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California mission

Summary: Postcard of the reconstructed Mission Santa Barbara The California missions are a series of settlements established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans, to Christianize the local Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land. The missions introduced European livestock, fruits and vegetables and industry into the California region. The 21 missions were established along California's El ...

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California mission

     From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Postcard of the reconstructed Mission Santa Barbara
The California missions are a series of settlements established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans, to Christianize the local Native Americans, but with the added benefit of giving Spain a toehold in the frontier land. The missions introduced European livestock, fruits and vegetables and industry into the California region.

The 21 missions were established along California's El Camino Real (Spanish for "The King's Highway"), much of which is now U.S. Highway 101. The mission planting was begun under the leadership of Father Junipero Serra in 1769, and concluded in 1823, although Serra had died in 1784. Father Fermin Francisco Lasuen took up Serra's work and established nine more from 1786 through 1798. Others established the last three.

The missions are the best-known historical element of the coastal regions of California. This popularity, stemming largely from Helen Hunt Jackson's highly romantic novel Ramona (1884), has been both a blessing and a curse. It has earned the missions a prominent place in California's historic consciousness, and sent a steady stream of visitors to these sites.

In many cases, it led to the reconstruction of these missions, with at best an honest but poorly informed attempt to adhere to historic reality. Lacking substantive knowledge of the native people who built and inhabited these missions, the reconstructors largely left them out of the story. Many reconstructed missions are adorned with lush gardens, even though research indicates that these did not exist. Furthermore, the reconstructions severely damaged the archaeological record.

The missions

The missions were placed about 30 miles apart, so that they were separated by one day's long ride on horseback along El Camino Real.

In geographical order, south to north:

In chronological order: See also: Missionary, History of Christian Missions

External link

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This article is from Wikipedia. This article was up-to-date as of 8 May 2004 - See live article
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