As of December 31, 2014, I retired from full-time teaching in Humboldt State University's Department of History. While this website will remain online, it is no longer maintained.

History 383 – Dr. Gayle Olson-Raymer

The Discovery, Exploration, and Founding of Spanish California

Above map at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342colonies1700.jpg

Cold Call: Second Cold Call on required reading - Read Introduction and Goal 1 in the discussion guide for today at http://gorhistory.com/hist383/Discovery.html

Introduction: Last time we met, we learned about the first inhabitants of California and how they were politically, socially, economically, and spiritually self-reliant at the time of European contact. Nonetheless, we also learned that they were not prepared for either the racist, stereotypical attitudes of Europeans or the military force that was used to subjugate them. Today, then, we move to the next chapter in our story - the European discovery, exploration, and occupation of California. And we begin with the Spanish.

California was discovered as a consequence of Spanish imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. Between 1520 and 1540, the Spanish relentlessly pushed northward from Mexico, exploiting Indian villages along the way and vastly expanding their frontier. It was in 1533, that the first group of Spanish explorers crossed the Gulf of California and reached Bahia de la Paz near the tip of the Baja Peninsula. When they tried to land, Indians killed all but two of them. While sailing back to Mexico, the survivors spread tales they had already heard about an island inhabited by Amazon women.

Goals for our discussion:

1. To review a chronology of the early exploration of California.
2. To understand the founding and development of Spanish California.
3. To understand the trajectory of the growth of Spanish missions in Alta California.
4. To examine an "insider" and "outsider" view of the Spanish Missions
5. To learn about the impact Spanish rule had upon California's environment and upon the California Indians.
6. To trace the early growth of the Spanish California colony and examine what the colony had achieved by the end of Spanish occupation

Goal #1: To review a chronology of the early exploration of California.

1542 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his chief pilot Bartolome Ferrelo sailed two ships from Mexico with the goal of exploring the Pacific Coast in search of a northern route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean - the Strait of Anain. Instead, Cabrillo became the first Spanish explorer to sail along the coast of what is now California. Below is a map of North America, Asia and Europe first published in 1540, showing the Strait of Anian or Northwest Passage.

Sailing north along the west coast of Baja California, Cabrillo's ships arrived at the bay of present-day San Diego, which Cabrillo named the bay of San Miguel on September 28th. They then established Spanish claim to the California coast, naming various sites and occasionally going ashore to take possession of the land in a formal ceremony.

Continuing northward, they discovered San Pedro, Santa Monica, San Buenaventura and Santa Barbara. Fierce winds and a storm forced them to turn back when they reached the northern coast of Santa Barbara County.

1579 - Sir Francis Drake is believed to have been the first European to land on the Northern California coast - probably at what is now Drake's Bay or Bodega Bay which he named Nova Albion (seen below in one of Drake's drawings) because "the white bancks and cliffes, which lie toward the sea" reminded him of home. This was accomplished during his famous circumnavigation of the globe between 1577-1580.

Francis Fletcher, a chronicler of the voyage, noted that the sailors detested the harsh climate of Nova Albion because of the "nipping colds" and "those thicke mists and most stinking fogges." He also wrote of the most extensive contact with local American Indians, describing the men as "commonly so strong, that that which 2 or 3 of our men could hardly beare, one of them would take upon his back, and without grudging carrie it easily away up hill and down hill … They are also exceedingly swift in running, and of long continuance." The Indians "are a people of a tractable, free and loving nature, without guile or treachery."

A bronze plaque inscribed with Drake's claim to the new lands fitting the description in Drake's own account was discovered in Marin County in 1937 and put on display in Berkeley's Bancroft Library. However, it was later declared a hoax. Indeed, today, some scholar’s believe the entire story - about New Albion and their adventures with the local American Indians - may have been a fabrication. Not only did the Spanish ignore any English claim to Nova Albion, but recently, some historians and anthropologists claim that a careful reading of the journey's diaries indicates he never set foot on California soil. Garry Gitzen's Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting the Historical Record Straight disputes all other hypothesized landing sites by comparing ethnographic, language, floral, fauna, geography, topography and a sixteen century survey land claim that Drake made. Gitzen states, "Drake never set foot in California as we know it today."

1580s - The Spanish continued their search for a harbor in California.To this end, they used the Manila galleons - trade ships that sailed the route between Spain's new claim on the Philippines (1521) and Mexico.

1587 - Pedro de Unamumo - directed to thoroughly examine California's coast - arrived in what was probably Morro Bay. He led a group of 12 heavily armed soldiers and a priest ashore to make contact with the inhabitants. Pelted by arrows and javelins, five of the explorers were wounded - two of them mortally. Concerned about the Indians' aggressiveness, Mexican officials ordered later explorers not to leave the protection of their ships and venture inland. They did not want to expose their entire expeditions and their precious cargoes to attack.

