US History

Revolution and the New Nation (1754-1820s)

World History

Native Americans

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Spanish Mission Period in California.

A carved portrait of Gaspar de Portolá, commander of the Spanish expedition that established Alta California. 

Gaspar de Portolá was a Spanish explorer, later the first governor of Alta California, who headed the first land expedition from San Diego to San Francisco.


An excerpt from the diary of Gaspar de Portolá during the California expedition of 1769-1770. 

A map of Gaspar de Portolá’s route from San Diego to San Luis Obispo in 1769, projected on a modern map.

A portrait of Father Junípero Serra, who traveled with Gaspar de Portolá on the 1769 mission to Alta California. 

Serra was a Franciscan priest and friar who founded nine of California’s twenty-one missions. 

A map of California missions prior to secularization, 1829.

An inventory page of mission property at Mission San Carlos Borromeo, Monterey, 1770.

The document is signed by Commisario Prefect Vicente Francisco de Sarria and Secretary Pedro Cabot. The inventory of property was correct according to them. 


A drawing by Father Englehart of a mission asistencia (a small mission without its own priest) outside present-day San Diego, ca. 1780. 

The building in the drawing is also known as the chapel of "San Pedro de las Flores."

A 1791 drawing of Mission Carmel in present-day Carmel, California.

An ca. 1791 illustration of the reception of Jean-François de Laperouse at Mission Carmel in present-day Carmel, California in 1786.

Jean-François de Laperouse was a French explorer who arrived in Monterey Bay on September 14, 1786, the first non-Spanish visitor in California after the Spanish missions were established. While visiting Spanish settlements, he observed firsthand the treatment of Native American populations there and compared one mission to a “slave colony.”


An illustration of Spanish missionaries baptizing Native Americans in Alta California, excerpted from *San Juan Capistrano Mission*.

An illustration of Native Americans dancing at the mission in San Jose, California, ca. 1805.

An 1816 painting, “Danse des Californiens” (Dance of Californians), showing Native Americans dancing at Mission San Francisco de Asis.

A painting of Mission Carmel by Oriana Day, 1834.

A photograph of a group of Native Americans and teachers at Mission San Diego, ca. 1880.

A photograph of wooden crosses in the cemetery at Mission Asistencia de San Antonio de Pala, Pala, CA, ca. 1898.

Questions

1. Read the [excerpt from Gaspar de Portolá’s diary](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1284) kept during his 1769 exploration of California. What were his daily concerns and experiences during the expedition? What assumptions and strategies did he employ in his initial interactions with Native American peoples? What were the goals of these interactions?
2. Compare the [map of Gaspar de Portolá’s route](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1285) and the [map of California missions prior to secularization](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1287). To what extent did Gaspar de Portolá and company’s original expedition influence the geography of the California missions? 
3. Compare the illustrations of Mission Carmel in the [1791 drawing](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1290) and the [1834 painting](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1295). What do they tell us about how the mission changed from 1791 to 1834? 
4. How are Native Americans depicted by the non-Native American artists who created sources the [illustration of the reception of Jean-François de Laperouse](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1291), the [illustration of Spanish missionaries baptizing Native Americans](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1292), the [illustration of Native Americans dancing](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1293), and the “[Danse des Californiens](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1294)” painting? What ideas about Native Americans do their outsider perspectives emphasize?
5. Do a close reading of the “[Danse des Californiens](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1294)” painting. What is the relationship of the Native Americans to the mission architecture in the painting? What ideas does this depiction reinforce about the purpose of the missions themselves? Using the evidence in this painting, explain the artist’s perspective on the missions and the Native Americans who interacted with them. 
6. Using the [photograph of Native Americans and teachers](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1296) and the [photograph of wooden crosses](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/spanish-missions-in-california/sources/1297), describe the legacy of the Spanish missions. What happened at those sites after secularization in 1834? What ideas and artifacts lingered? 

Activity

Ask students to imagine the daily life of the missions by creating a weekly schedule of activities at Mission Carmel in 1810. This schedule should consider the kinds of activities that helped the missions run and meet their objectives. Ask students to annotate each entry with a description of the activity’s *purpose* and *people involved*. The schedule should make use of sources in this set as well as additional research about mission life. In creating the schedule, students should include attention to:

* religious worship and education 
* labor required to build the mission as a self-sufficient site 
* communication with the outside world, including other missions and administrators in Spain 
* challenges to mission life posed by climate, resources, and outsiders (both friendly and hostile) 
* different roles for Franciscans, Native American men, and Native American women

Teaching Guide: Exploring Spanish Missions in California

Resources

1. [1768-1820s: Exploration and Colonial California](http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/calcultures/eras/era2.html), Calisphere. 
2. [California Historical Society missions collections online](http://cdm15799.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p15799coll65/searchterm/mission*/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc), University of Southern California Libraries. 
3. [The Spanish Missions of California](http://www.californias-missions.org/index.html). 
4. [Secularization and the Rancho Era, 1834-1846](https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/upload/Chapter-8.pdf), National Park Service. 

Overview

In the mid-eighteenth century, present-day California was the northernmost Spanish colony on the North American continent. In 1769, on orders from Spain’s King Charles III, Gaspar de Portolá and a group of Franciscans led by Junípero Serra traveled from Baja California to explore territory to the North. Their goal was to extend the missions (or religious settlements) from Baja California into the area that would become Alta California by establishing a string of new outposts a day’s journey apart. 

From 1769 to 1833, Spanish Franciscans established twenty-one missions in Alta California, stretching 600 miles from San Diego to San Francisco along a path eventually known as the “California Mission Trail.” The goal of these settlements was twofold: to protect Spanish colonial interests in the new world and to “civilize,” educate, and convert Native Americans into tax-paying Spanish colonial citizens. In this way, Spanish mission work in Alta California mirrored the goals and efforts of the Spanish mission project throughout its colonies in the New World. Initially, these missions were meant to be self-sufficient, but they did not achieve this goal and instead relied on financial assistance from Spain.

The impact of the missions on Native American populations was devastating. According to mission records, Franciscans at missions baptized more than 53,000 adult Native Americans and buried 37,000 during the period. Many Native Americans died from diseases such as measles and smallpox, introduced by Europeans, to which indigenous populations had no immunities. The mission system itself sought to recruit and indenture Native Americans for labor to produce food and build mission sites. Native Americans were often lured to the missions by gifts and trade opportunities, but once baptized, “neophytes” found themselves occupied by work, confined within mission compounds, and punished with brutal force if they ran away. 

After Mexico achieved independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican Secularization Act (1833) disestablished the missions, and the Franciscans largely abandoned them. Many of the mission structures were later repurposed by the Catholic Church as religious and tourist sites; some still stand today. This primary source set uses documents, photographs, and artwork to tell the story of the development and impact of Spanish missions in California during the Mission period.

English

Spanish Missions in California

spanish-missions-california_04_e55577bb3feb3daadcbf03ee62f230fc.jpg

“Fray Junipero Serra, California,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/e55577bb3feb3daadcbf03ee62f230fc.

A portrait of Father Junípero Serra, who traveled with Gaspar de Portolá on the 1769 mission to Alta California.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 4 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Spanish Missions in California