Missions and Presidios

• Mission- a settlement set up in Indian territory by friars

• Goal of missions was to transform Native Americans into Christians and loyal Spanish subjects

• Believed process would take 10yrs• Hoped that mission by mission that Texas

would become Spanish• Presidio- forts that protected a mission

Missions in Texas

• Corpus Christi de la Ysleta

• San Francisco de los Tejas

• Santisimo Nombre de Maria

• San Antonio de Valero

• La Bahia

• Nacogdoches

• Santa Cruz de San Saba

Corpus Christi de la Ysleta

• Built in 1682 among the Tigua people

• Set up near present day El Paso

• Rebuilt several times in 1740 & 1829(floods) and in 1907 (fire)

San Francisco de los Tejas and Santisimo Nombre de Maria

• Alonso de Leon and Father Damian Massanet establish 1st mission in East Texas in 1690

• 2nd mission was Nombre de Maria also in 1690

• Hasinai people who were a group of Caddo Indians were in area of mission

• Never took to the teachings of the friars

• Spanish diseases killed many and floods destroyed their crops

• Indians blamed these occurences on the Spanish and plotted to kill them

• Spanish destroy mission and head west

• Come back to East Texas in 1716 and establish a mission at Nacogdoches

San Antonio de Valero

• Established in 1718

• Good halfway point between Rio Grande and East Texas

• Would later be known as the Alamo

La Bahia

• Established in 1722

• Spanish attempt to regain control of East Texas

• Moved twice , finally settling at Goliad

Santa Cruz de San Saba

• Established in 1757 and built for Lipan Apaches

• Apaches agreed to convert to Christianity if Spain protected them from Comanches

• Was actually located in Comanche lands• Apaches hoped to start a war b/w the

Spanish and Comanches• Was burned down in 1758 by 2,000

Comanche, Wichita, and Tonkawas