Spanish missions

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The Spanish missions in North and Central America were institutions that were supposed to serve to integrate the indigenous, predominantly Indian population into the Spanish colonial empire . The Catholic religion and certain aspects of Spanish culture should be taught under the supervision of missionaries , with adequate protection from the state. Remnants of the partially still intact facilities can be found today in southern California , Arizona , New Mexico , Texas and northern Mexico . The Spaniards saw the mission stations as an extremely inexpensive way of expanding their borders in New Spain and asserting them against other colonial powers. The stations were built between 1493 and around 1840, starting from today's Mexico.

Mission station of the Dominican Order in Yanhuitlán , Oaxaca , Mexico (around 1540/50)

Overview

The Spanish missions in what was then the northern provinces of Mexico (today's Baja California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas ) were run by the Catholic Church until 1767, mainly by the Jesuits . The Padres assumed that at least 10 years would pass between the establishment of a mission and the training of the Indians to become “Christian workers”. After the ten years, the missions were to be converted into simple dioceses so that the actual missionaries could move on. This was only partially successful, however, as the Indians often could not understand the complex craft and the complex beliefs that were to be taught to them.

As a start-up, each new mission received a sum of money to buy bells, clothes, seeds, tools and other necessary items. If everything went according to plan, the mission would gradually develop into a thriving business. First a makeshift chapel and a few primitive accommodations were built. Once these makeshift buildings were in place, the Franciscans began spreading the gospel among the Indians nearby, helping out with beads, clothing, blankets, and food. Then the padres' protégés had to cultivate the fields and replace the temporary buildings with permanent ones. Over the years, the residents expanded the fenced, square property into a self-sufficient little world of apartments, workshops, cattle sheds and storage rooms. The mission church rose above all these buildings and was often the last to be completed.

After the Jesuit ban of 1767, the Franciscans took on the role of missionaries and expanded the system further. In particular, the 21 missions in California were founded by the Franciscans. The Augustinians also operated some of the stations.

Geographical distribution

Mexico

San Agustín de Yuriria, founded by Augustinians in 1550, Yuriria , Guanajuato , Mexico

The first missionary activities in New Spain developed in the wake of Christopher Columbus , Hernán Cortés and other conquistadors such as Pedro de Alvarado . Later, mainly four religious communities took part in the establishment of the mission stations: Franciscans (since 1523), Dominicans (since 1526), Augustinians (since 1533) and Jesuits , with the Franciscans mainly active in central and northern Mexico and on the Yucatán peninsula , and the Dominicans rather in Oaxaca and Chiapas . In addition, there was the Mercedarian Order , whose headquarters were in Antigua , the old capital of the General Capitanate of Guatemala .

The mission stations in Mexico include (incomplete list):

Franciscans and Jesuits
Church in the Sierra Gorda

In addition, there are the five Franciscan missions in the Sierra Gorda on a branch of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the state of Querétaro and several mission stations on the slopes of Popocatépetl . Both of these groups of stations have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites .

Dominican

Baja California

After several failed attempts to expand to the northwest, it was not until 1697 that a mission was founded and established in what is now Baja California . In the years before the Jesuit ban and the associated expulsion of the Jesuits from New Spain, a number of other missions arose on the peninsula.

Jesuit Mission Foundations in Baja California - Chronology

  • Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó 1697
  • San Francisco Javier Vigé (or "Biaundó") 1699
  • Santa Rosalíe de Mulegé 1705
  • San Juan Bautista Liguid (or "Malibat") 1705 (dissolved 1721)
  • San José de Comondú 1708
  • La Purísima Concepción Cadegomó 1720
  • Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Guasinapí 1720
  • Nuestra Señora de del Pilar de la Paz 1720 (dissolved 1748)
  • Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (or "de la Pasión") 1721
  • Santiago 1721
  • San Ignacio Cadacaamang 1728
  • San José del Cabo 1730
  • Santa Rosa de Todos Santos 1733
  • San Luis Gonzaga 1737
  • Santa Gertrudis 1752
  • San Francisco de Borja 1762
  • Santa María de los Ángeles Cabujacaamang 1767

Alta California

The Franciscan Junípero Serra advanced in 1769 with the expedition of Gaspar de Portolà to Alta California (area of ​​today's state of California ). On his initiative, a total of 21 Franciscan mission stations were built along the so-called " El Camino Real " from San Diego to Sonoma north of San Francisco over the next 54 years . These are now some of the oldest buildings in California and have become an important part of the state's history.

Texas

The Spanish missions with today's Texas border

Spanish missions were also created in what is now the US state of Texas. A total of 26 missions were built here between 1690 and 1795, which were operated during different periods of time. B .:

  • Mission San Francisco de la Espada
  • Mission Santísimo Nombre de María
  • Mission San Juan Capistrano
  • Mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña
  • Mission San José de los Nazonis
  • Mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches
  • Mission Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Ais
  • Mission San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes
  • Mission San Antonio de Valero
  • Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo
  • Mission Nuestro Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga
  • Mission San Francisco Xavier de Najera
  • Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá
  • Mission Nuestra Señora del Rosario
  • Mission San Francisco Xavier de los Dolores
  • Mission Nuestra Señora de la Luz
  • Mission Nuestra Señora del Refugio

The first missions in East Texas were a direct response to fears that the French might try to expand their holdings here in the New World. In 1689 the Spaniards discovered the remains of Fort Saint Louis in New France . Then they set up the Mission San Francisco de la Espada in 1690 as the first Spanish station in the area of ​​today's Texas near today's Alto .

