Spanish Influence on Early Californian Society

Coming over from Spain beginning in the 1500’s the Spanish brought many beliefs with them for instance, religion, military, and strict values about family. They sought to bring their Christian values to this new land, paving the way for California’s historic missions. The Spanish also regards family as the “core of society” that was controlled by the father. Thus family was not only your immediate one but that of the whole neighborhood. The Spanish empire was revolutionary in many ways around the world but none more impressive than the colonization of the New World something that would last for over 300 years.

One of the biggest intuitions the Spanish created were the missions for the thousands of native people. Father Junipero Sierra help establish missions all along the California coast with the first being in San Diego becoming a spiritual leader of the Scared Expedition. The mission was spaced out to be a day’s ride apart. While the missions did a lot of good they also were also atrocious towards many of the native people occupying the land. The Spanish’s goal was to convert the native people to Christianity by any force necessary. They wanted to assimilate the Indian people into their culture to be loyal to Spain all the while turning them into

Cherny states that “the missions accomplished a great deal in developing the first agricultural economy in California. The first citrus trees, grapevines, corn, beans, wheat, barley, and oats came with the mission fathers” (Cherny, 2005, pp. 49). They also encouraged the raising of domestic animals such as cows and pigs for farming use. In a sense, the missions were vital in the development of the ranchos and farms to a new way of living that they had before. Whether you look at the missions in a positive or negative way the majority of people have visited a mission somewhere in California and are historically