, the criminal propensities of the soldiers, and (in particular) the status of the native populations.<ref>Engelhardt 1922, pp. 8-10: "''Recruited from the scum of society in Mexico, frequently convicts and jailbirds, it is not surprising that the mission guards, leather-jacket solders, as they were called, should be guilty of..crimes at nearly all the Missions...In truth, the guards counted among the worst obstacles to missionary progress. The wonder is, that the missionaries nevertheless succeeded so well in attracting converts''."</ref>

==Controversy==
Modern anthropologists cite a cultural bias on the part of the missionaries that blinded them to the natives' plight and caused them to develop strong negative opinions of the California Indians.<ref>McKanna, p. 15; also, per Hittell, p. 753: "''Boscana himself and his brother missionaries were men of narrow range of thought, continually seeking among the superstitions of the natives for resemblances of the true faith and ever ready to catch at the slightest hints and magnify them into complicated dogmas corresponding afar of those which they themselves taught''."</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:CZ Live]]