1594 - The Spanish decided to resume their exploration of what was clearly a remote and troublesome region. Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeno sailed his Spanish galleon, San Agustin, with orders to search the California shoreline. He reached the coast just north of present day Eureka and then sailed southward. A storm forced him to anchor at a harbor which he named San Francisco - probably present-day Drake's Bay. Boatloads of Indians soon surrounded the ship and the men went ashore for a month.

Cermeno's scribe, Pedro de Lugo, compiled extensive reports about Indian dress, foods, and their reactions to the Spanish explorers. Lugo observed that although the Indians went about "naked without covering and with their private parts exposed," they were "a well-made people, robust and more corpulent than the Spaniards in general." During the month, most local groups were friendly.

This changed in November when a fierce storm destroyed Cermeno's ship. He ordered a sweep of the countryside to gather acorns, wild nuts, and salvage from the ship. In one village when the Spaniards tried to retrieve ship planks, the Indians attacked and wounded one man. The Spaniards fired at the Indians, stripped the village of wood and its food, and built a makeshift boat to sail back to Mexico.

Further attempts to explore California via the Spanish galleons coming back from the Philippines were abandoned. This directive stayed in force until 1602 when Sebastian Vizcaino was ordered to sail three ships to California and to chart the California coast.

1602 - Sebastian Vizcaino sailed up the coast of Alta California. His mission was to further explore and map the coast and find at least two good ports that the Spanish fleets could use for sanctuary from English pirates and to reaffirm Spanish dominance in the area. After 60 days at sea, they sailed into the harbor they named San Diego in honor of the Spanish feast San Diego de Alcala. After landing, they celebrated the first Catholic mass in the new world.

They left San Diego on November 20, landed on Santa Catalina Island, passed through the Santa Barbara channel, and continued until they reached a prominent point which they named Point Concepcion for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Vizcaino's expedition continued northward until they entered a harbor that they named Monterey in honor of the expedition's sponsor, the Count of Monte Rey. After a few days, a group of 12 men left the encampment and headed southeast where they found Carmel Bay and the Carmel River.

The ships left Monterey on January 7, 1603 and sailed northward until they reached Drake's Bay where a storm separated them. The ship captained by Vizcaino reached Cape Mendocino but the ship immediately returned to Mexico because only six men were able to work due to scurvy. The other ship found safe anchorage behind Cape Mendocino during a storm and may have subsequently sailed as far as the Oregon border.

Vizcaino's expedition resulted in some well detailed maps of the coast, and he identified potential ports for Spain to develop. Despite strict orders to the contrary, Vizcaino also re-named many of the locations that Cabrillo had discovered. Many of these names are the ones used today. His enthusiasm and desire to attract attention to his expedition's accomplishments, to promote settlements, and to convert the Indians he encountered caused Vizcaino to give glowing reports. He described a healthy population of well fed and friendly Indians gentle and docile. To entice colonists he described fertile land, a gentle, sunny harbor in Monterey, and, in spite of the cold weather they had endured, described a climate much like Spain's. Once again however, Spain was distracted and ignored the central California coast.

1606 - Spain, frustrated by interactions with the troublesome California coast and distracted by its prosperous trade with the Phillippines, passed a royal order that ended further exploration of California.

1769 - Over 150 years after Vizcaino's expedition, the Spanish government set out to seriously explore California. They sent Jose de Galvez to strength New Spain's northern frontier defenses and to establish a colony in Alta California.. To lead and serve as governor of the new colony, he chose Captain Gaspar de Portola, the governor of Baja California.

Portola left San Diego in mid-July 1769 with a mixed complement of people including soldiers, Native Americans, and two Franciscan missionary priests, Fathers Crespi and Gomez. Their goal was to travel overland, create maps and explore the land between San Diego and the harbor that Vizcaino had found and named Monterey. On November 28 they reached Point Pinos and camped on a beach still without having found Monterey Harbor. Tired, sick and disillusioned, the expedition returned to San Diego without ever having found Monterey.

After recuperating, Portola launched a joint land/sea expedition. Its goal was to create the governmental infrastructure of Alta California - a structure that consisted of three types of communities: missions, presidios, and pueblos.

And what are the "bottom line" messages from these Spanish explorations?

• California's discovery and colonial founding was a byproduct of Spanish imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.
• Discovery of California began with the idea that it was a unique island. It was not until the Spanish actually explored the land that the island myth faded away.
• The goals of the Spanish explorers were to map the California coastline and claim a safe harbor for Spain. While some explorations produced a variety of maps, it was not until 1769 that the Spanish were able to claim a safe harbor for their empire.
• The existence of substantial Indian defiance hindered Spanish exploration and eventually, the threat of Indian resistance forced the Spanish to suspend exploration of the California coast for 150 years.
• The relationship between the early Spanish explorers and the Indians was complicated and consisted of a wide range of interactions - violence, friendship, economic exchange, cultural and biological interaction.
• While no formal colony was developed by the early explorers, they did contribute information that will lead to the formal founding of Spanish California.

