Secularization Of The Missions Essay

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The secularization of the missions was created during the time when the Spanish had begun to have a fond interest on the new found Californian land. Most importantly, the Spaniards used the missions as a method to impose their imperial control over Indians. The secularization of the missions was significantly in part to convert the Indians to Catholicism and teach them about the European traditions. The secularization of the California missions was a steady and elongated process. In the readings, the California Departmental Legislature, wrote the “Provisional Ordinance for the Secularization of the Missions of Upper California”, and in this document the Congress of Mexico established laws that would cause closure to the missions. Some of the …show more content…
After the missions were secularized, the Indians were treated much more differently. They were able to partake in the agriculture and own their own land. In one of the readings, it is discussed how the missions Indians were a confinement to them. A reading titled, “Missionary Activity in New Spain’s Northern Frontier,” by Captain F.W. Beechey, he wrote, “A piece of ground is then allotted for his support, but he is never wholly free from the establishment, as part of his earnings must still be given to them.” (Beechey, 93). The mission Indian ended up being able to have their own land and live off on their own but they still remained tied to the missions as they needed to pay their dues. The mission Indians were given what it seemed as liberty but in reality the Indians were never really ready to be a part of the outside world because they had to rely on the missions for the essential resources needed. The mission Indians were never fully secularized because they did not fully understand the Spanish lifestyle. They were to be kept in the missions because their adaptation to the new standard of living was very …show more content…
These aspects included a new standard of living for people, the opportunity for a better job, and also the chances of believing that they might make it all the way to the top. The Gold Rush impacted California significantly because the future golden state was seen as the prosperous land to be in. California was seen as the land that could make a person go from rags to riches in the quickest ways possible. It impacted California because it became a personal interest to come and the amount of Gold was found in various places such as northern Georgia, Connecticut, and in the Placentia canyon. The Gold Rush also impacted California because new industries were interested in coming to as well as the new uprising home grown businesses such as Levi Strauss, Henry Wells and William Fargo, Brett Hart, and Mark Twain. There were various types of groups of persons that came to California. In, “California a History”, by Kevin Starr, he mentions, “The Mormons brought to California, at a critical point in its development, social solidarity and much-needed manual skills as sawyers, carpenters, millwrights, farmers, and irrigationists.” (Starr, 77). This example of the Mormons shows how even religious groups came to California for a better standard of living. Starr also states, “…. a rush, a mass migration, of mainly younger men and some of the middle age from all corners of the earth, including China and Australia, who

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