Spanish Settlement

Spanish Settlement

Spanish Place Names & Architecture
Early Explorers
- seeking riches: in the name of "God, Glory of Spain and Gold";
- myth of California Island and fabled Strait of Anian
  - Hernán Cortés (early 1500’s)
  - Francisco de Coranado (early 1500’s)
  - Juan Rodríquez Cabrillo (1542)
  - Sebastian Vizcaíno (1602)
- other explorers & brief settlements
  - Sir Francis Drake (1579)
  - Fort Ross (early 1800's)

New Spain
- dominates "New World"
- similar climate and cultural transfer
  - Mediterranean climate
  - rolling grasslands
  - oak woodlands
- Columbian Exchange - biological & cultural exchange of things & ideas

Mission Settlement (1769 - 1821)
- occupy "Alta California" along coast
- tripartite system of missions, presidios, and pueblos
- assimilate native population
  - within 10 years form pueblo

Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Father Junipero Serra
- built 21 mission, 4 presidio, 4 pueblos
  - "Pueblo de Nuestra Sonora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"
    (The Town of Our Lady of the Queen of the Angeles Porciumcula) shorten to "L.A."
  - also: Branciforte, San Jose, Sonoma
- along the El Camino Real (royal road)
  - 30 miles apart (days’ horse ride)
Life on the mission

indentured servitude for native population
planted pepper trees, wheat, maize, beans, squash, oranges, grapes, olives, hay...
herded cattle, used horses and burros
manufactured tools, nails, fixtures, horse shoes, utensils
disease begins to decimate population!

Monterey becomes the capital and hub for commerce
- hide and tallow trade

Rise of Mexico - New Spain secedes from Spain
- Mexico becomes independent (1822)
- rise of private land grants and Californios
- secularization of the missions
- cattle ranching thrives
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) - peace treaty between Mexico & US

- Spanish Settlement Worksheet

California Index