Goal #2: To understand the founding and development of Spanish California

After 150 years of disinterest in California, Spain rekindled its involvement in California again due to imperialism - this time, the imperialistic rivalries between the French, English, and Russians for North America.

• If you were the Spanish looking at this map of North America in 1763, why would you again consider further exploration and actual settlement of California?
• What are the boundaries of California at this time?

After the French and Indian War in 1763, the Spanish relinquished Florida to Great Britain while the French lost Canada and the eastern Mississippi Valley to Britain.

• The Spanish gained Cuba and the Philippines, both of which had been seized by the British during the war.
• Although the Spanish gained New Orleans and much of the Louisiana territory, the Spanish Empire now had to worry about the presence of the powerful, unfriendly, and Protestant British.
• Just 20 years later, after the Revolutionary War, the Spanish would again gain possession of Louisiana and Florida, giving Spain a huge range of geographical control in North America.
• Additionally, word spread throughout Europe that the Russians planned to expand their fur trading business to Alaska and claim some lands southward along the Pacific Coast toward Mexico.

Thus, the development of Spanish California - known as Alta California - was the direct result of Russian, Spanish, and finally American imperialism in North America.

Russian Imperialism in North America

• 1639 - Russian explorers reached the Pacific throught Siberia.
• 1728 and 1741 - The Tsar sent two expeditions under the command of Vitus Bering and Alexei Chorikov who "discovered" the Aleutian islands and Alaska and established a profitable fur trade.
• 1770s - Russian temporary settlements began in the Aleutians and on Unalaska Island.
• 1784 - The first permanent Russian outpost in North America was built at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island
• 1799 - Tsar Paul I chartered the Russian-American Company which was authorized to use, explore, and colonize the costal areas of North America south to 55 degrees north latitude. Later that year, the Company founded a permanent base - New Archangel in Sitka Island - as the main headquarters of the Company in America.
• 1802 - New Archangel was destroyed when Tlingit indians attacked the Russian fort and massacred most of the Russians and Aleut workers. The settlement was rebuilt in 1804.
• 1812 - Fort Ross, the first Russian settlement in California, was built by the Russian-American Company. It served as a station for trade the Russians hoped to open with the Spanish Californian settlements, as well as to produce food for the company's operation in Alaska.
• 1938 - Fort Ross was a losing proposition for the Russians: the climate proved unsuited to raising wheat and other foods needed to sustain the Alaskan trading posts; the Mexican government continually blocked Russian efforts to expand inland; the sea otter population had declined so greatly that its trade became unprofitable; and Mexico's opening of California to foreign trade decreased the importance of Fort Ross.
• 1841 - The Russian-American Company sold Fort Ross to Mexican citizen and Swiss migrant, John Sutter - a resident of Sacramento. This sale ended the imperialistic designs of the Russians in California.
• 1867 - U.S. Secretary of State William Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million, thus ending the era of Russian imperialism in the United States.

Spanish Imperialism in North America. Although Spain demonstrated little interest in California between 1606 and 1769, it had been busy creating an inland empire in the states now known as New Mexico and Arizona, as well as parts of Nevada, Colorado, and Texas. In so doing, the Spanish developed a successful strategy for creating an empire in the North American interior by constructing a series of presidios, pueblos, and missions. Thus, the Spanish developed a government-coordinated millitary, civilian, and religious conquest of the North American frontier.

• Presidios. Soldiers led the assault by building four fortified outposts - presidios - in San Diego, Los Angeles, Monterey, and San Francisco which were designed to protect and govern the settlements and put down Indian resistance.
  • Presidios were constructed and fortified with stockades, firearms, and artillery to watch over the strategic approaches.
  • In the presidios, soldiers disciplined Indians, caught runaways, and put down resistance from any colonists. But they also performed many non-military services - like surveying land, carrying mail, working as craftsmen, and designing and building public works such as buildings, roads, and bridges.
  • The Monterey Presidio as it appeared in 1791 is seen to the left.

• Pueblos. Civilians followed by establishing agricultural towns - pueblos - which were specialized agricultural towns created to economically support the missions and presidios and in which "civilized" Spanish people were to live - pueblos de gente razon.

• The gente de razon were largely of mixed Spanish, Mexican Indian, and African ancestry. Because most settlers were poor, there appears to be little discrimination among those who classified as the civilized residents of the presidios.
• However, there was a great distinction and strained relationship between the pueblo residents and the California Indians who served as laborers, servants, and concubines.
• The first pueblo was established in 1777 in San Jose just east of Mission Santa Clara and the second was established in 1781 in Los Angeles.
• Eventually, eight pueblos were established under the Spanish and seven survived to become part of the United States. The Los Angeles Pueblo as it appeared in 1869 is seen to the right.

