visit this link to find out more about California Missions - <a> Mission San Luis Rey Museum </a>

1. Missions of California -A page from the past
Copyright: http://www.sanluisrey.org/
The ruins and the remaining building of the MoC’s form a great part in attracting tourists all over the
world to California, today. They are the most sought after monuments as they not only explain the
colonization plans of the Spaniards but also help in understanding the history of California State.
The aim why the missions were built
The setting up of the missions began in the late eighteenth century when the first mission was built
in 1769. The missions were built with the aim of colonizing and converting the people of Alta
California. They wanted to make the areas a part of Spanish colonies and the conversion was done to
convert the people into Christianity. Their other agenda other than colonization and conversion was
educating the people in English and Spanish languages and civilizing them by teaching them ways of
living and professional skills.
MoC’s sunny days
The missions and the missionaries prospered a lot by the time of a number of missions built. The
idea of the mission was to acquire large area of land and build the missions on them. After the
completion of the mission building, the converted natives were made to settle in the lands acquired
by the mission and made to work on the fields and rear animals in their piece of land. All the
earnings of the natives used to go to the mission’s trust and no property were in the native’s name.
All that was cultivated and reared or worked upon as a part of weaving and knitting went into
becoming a part of the church’s property. In this manner the missions prospered a lot and grew in
large acquisition of wealth.
The fall
With every rise the missions came in notice of the people who criticized them for acquiring
everything that was rightfully of the natives and gaining from the profits which the natives made.
There was unrest among the people as they wanted the prosperity for themselves. This unrest led to
the government of Mexico and California to work together and bring up the amendment of
Secularism. By the passing of this amendment, all the lands of the church and its wealth were turned
into the hands of the natives and the missionaries were banished. This turning of lands into the
hands of the natives led to a mass settlement process across the state and this lands and people
formed the integrated state of California.
Formation of California
With the fall of Missions of California due to the amendment act of Secularism, the local people of
the state became sole owners of the lands. This led to a mass settlement process and all the church’s
property was taken and distributed among the new settlers of the state. These lands and their
settlers were combined and identified as residents of a newly formed state of California. Hence, it
can be rightfully said that the missions speed up the process of the formation of the State as people
united and rose against them, let alone the process of statehood would have taken time or never
would have happened.