Missions

Spain began to settle the Borderlands. It needed to protect its empire in North America. The King sent Franciscan missionaries to the Borderlands. Missionaries were religious workers. The missionaries tried to persuade the Indians to become Catholic. They built a chain of missions across the Borderlands. A mission was a small religious community. A chain of Spanish missions linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America. The first Spanish mission was the Nombre de Dios or "Name of God." It was built near St. Augustine in Florida. Missionaries brought livestock, fruit trees, and seeds for crops. It had a church, ranch and farm buildings.

In the beginning, the Spanish missionaries and the Native peoples learned from each other. The Indians taught the missionaries how to build adobe houses and how to use herbs as medicines. The missionaries taught the Indians how to use a plow and other tools and machines. The Spanish missions changed the way many Indians lived and worked. It also changed the religious beliefs of many Indians who became Catholic. At first, some of the American Indians welcomed the Spanish missionaries. The Indians were learning new ways. And the Indians had some protection from their Indian enemies.

Problems began when many Indians were forced to give up their native traditions and beliefs. Many were forced to work on mission farms and
ranches. The Indians began to fight back and to resist the missionaries. Spain needed to to protect the missions.

About the middle of the 1500s, Spain built a road linking the missions with nearby presidios.

The road was called El Camino Real

or the "Royal Road."