• Missions. Spanish priests followed by operating religio-economic institutions - missions. Spanish missions, however, were not new to North America.. In fact, the Spanish Empire began establishing Catholic missions throughout the Americas during the 15th to the 19th centuries. When they were done with their mission building, missions extended from Mexico into the southwestern regions of North America, throughout Texas, and westward throughout Florida, as well as southward as far as Argentina and Chili.
  • Mission goals were relatively simple - the Catholic Church wished to spread Christianity in the "New World" by converting indigenous peoples. Conversion would be accompanied with the development of Spanish commerce and trade in the new regions. Consequently, building Christian missions became the colonizing instruments for the Spanish.
  • Twenty-one missions were established in California under the Spanish and all survived to become part of the United States. The Delores Missions as it appeared in 1842 is seen below.

Thus, by the 1750s, strings of presidios, pueblos, and missions gave the Spanish a hold on their North American possessions. This three-pronged effort insured Spanish control over Northern California and secured their imperialist claims over much of the "New World."

Goal #3: To understand the trajectory of the growth of Spanish missions in Alta California.

The California missions experienced the longest Spanish legacy in North America. The missions, like much of California history, are deeply shrouded in mythology. To get a better understanding of the reality of California missions, it is essential to understand the original goals of the Spanish mission system in California:

1. To create temporary schools to civilize the Indians by giving them a proper Catholic education as well as providing experience in European cultural skills and an understanding of Spanish political and social customs. This would make them gente du razon - civilized people of Spanish, mixed Indian and Spanish, and mixed African and Spanish descent.
2. To dissolve the mission schools after the Indians were civilized.
3. To give many of the mission lands to the neophytes - converted Indians who became civilized - who would, in turn, become tax-paying members of Spanish California.
4. To secularize or end the religious basis of the missions once the above goals had been met.

Establishing the California Missions:

• 1769 - The Spanish launched a sea and land expedition led by Portola that began in the Baja Peninsula and was to extend to the well-charted bay of San Diego in Alta California. It was here that they were to set up the first mission. By the time they reached San Diego, more than half of the 300 people who were to settle the missions were dead. Once the survivors arrived, they spent several months burying the dead and trying to heal the sick. This set them back several months - so they ran low on supplies. Starvation loomed as it became clear that no one had any experience foraging in the wilderness for food.
  • On July 14, 1769, Portola left Father Junipero Serra behind to care for the sick and construct the mission at San Diego. He took 60 hungry and ill soldiers to travel overland to find Monterey. By January, 1770, they returned to San Diego after failing to find Monterey.
  • In San Diego, the settlers under Father Serra had not fared much better. A log stockade stood as well as some stick-and-mud mission buildings. Relations with the Indians were poor and they had attacked the mission several times. The garrison was almost out of food and no supply ship had arrived from Mexico; the settlers preferred to wait for supplies from home rather than learning to live off the land.
• 1770 - Portola and Serra headed north with a land and sea force. They finally reached Monterey where they founded a presidio and mission and proclaimed Monterey to be the capital of Alta California and its mission the headquarters for Father/President Serra.
• 1772 - Serra had established three more missions equally spaced between San Diego and Monterey - San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio. At each he left a contingent of priests, soldiers, and converted Indians from other missions.
• 1773 - There were less than 100 non-Indians in California. The colonized areas remained weak, scattered, and dependent on Mexico for supplies.
• 1784 - Father Serra had established the first nine missions, located every 50-75 miles between San Diego and San Francisco. These missions, however, looked nothing like the 20th Century restorations most of you have visited. They were stick, mud, and thatch buildings - like the image below of the Monterey Mission in 1791 - that had simple architectural designs and very few Indian inhabitants. Flood, disease, water shortages, and Indian resistance forced missionaries to move the missions several times before they settled at permanent sites.
• 1785-1803 - Nine more missions were founded, all of which were designed to decrease the distance between missions and strengthen the Spanish colony. During this time, the missions expanded their agricultural lands, created irrigation systems, and began various types of industrial diversification. Beginning in 1790, most of the shabby structures were torn down and replaced with more elaborate stone, adobe, and tile-roofed chapels and outbuildings.
• 1820s - 21 missions spanned the 500 miles between San Diego and San Francisco. Spanish law vested the missionaries with official positions as teachers of Indians and custodians of their persons, labor, and properties until they determined the Indians were ready for life in the secular settlements. Consequently, the missionaries attempted to regulate the lives of converted Indians down to minute details of waking, sleeping, eating, working, worship, amusement, family, and sex.

End of 9/1 discussion

Goal 4: To examine an "insider" and "outsider" view of the Spanish Missions

We learned a great deal about the missions last time we met. Today we begin with a group assignment that will help us better understand the missions from two perspectives - that of Guadalupe Vallejo (an insider) in the reading assigned for today and that of Henry Dana (an outsider) in the excerpt that you will all receive.

