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Today, I'm going to be talking about Catholic missions and Spanish colonialism in the Americas, specifically focusing on how Catholic missions are part of the Me Mexico US. Borderland's history. I will be highlighting John Russell Bartlett's personal narrative of explorations and incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California,

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Sonora and Chihuahua, a document in the R Americas Archive partnership that could provide a way to discuss Catholic missions in light of border histories and disputes to start off with. I want to begin by defining the purpose and function of a mission missions also called and

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were created to indoctrinate natives in the official religion of their Spanish colonizers and prepare them for their role in the new colonial order. Missions were essentially frontier institutions, meaning that they helped to push back the borders of Spanish America and civilize the natives in anticipation of

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the oncoming settlements of colonials missions were constructed in pre-existing native communities, but they also helped to create new communities and they provided a space where missionaries could both guide and control natives as well as teach them new arts and agricultural skills. The missionaries of Spanish America

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stood inhabited a tenuous position between the Catholic church and the Spanish government and the natives acting as both colonizers and often as is most notably seen with Bartolo Casas, defenders of native rights to take in. The more specific example. I'd like us to look at the

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the missions in Texas missions in Texas began as a result of Catholic rivalries when threatened by the establishment of French settlements in Texas. Spanish missionaries moved from the southwestern US into Texas and established the first mission San Francisco de Los Tejas in 16 90 near present

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day Nava. Due to disease and flooding natives drew discontent. And as a result, the missionaries felt threatened and moved away from the area. The failure of San Francisco de Los Tejas began a pattern of mission establishment, native discontent and retreat that eventually drew the missionaries back

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down to southern Texas. Spanish missionaries headed further south when they began where they began establishing missions along the Rio Grand and within in closer proximity to Spanish and Catholic settlements already working throughout Mexico. The relocation to southern Texas highlights a religious and colonial empire that spans

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today's national borders. The founding of San Antonio de Valero in 17 18 helped the missionaries to establish a way station between South Texas and the East Texas missions, which they would eventually try to reestablish this site, which later became the site of the Alamo began as

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a humble structure of mudd brush and straw with the eventual success of this mission mission, San Jose and San Miguel were established nearby in 17 20 John Russell Bartlett's personal narrative of explorations and incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua provides details about the

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structure of the San Antonio missions in the 19th century working on the border commission. Following along the border lands. Bartlett records descriptions and sketches of the missions in the early 18 fifties after the Mexican American War and he notes how many of the missions have fallen

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into decay or been damaged during the Mexican American war. He writes of one mission. The whole town is in ruins and presents a scene of desolation which to an American is at once novel and interesting. His narrative helps to contextualize the early colonization of the American

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Southwest and calls us to consider how the missions in Spanish colonialism constructed a border history that extends from the period of Spanish colonialism through the Mexican American War to the immigration to the immigration disputes of the 21st century. Currently, the San Antonio missions are part of

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a series of historical mission sites along the San Antonio National Parkway. They include the Alamo Mission, San Jose mission conception mission, San Juan Capistrano, and Mission Parra, all of which Bartlett visited and described in his narrative. With the exception of mission, these missions were restored throughout

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the early, throughout the 20th century and the early 21st century and represent an essential aspect of Spanish imperialism in American border history. Bartlett's narrative following the Mexican American war helps to highlight the many layers of borderlands conflict and history represented by these missions, recalling their original

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Spanish founding and their Mexican and American histories. If you are interested in finding out more about the missions, go to the R Americas Archive partnership website and click on the link educational materials where you can find a series of online essays including today's lecture under the

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title Path of Missions in Spanish Colonials.