In 1769, the first Spanish missions were founded in California by Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra, whose statue is in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.
Missions founded were:
1769
San Diego de Alcalá (grew into
San Diego, CA, cultivated the first olives in California)
1770
San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (grew into
Carmel, CA)
1771
San Antonio de Padua (grew into
Monterey County,
CA)
1771
San Gabriel (grew into
San Gabriel, CA, began California's citrus industry)
1772
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa (grew into
San Luis Obispo, CA)
1776
San Francisco de Asís (oldest surviving structure in
San Francisco, CA)
1777
Santa Clara de Asís (grew into Santa Clara, CA)
1782
San Buenaventura (grew into
Ventura,
CA)
1786
Santa Barbara (grew into Santa Barbara, CA)
1797
San Juan Bautista (grew into
San Juan Bautista,
CA, restored with help from the
Hearst Foundation)
1797
San Miguel Arcángel (grew into
San Miguel, CA)
1797
San Fernando Rey de España (grew into
Mission Hills district of
Los Angeles)
1798
San Luis Rey de Francia (grew into
Oceanside,
CA, first California Pepper Tree planted)
1804
Santa Inés (
Danish town of
Solvang built around mission)
1817
San Rafael Arcángel (grew into San Francisco Bay area, had the first hospital in California)
1823
San Francisco Solano (grew into
Sonoma, CA)
As Indians had previously regarded labor as degrading to the masculine sex, missionaries taught industry.
Missions introduced to California irrigation and
oranges,
grapes,
apples,
peaches,
pears,
figs,
cattle,
sheep, horses,
mules,
burros,
goats and
swine.
Missions built
foundries, introducing the Indians to the
Iron Age, with
blacksmith furnaces which
smelted and fashioned
iron into
nails, crosses, gates, hinges, and
cannons for mission defense.
In 1821, Spain lost California to Mexico after its war of independence, but instead of a republic, Mexico set up a monarchy with Augustin Iturbide as Emperor.
Iturbide was executed, and Mexico adopted a Federal Constitution in 1824.
In 1833, General Santa Ana became President, and together with his Vice-President, Gomez Farias, instituted the anticlerical Mexican Secularization Act, which took all mission property away from the Catholic Church and sold it to those who supported his government.
In 1834, General Santa Anna suspended Mexico's Constitution and declared himself dictator. When several States opposed him, he crushed the resistance.
His ruthless actions precipitated the Texas War of Independence, 1836, and the Mexican-American War, 1846.
After the war, California was purchased by the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
In 1849, workers in California building a sawmill for John Sutter on the south fork of the American River, discovered gold. Soon prospectors, called "Forty-Niners," arrived.
California became the 31st State on SEPTEMBER 9, 1850. Its Constitution, which prohibits slavery, stated: "We, the People of the State of California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom...do establish this Constitution."
Regarding California Missions, the U.S. Board of Land Commissioners wrote, as recorded in W.W. Robinson's book, Land in California (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1948, p. 28):
"The Missions were intended...to be temporary...It was supposed that within that period of time the Indians would be sufficiently instructed in Christianity and the arts of civilized life."
On May 23, 1862, President Lincoln restored all 21 California missions taken by Mexican
Secularization Acts back to the Catholic Church:
"I grant unto the...Bishop of Monterrey...in trust for the religious purposes...the tracts of land described in the foregoing survey."
Though Spanish Missions were an integral part of California's history, in 2004, Los Angeles County responded to pressure from the ACLU by removing from its county seal a tiny cross.
Harrolds.Blogspot.com
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