Directions:  Please make into 8 groups of five people each.  In these groups, please complete the following:

1. Select two volunteers - one to record the findings of each group, and the other to be a spokesperson who will share your group’s answers with the entire class.
2. Discuss the following for 10 minutes and try to reach some collegial agreement on your answers:
   • What are Vallejo’s overall impressions of the Spanish mission system?
   • What are Vallejo’s impressions of how the Indians were treated in the missions?
   • What do you believe are the 2 most important ideas that Vallejo would want you to understand after reading this article?
   • Because this article was written many years after Guadalupe Vallejo’s experience with the missions, do you believe it makes her observations any less authentic or accurate? Why or why not?
3. Take another 15 minutes to complete the following two tasks:
   • Silently read the excerpt from Chapter 16 "Liberty-Day on Shore" in Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years Before the Mast. 
   • Discuss the following in your group:
     • How is this “outsider’s” view of the missions similar to and different from those of Guadalupe Vallejo?
     • What is the “bottom line” of what you have learned about life in the Spanish missions from both articles? 
4. Take a final 5 minutes to decide on at least three things your group can agree upon about mission life that you learned from these articles. Be sure that your spokesperson is prepared to adequately present these three things to the entire class.  When we reconvene as a class, each spokesperson will share the group’s responses to this “bottom line” question.

Now we are going to tackle what is perhaps the biggest myth about California history - a myth that is still prevalent in many elementary classrooms across the state: how the missions impacted both the California Indians and the environment.

Goal #5: To learn about the impact Spanish rule had upon California's environment and upon the California Indians

The Spanish, like most Europeans of their time, believed God had devised nature for the sole benefit of humankind and thus, the Christian tradition appeared to justify environmental exploitation. Over the centuries, Europeans had destroyed forests, reduced fertile valleys and hillsides to wasteland, and eradicated many plant and animal species. In California, the Spanish both intentionally and unintentionally introduced physical, economic, and biological changes that dramatically altered the environment.

• Forests were cut down for fuel and building materials, a practice that resulted in wood shortages and flooding.
• Irrigation caused large-scale water transfers and diversions..
• Destructive plowing, poor soil management, and reliance on monoculture crops resulted in eroded topsoil, exhausted soil ingredients, and the loss of diverse native species of plants and trees.
• Seeds for new crops brought from Mexico spread beyond cultivated fields and destroyed perennial native grasses and plants that could not compete with the hardier invaders.
• Traditional autumnal fireburning in Indian communities was forbidden by the Spaniards which caused chaparral to encroach upon grasslands.
• Livestock on ranches devoured vegetation, eroded hillsides, collapsed the banks of streams, drove back native elk and deer, as well as threatened Indian hunting and gathering on the land.

Thus, while there were few Spanish settlers in California by 1821, they had drastically altered its fragile natural landscsapes and wildlife, especially along the coast. Not surprisingly, this environmental degradation had drastic consequences for California Indians. While the missions were created to mold the relationship between the Spanish settlers and the Indians, in so doing, they altered the culture of many Indian people. The degree of that change has been the subject of debate within the historical and anthropological communities.

• Throughout much of the 20th Century, most historians subscribed to the belief of Herbert Bolton who taught at Berkeley and died in the 1950s. His books praised the missions as benevolent institutions that transmitted Christianity and European culture and shielded the weak California natives from abuse by soldiers and civilians.
• Toward the end of the 20th century, most historians and anthropologists dramatically altered this historical interpretation, arguing that missions were examples of European brutality and were based upon the ethnocentric assumption that Indians were inferior. They further argued that the missionaries used force to concentrate, exploit, and whip Indian people into docile submission and in so doing, shattered Indian culture. In short, far from protecting California's Indians, the missions instead destroyed the social, spiritual, and cultural lives of many tribal members.
• A new interpretation arose in the late 20th Century - one that argues that both earlier interpretations are oversimplified. According to historians Rice, Burrough, and Orsi, the missions "were paradoxical communities and the behavior of both colonists and Indians was varied and often contradictory." Indeed, "there was a wide range of Indian-colonial relationships, some of which were positive. Indians responded differently to colonization according to their culture and the history of their relations with Europeans and other tribes." (The Elusive Eden, p. 99)

So, what do we know? Initially, some Indians were attracted by the new culture, the valuable trade items it offered, and new agricultural and industrial skills they could learn from the foreigners. These groups freely interacted with the Europeans and often provided food, labor, protection, and assistance as guides. For example:

• In 1774, the Yuma rescued a Spanish expedition which was lost and nearly dead in the desert. They helped the Spaniards ford the Gila and Colorado rivers, directed them to trails and waterholes, and guarded their equipment when some explorers went ahead with a smaller party.
• In the 1830s, the Cahuilla, Cupeno, Ipai, and Tipai Indians were herding sheep, cattle, horses, and poultry, as well as raising wheat and other foreign crops.