New Mexico

Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos , New Mexico

Today's New Mexico saw one of the bloodiest consequences of the Spaniards' proselytizing attempts. After 1598, a good dozen missions were also set up here. Five of them in the Estancia basin, three of which have been preserved as ruins and are designated as Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument together with the missionary pueblos . In 1680 there was the so-called pueblo uprising , which inflicted the worst defeat on the Spaniards in a war against the Indians. The Spaniards were temporarily expelled from the area, but began again with proselytizing almost ten years later, this time with more success.

South America

The Jesuit settlements of the indigenous population in South America are called Jesuit reductions. They existed from 1604 until the Jesuit ban of 1767. Some of the sites or ruins thereof still exist today and have been declared a World Heritage Site.

Other US states

Missions in Florida between 1565 and 1763

The Spaniards tried to gain a foothold in other states: In today's Arizona , South Carolina , North Carolina , Florida , Georgia , Louisiana and even in Virginia there was a short-lived Spanish mission between 1570 and 1571. However, many of these missions were abandoned as early as 1800.

Outside America

Outside the American mainland, there were missions in Trinidad and Tobago and in Asia. Saint Francis Xavier , co-founder of the Jesuit order, was largely responsible for the establishment of the latter . He died on the island of Shangchuan Dao , which belongs to China, before he got around to proclaiming the Catholic faith in China as well.

Missioning and building the stations

→ for details see Spanish Missions in California

The Indians either came voluntarily - especially out of curiosity - or were brought into the mission by soldiers, if necessary by force. The padres did not tolerate any other religion besides Christianity. In their eyes, the spiritual life of the Indians was not a religion at all, but pagan superstition and witchcraft. In the mission, the newcomers were monitored and severely punished if the strict rules were broken or if they violated the rules. They were converted, taught manual skills, and eventually allocated land near the mission after a period of time. They were supposed to become Christian farmers and workers, which actually represented nothing more than a slave existence in the Spanish missions.

Once the newcomers, or neophytes , as they were called, were converted and baptized, they were not allowed to leave the mission at will. If they did, it was called deserting and they were followed by soldiers and, if they were caught again, severely punished. The neophytes were given Spanish names, blue uniforms and worked in the fields or in the stables and workshops of the mission. They tended the cattle, tanned hides, and made candles, soap, bricks, tiles, shoes, saddles, and other everyday items.

But every offense was severely punished. They were whipped, necktacked, branded, mutilated and even executed. Indian men and women, including married couples, had to live separately in the missions, and unmarried young women, whom soldiers and male missionary personnel often pursued, were separated in convent-like barracks. Inadequate and strange food that the Indians were not used to, poor housing and hygiene, devastating outbreaks of malaria , smallpox and other epidemics , demoralization, despair and loss of their culture and identity were causes of a death rate that amounted to genocide .

Conflicts

Several times there were desperate, but ultimately unsuccessful, revolts against the Spaniards and their missionary policy. The first uprising occurred in 1680 among the Pueblo Indians . In 1775 , about 800 Ipai and Tipai from nine villages allied to burn down the mission in San Diego , California . Further revolts broke out among the Costanoan in the Californian mission stations of San José , San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz ; most spectacular of all was the Chumash uprising in 1824 , which targeted the California missions Santa Ynez , Santa Barbara , San Fernando and La Purisima .

Resolution of the missions

In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain and in the first years of the new Mexican Republic, between 1824 and 1834, almost all Spanish missions were officially secularized. The indigenous people living in the missions were free and able to walk. But the return to their old world was an illusion. Most of the time, the former neophytes had little choice but to hire themselves out as day laborers ( peónes ) on the Mexican estates .

literature

  • Robert H. Jackson: Missions and the frontiers of Spanish America: a comparative study of the impact of environmental, economic, political and socio-cultural variations on the missions in the Rio de la Plata region and on the northern frontier of New Spain. Pentacle Press, Scottsdale AZ 2005, ISBN 0-9763500-0-9 .
  • Annie Molinié et al. a .: Les jésuites en Espagne et en Amérique: jeux et enjeux du pouvoir (XVIe - XVIIIe siècles). Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-84050-489-4 .
  • Sandra Negro, Manuel María Marzal: Un reino en la frontera: las misiones jesuitas en la America colonial. Ed. Abya Yala . Pontificia Univ. Católica del Perú, Quito / Lima 2000, ISBN 9978-04-583-X .
  • Charles W. Polzer (Ed.): The Jesuit missions of northern Mexico. Garland, New York / London 1991, ISBN 0-8240-2096-0 .
  • Robert E. Wright, OMI: Spanish Missions. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff (English, tshaonline.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Caborca
  2. ↑ Oquitoa
  3. ↑ San Ignacio
  4. ↑ Tubutama
  5. ↑ Pitiquito
  6. ^ Robert S. Weddle: San Francisco Solano Mission. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff (English, tshaonline.org ).
  7. ^ Robert S. Weddle: San Juan Bautista. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff (English, tshaonline.org ).
  8. ↑ Magdalena
  9. ↑ Cocospera
  10. ^ Ignacio del Río: El Régimen Jesuítico de la Antigua California. UNAM, México, DF 2003, ISBN 970-32-1166-6 , p. 41. It should be noted that the spelling of the individual names of the missions in the literature can differ from one another.