Page 117 - American Stories, A History of the United States

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SpaNiSH miSSioN baroque-style eighteenth-century spanish mission at san Xavier del bac outside present-
day tucson, Arizona. spanish missions dotted the frontier of northern New spain from Florida to california.

Quick Check sparked Spanish activity, however, and after 1769, two indomitable servants of empire,
Why did the Spanish not more Fra Junípero Serra and Don Gaspar de Portolá, organized permanent missions and
aggressively develop California and presidios (forts) at San Diego, Monterey, San Francisco, and Santa Barbara.
the Southwest?
Peoples of the spanish borderlands
In contrast to the English frontier settlements of the eighteenth century, the Spanish
outposts in North America grew slowly. A few Catholic priests and imperial adminis-
trators traveled to the northern provinces, but the danger of Indian attack and a harsh
physical environment discouraged ordinary colonists. Most European migrants were
soldiers in the pay of the empire. Although some colonists came directly from Spain,
most had been born in other Spanish colonies such as the Canaries or New Spain, and
because European women rarely appeared on the frontier, Spanish males formed rela-
tionships with Indian women, fathering mestizos, children of mixed race.
As in other eighteenth-century frontiers, encounters with Spanish soldiers, priests,
and traders altered Native American cultures. The experience here was quite different
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