However, few Indians completely adopted Spanish religion, culture, or economies. Even the most assimilated Indians took what they believed to be valuable from the new culture while adapting it to their own. For the vast majority of California's Indians, the consequences of Spanish colonization were disastrous. The impact could especially be seen in three areas: punishment in the missions, disease, and resistance.

• Punishment in the missions. When mission Indians refused to renounce their traditions, missionaries punished them harshly. For even minor breaches of work, religious, or sexual rules, the missionaries lashed, shackled, pilloried, and jailed the Indians, or assigned them extra labor and short rations.
  • Chronic runaways were chained to logs or boulders which they had to drag about to do their work.
  • After 1800, as the number of runaways increased, colonial expeditions into the interior became brutal campaigns to recapture the Indians and to punish the tribes that sheltered them. The men often captured women and children and forced them into the missions - where they were retained until they agreed to convert.

• Disease. Soon after the arrival of Spanish colonists, new diseases appeared among the tribes in close proximity to Spanish missions.
  • The demographer Sherburne F. Cook conducted exhaustive studies and concluded that perhaps as much as 60% of the population decline of mission Indians was due to introduced diseases and that few children born in missions before 1820 lived to adulthood. (The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization, 1976)
• Scientific study of demographic trends during this period indicate the Indians of the America's did not possess any natural immunities to introduced European diseases.
• Beginning in 1777, a series of murderous epidemic diseases swept over the mission Indian populations and triggered a voracious epidemic likely associated with a water born bacterial infection.
  • In 1802, children were the primary victims of a pneumonia and diphtheria epidemic that extended from Monterey to Los Angeles.
  • By far the worst of these terrifying epidemics - measles - began in 1806 and killed thousands of Indian children and adults from San Francisco to the central coast settlement of Santa Barbara.
• The missionary practice of forcibly separating Indian children from their parents and housing children from the age of six in filthy and disease ridden barracks most likely increased the suffering and death of children in all these epidemics.
• Excessive manual labor demands of the missionaries and poor nutrition probably contributed to the Indians inability to resist such infections.
• Women bore the brunt of disease and died in higher numbers than men. Those who survived were often weakened or became infertile due to syphilis which became virulent after Spanish occupation.
  • Sharp reductions in the female population as well as lower fertility rates caused catastrophic declines in reproduction, and in the entire native population.
  • Women were also kidnapped, forced into concubinage or prostitution, or into mission life - further removing them from their native communities.
  • By the 1850s, many tribes suffered from severely unbalanced gender ratios with only one-third Indians being female throughout the state.
• A little discussed effect of the epidemics was the damage to mission Indian tribes as they vainly struggled to understand the biological tragedy that was overwhelming them. Faith in their traditional shamen suffered when native efforts were ineffective in ending the misery, suffering and death that life in the missions resulted in.

Resistance. Many Indians actively and consistently resisted missionization. They knew the presence of white colonists threatened tribal territories, disrupted family and community traditions, challenged the authority of Indian leaders, upset the balance of power between tribe, and irreversibly altered the environment. In so believing, some Indians moved their villages beyond the Spanish frontier, while others retaliated whenever the opportunity arose. The following chronology provides a selected list of Indian resistance efforts against the mission system.

• 1769-1770 - The Kumeyaay Indians of San Diego attacked the Portola-Serra party several times.
• 1775-1800 - Local Indians engaged in minor revolts, conspiracies, and attacks on travelers and priests at eight missions: San Diego, San Gabriel, La Purisima, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Miguel, and San Antonio. One of the most violent was the brutal death of Father Luís Jayme by the hands of angry natives at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, November 4, 1775 - as illustrated in the drawing below.
• 1775 - Ipai and Tipai Indians who escaped from the San Diego Mission forged an alliance of about 40 villages to eject the foreigners and reestablish their traditional way of life. About 800 warriors stormed the presidio, burned the mission, and killed three colonists. It was not until the following year that the Spaniards were able to regain control over the region.
• 1781 - The Yuma assaulted Missions Purisima Concepcion and San Pedro after Spanish soldiers stole prize farmland and new settlers trampled Indian crops. The Indians attacked and killed five Franciscans and more than 30 soldiers and settlers. This last rebellion permanently denied to Spanish authorities the only overland route from Mexico into Alta California. Military efforts to reopen the road and punish the Indians were met with utter failure. For the next 70 years, Spanish and later Mexican military campaigns failed to defeat the Yuma.
• 1801 - A Yokut Indian poisoned three padres from Mission San Miguel, and one died as a result.
• 1804 - A Yokut Indian attempted to stone to death a padre at Mission San Miguel. A local Indian poisoned a San Diego padre.
• 1810 - From this year forward, a growing number of fugitive mission Indians allied with interior villages and began raiding mission livestock and fighting colonial military forces.
• 1812 - Costanoan Indians at Mission Santa Cruz killed a padre for introducing a new instrument of torture.
• 1824 - The Chumash Indians violently overthrew the missions at Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez and La Purisima. Santa Barbara was sacked and abandoned while Santa Ynez Chumash torched three-quarters of the buildings before fleeing. The Chumash at La Purisima seized the mission and fought a heated battle with colonial troops while a significant number of other Chumash escaped into the interior of the Southern San Joaquin Valley.

