The Missions

After my last post (LINK) I couldn't let you go without a map of the missions.
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They were built starting in 1769 (before the American Revolution, our history teachers impressed on us) - thorough 1800.  They were built about a days horse ride form each other.
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You can tell they are historical from the old timey pictures.

The Missions brought the Catholic Church, and education (and slave labor) to the Indians of the California Coast.  Unlike much of the East, the California Coast we very lightly settled by American Indians.  This was due to two things:
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First, the California Coast, without irrigation and many damns isn't a bountiful place for settlement.
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Second, the diseases introduced int he proceeding 200 hundred years from Europe (for which American natives had no immunity) wiped out the native population long before the Spanish arrived.
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So the Missionaries set up schools and farms to educate and employ the natives.  These Mission were quickly followed by Land Grants first from the Spanish and later Mexico to their War Heros and major families.
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These giant land grants (Ranchos) were then farmed by the natives, all taught Spanish and trades by the Missionaries.  They exported leather primarily, because refrigerated shipping hadn't been invented yet.

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Here is a picture of a California doing what we all had to do in 5th grade.  Create a post about a mission (if you class was crowded you could double up - I doubled up with Devon).

See how good the missions were for the natives!