Spanish Influence on California From

Spanish Influence on California From 1542 Through the Early 1800s

In 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator sailing for the Spanish Crown, sailed from western Mexico north to San Diego Bay, claiming the "Island of California" (he was mistaken) for Spain.

Though many more expeditions by several other European countries followed over the next 100 years or so, none resulted in any permanent settlements. The truth is that, until the late 1700s, there was precious little that the Spanish could influence in California.

The Spanish King, Carlos III, decided that Spain would have to physically occupy California or risk losing it. In 1697, the Jesuit missionary Juan Maria de Salvatierra established the first permanent mission in Baja California Sur, which was part of New Spain at that time. This established the Spanish presence in the Californias for the first time, and for the next 125 years the Spanish built missions reaching from Loreto, north to San Diego to just north of the San Francisco Bay area. The Spanish crown thus laid claim to most of California from San Diego to San Francisco (June, 2007, p.1).

This mid-18th century claim was urgent, for although Spain had claimed this territory since the early 1500s, it was barely explored, there were no Spanish colonies or settlers there, except for a few of the missions, and Russian fur traders were rapidly proceeding down the California coast in search of sea otter furs.

The padres eventually established 21 missions and brought European-style agriculture to thousands of acres in California. They introduced cattle, sheep, and horses, as well as old-world skills and business practices. The meatpacking and wine and fruit production trades not only provided food for missions -- they also helped pay operating expenses.

The Spanish padres converted many Native Americans to Christianity but poor treatment and uneasiness with new and strange cultural ideas contributed to revolts and desertions.

Spanish soldiers, priests, and frontiersmen brought new culture, ideas, plants, animals such as horses and cattle, and, unfortunately, new diseases that decimated California's Native Americans

Diversity: California's human, n.d.).

In 1776, Spanish settlers from New Spain (Mexico) reached the site of what is now San Francisco.

The early Spanish settlements in California were also multilingual and multidialectal. Communication was not easy. Some historical experts estimate that there were up to 22 language families and 138 varieties of indigenous languages in and around the missions. Only very small numbers of Europeans came to California during the late 1600s through most of the 18th century (History of California, n.d.).

To encourage settlement, the Spanish government made land grants to the Californios, as the Spanish colonists were called. The Californios established ranchos, or cattle ranches, and the production of hides, meat, and tallow became the mainstays of colonial California's economy. Mexico, including California, gained independence from Spain during 1821-22 (History of California, n.d.).

It is estimated that there were only about 15,000 inhabitants of California when gold was discovered in 1848.

Impact of the Missions, especially on the Native Indians

The first mission was established in San Diego in 1769. For the next 125 years, Spanish Franciscan priests (monks) established 21 missions, each one approximately 30 miles from the other all the way up the coast to present-day Sonoma.

The purpose of the missions was solely to convert the Native Indians to Catholicism

Christianity) and to educate them, mostly in the ways of the "white man."

The Indians were not treated particularly well. In fact, in many cases, the Indians were treated as if they were slaves, and when they protested, were severely punished. It must be noted that much of the abuse came from the soldiers and not from the missionaries, who, in many cases, tried to protect their Indian charges. The missionaries have received a "bad rap" on this subject (History of California, n.d.).

White men's diseases, such as pox, and syphilis, spread from the soldiers, also destroyed much of the Indian population that lived in and around the missions. For these reasons, it must be concluded that the Indians did suffer horrible abuses and lived a hard life.

But mission life also provided the Indians with a reliable food source through their learning of agriculture and raising livestock, and they learned other trades which would prove to be helpful later. Some were even able to adapt to "white man's" society.

One success of the missions that is often overlooked is that it saved many Indians from the Spanish (and others) conquest of California. Spanish soldiers could be particularly brutal, and many other Indian populations suffered their wrath (Grissin, n.d.).

We can't forget either that the missions were the first "civilization" in California. It gave the Spanish a toehold in this sparsely populated but progressively more explored land. It was the first effort by Europeans to colonize the west coast.

By the early 1800s, Mexico won its independence from Spain and took over control of the missions.

In 1834, Mexico decided to "disestablish" the missions. It signaled the end of the good work the missions had performed. Though some of the Indian populations of the missions thought they were capable of running the missions without outside assistance, that was not to be. The lands were taken away and the buildings sold off for whatever sum the Mexican government could get. The Indians were scattered and starved out, and even the buildings themselves were stripped of anything valuable, including their tiles.

Early U.S. Involvement in California

U.S. involvement in California began slowly and informally. Early New England traders traveled by sea to the area to exchange their manufactured goods for cattle hides grown on the huge Mexican ranches there.

At around the same time -- early in the 19th century -- traders and trappers followed the Lewis and Clark expedition into the northwest and California.

When Mexico's attempts at a Constitution failed miserably in the 1820's, and that country disintegrated into chaos and violence, Spain, France, and Great Britain were all interested in the "re-occupation" of the territory many of them once explored. The United States wanted Europeans out of all of the Americas including Mexico's California territory, and President Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine to that effect in 1823. It stated that any further efforts by the "Old World" countries to occupy any "New World" territories in the "Americas" would be viewed by the U.S. As acts of aggression. In 1835, Texas declared its independence from Mexico, which led to the Mexican Army defeating the "Texans" at the Alamo in March, 1836, and then being soundly trounced by the Texans one month later at San Jacinto.

In 1845, President Polk told the U.S. Congress that, under his doctrine of Manifest Destiny, the U.S. should reinforce the Monroe Doctrine by assertively expanding into the west. By 1846, full-scale war between Mexico and U.S. erupted and resulted in Texas and "Californio" independence from Mexico in 1848. Then, that same year and the next, a little event called the California gold rush occurred at Sutter's Mill, and California would never be the same again.

During this time period of the early 1800s, the mountain men, who were actually trappers and traders out to make a living, began penetrating the Rocky Mountains and the northwestern areas of the U.S., eventually moving into California.