If time permits, we will read an account of a major resistance that happened at Mission San Diego in 1775 - http://gorhistory.com/hist383/MissionSDIndianResistance.html

Goal #6: To get an understanding of California at the end of Spanish Rule

At the end of Spanish rule, California could best be characterized by its strong mission system, its highly stratified society, its reputation as a "cultural wasteland", and a weak economy that was largely dependent upon Spain.

The Spanish Mission System. By the 1820s, the missions - which existed on 10 million acres of land or about 1/6 of all California - and the priests who ran them, had established flourishing agricultural and cattle economies.

• All missions existed on choice lands, most of which were filled with well-irrigated gardens that produced plentiful fruits, as well as wines and brandies - all of which were tended by Indian labor.
• The missions owned some 400,000 heads of cattle and sheep and tens of thousands of horses.
• Some of the missions had developed a fledgling trade with other parts of the Spanish empire in cowhides and the tallow rendered from animal carcasses.
• The missions, however, were less successful in their efforts to Christianize the Indian populations. By 1784, 9 missions had converted only 5,800 Indians out of a total mission Indian population of 20,000.

Spanish Californian Society. For decades, the Spanish colonists struggled. Cut off from the outside world and hampered by scarce rainfall, capital, labor, supplies, machinery, transportation, markets, and business institutions, Spanish Californians lived lives of subsistence. Further, the colony was underpopulated during the entire period of Spanish rule. Beginning with 100 when Father Serra settled Monterey, it grew to 500 by 1779, to 1,800 by 1800, and 3,300 by the end of Spanish rule in 1821.

The Spanish society that did exist in California was stratified and consisted largely of three classes: the Spanish elite, the Mexican settlers, and the California Indians.

• The Spanish elite - the Californios, or gente de razon. This small, but powerful elite class consisted of the mission fathers, Spanish civil and military officials, and a handful of large landowners. Californios were culturally Spanish and Catholic. Almost all, however, had mixed blood - Spanish and Indian. Wealth, land holdings, family influence, and Spanish ethnicity distinguished the elite from the vast majority of the others living in California.
  • They lived in spacious homes where Indian servants waited on them. They wore fine clothes, celebrated significant occasions with feasting and dancing, and were generally unconcerned about the other people who lived in California.
• They had two political motives: to maintain their power in California; and to take over the mission land, cattle, and Indian workers so they could gain further wealth and power.
• The southern ranchos, as the map indicates, were enormous and their owners jealously guarded both their property and their power.

• The Mexican settlers - between 60-80 percent of the non-Indian population were soldiers, ex-soldiers, colonists, and their families. In 1825, the Mexican population in California was about 3,500.
  • Most of these settlers lived in the pueblos and presidio towns where they owned lots on which they built small adobe homes and farmed adjacent public land.
  • Others lived on small grants of land where they were subsistence farmers.

• The Indians lived in the missions, pueblos, and in the interior of California. Altogether, Indians comprised the majority of the population - around 100,000 - although their numbers had been dramatically reduced from around 300,000 at the time of Spanish colonization.

California's "cultural wasteland". Some of the wealthier Californio families had fine furniture and clothing - all of which was designed and made in Mexico or Spain - but there was very little effort to educate Californios in either the arts or letters.

• Education was especially badly neglected. Schooling did exist in the missions, but it was largely limited to musical training and developing industrial arts. At various times, elementary schools were created outside the missions, but few lasted due to lack of money and interest. Most of the wealthiest families sent their boys abroad for an education.
• The most pervasive cultural influence of the era was its "Mission" style architecture with thick walls, tile roofs, long colonnades, and archways. The simple, clean lines of the mission exteriors and interiors continue to influence California architecture and furniture.
• California's isolation and relatively primitive existence made it a cultural desert. In fact, both Mexican and American women resisted immigration instincts of their husbands as California was believed to be a cultural wasteland.

California's Economic dependence on Spain. Economic independence evaded Spanish California. Almost all Spaniards were dependent upon Spanish shipments of clothing, food, furniture, and luxury items. Instead of developing its own economic infrastructure or agriculatural base, the colony relied almost exclusively upon outside manufacturers and financial support from the Spanish government. While the pueblos virtually had no profitable agriculture, the missions did enjoy some agricultural success, largely because they had a large and free labor supply of Indian labor. At some missions, Indians processed raw materials and farm produce into cloth, blankets, rope, pottery, bricks, tiles, leather goods, candles, soap, funiture, and iron hardware. Others specialized - San Gabriel made wine and San Juan Capistrano specialized in smelting and cast iron. Some began to trade with other parts of the Spanish Empire in cowhides and tallow. In short, the economy in general advanced very little during Spanish rule and the standard of living for ordinary people rose very little. There were very few exports until after 1800 - and most of this was grain traded to the Russian colony at Fort Ross.

