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Spanish Missions

Stretching from San Diego to San Francisco is a string of 21 Spanish missions from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Learning about them can help us to understand California history and the role of the Spanish in America.

Go to http://tqd.advanced.org/3615/ and click on "Who created the missions? (and why?)." Answer each question by clicking on the appropriate link. (If you click on a word in blue you will find a brief definition).

• Whose idea was this anyway?

• Why missions? (why not a hotel chain?)

• Who actually built them?

• Where did they put them?

Now go back to the main page. Take a tour of a typical mission and read about the people who lived in the missions. Do you think the missions improved life for the Native Americans? Explain why or why not.

To learn more about the Spanish Missions, visit the California Missions Interactive project at http://www.tsoft.net/~cmi/Reports.html. On May 4, 1995, two bicyclists embarked on a tour of 12 of the California missions. Choose one of the missions they visited. In the space below, list the name of the mission and answer the question the bicyclists pose.

Extension Activity

Make a diorama depicting mission activities and people.