California Missions cont.
Hey! In my last post, I asked some questions about California missions. Here’s my best shot at answering them…
How do you think local Indians felt about the California missions?
One of the links I posted last time said the missions wanted to “train them for life in a European colonial society.” It also said, “Conversion was seldom an entirely voluntary process.” That sounds like the Spanish came and started pushing the California Indians around, right? If I lived somewhere and people from a different country came and started building mission towns, I might be kind of mad. I mean, the Spanish were taking the land where the Native Americans lived. And they already had their own religion. I mean, I don’t want someone coming to my door and trying to change my religion. I learned that Native Americans helped build the missions. Then the Mission Indians had to live at the missions and learn to be Catholic. I bet they didn’t like that too much. I know I wouldn’t!
Why was it important for Spain to build missions on the coast?
It seems like Spain wanted a few things. Everyone who came to California came by boat. That means having missions on the coast was important. It showed that Spain already owned the land, and it gave them towns to trade with ships. Then, it gave them a way to control the local native Californians by making them “Mission Indians,” who lived in the missions and learned to be Catholics. All this sounds like it’s about control. Spain wanted to control California, and the best way was to make missions all along the coast.
That’s what I think. What do you think? And let me know about any interesting places and people nearby you!