As the 1800s unfolded, the era of Spanish colonization in Alta California was drawing to a close. Just as the discovery, exploration, and founding of California was directly related to European imperialism, Spain's loss of California was ultimately begun by another battle for European imperialism.

• In 1807, Napolean Bonaparte lured the Spanish royal family to France for a visit, threw them into prison, and announced that his brother - Joseph - would be the new King of Spain.
• In Spring 1808, the Spanish people rebelled against the French regime and began a five year bitter struggle to regain control over their crown.
• Meanwhile, Spain had little time and energy to spare for her colonies - especially Mexico and the isolated Alta California.
• The Mexican War of Independence began in 1810 when the Creole priest, Miguel de Hidalgo, published his outcry against tyranny from his parish in the village of Delores.
• Until the news of Mexico's final independence in 1821 reached California in 1822, few people in the isolated colony other than the governors and a few padres had any understanding of the struggle or of what independence would mean for Mexico or California.
• Most Spanish colonists living in the pueblos had demonstrated little interest in the Mexican struggle - and what interest they did have was directly related to the fact that the supply ships that provided them with extra comforts came less often or not at all.
• On the eve of Mexican independence, most Spanish colonists were intensely jealous of the self-sustaining and growing wealth of the missions where the padres enjoyed the fruits of choice lands and well-irrigated gardens with plentiful fruits, wines, and brandies - all of which were tended by large orces of Indian labor.
• Most of the mission padres and the few Spanish ranchers, then, lived a good life in Alta California. The vast majority of Californians, however, had not fared well under Spanish rule.

1. California's discovery and colonial founding was a byproduct of Spanish imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.
2. The goals of the Spanish explorers were to map the California coastline and claim a safe harbor for Spain. While some explorations produced a variety of maps, it was not until 1769 that the Spanish were able to claim a safe harbor for their empire.
3. The existence of substantial Indian defiance hindered Spanish exploration and eventually, the threat of Indian resistance forced the Spanish to suspend exploration of the California coast for 150 years.
4. The relationship between the early Spanish explorers and the Indians was complicated and consisted of a wide range of interactions - violence, friendship, economic exchange, cultural and biological interaction.
5. The Spanish missions had three original goals: to create temporary schools to civilize the Indians; to dissolve the mission schools after the Indians were civilized, thus making them neophytes; and to give many of the mission lands to the neophytes who would, in turn, become tax-paying members of Spanish California. However, the last two goals were never achieved for several important reasons:
   • The padres increasingly reported that most neophytes were NOT becoming civilized and therefore were not ready to take control over their land or become full citizens.
   • The padres enjoyed the free/slave labor of Indians which they would have to give up once they became citizens.
   • The Missions became the ONE place in Spanish California where prosperity existed - and that might change once the padres were no longer in charge.
6. Several patterns arose during the Spanish efforts to discover, explore, and colonize California:
   • Those seeking to explore and colonize were continually plagued by starvation as no one on such expeditions had any experience foraging in the wilderness for food.
   • Those who first settled in California rarely learned to live off the land, preferring instead to wait for supplies from home.
   • Indian labor sustained the entire Spanish colony throughout the founding years of the Spanish missions, presidios, and pueblos.
7. Although there were few Spanish settlers in California by 1821, they had drastically altered its fragile natural landscsapes and wildlife, especially along the coast.
8. Spanish California was not the pastoral land celebrated in romantic legend and romanticized history.
   • It was a crude frontier with virtually no contact with the outside world and inhabited by a small and poor Spanish population that created very few cultural institutions.
• Most persons were illiterate and governed at best by a weak authority structure.
• Many died at high rates from disease, poor diets, water pollution, and lack of medicine.
• They were plagued by natural disasters - earthquakes, floods, draught, and plagues of insects and rodents.
• Spanish colonization had disastrous consequences for the California Indians.
  • The large numbers of Indian deaths due to disease and battle and the sharp reductions in the female population that caused catastrophic declines in reproduction meant that many Indian societies were doomed to demographic extinction - even if they were not missionized!
  • Forced missionization and conversion, disease, and battles resulted in the loss of traditional economic, cultural, spiritual, and political traditions.
  • Between 1769 and 1846, it has been estimated that the California Indian population declined from more than 300,000 to about 100,000 - largely due to disease. (Rice, Burroughs, Orsi: 103)
9. By the end of Spanish rule, California was an isolated and ignored part of the Spanish Empire in which very few people of Spanish and Mexican descent lived, in which very few people prospered economically, in which society was deeply stratified, and in which most people lived a economically difficult and culturally deficient frontier life.