Assignment 4a

The Conquest/Colonial" Era

The "Conquest/Colonial" era was from 1492-1810. This era did the most to shape what Latin America is today. During this time the native population was wiped out due to Spanish and their disease. since the Spanish were now in charge, the native religion and culture was forbidden. The Spanish system promoted exploitation by allowing Conquistadores and officials to have "encomiendas", which are basically slaves. The Spanish got rid of their existing power structure and replaced it with their own getting rid of the upper class. They did this to all with the exception of Peru. The Spanish did not understand the way the natives kept their history so they put it up fr debate and changed it to what they wanted.

3 Interesting Facts about California Missions:

1) There are 21 Missions in California. The missions were founded roughly a day apart from each other and span from San Diego to Sonoma.

2) The missions were built as religious outposts. They were established by the Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823. The missions were built to spread the Catholic faith and to colonize the Pacific Coast region.

3) The missions actually failed in their objective to convert, educate, and "civilize" Californians in order to make them Spanish colonial citizens.

Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZIgBWqsm3s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_California

I chose the California missions because I don't really know much about them except for the fact that they are here. I wanted to get a better understanding on where they came from, who they came from, and why they are here. In choosing this topic I had my questions answered. It was good getting to know the history behind my state a little better.

I used a video clip from youtube. The clip gives you a little bit of background information on the missions in California. It tells you that there is an older lady who is putting all of what she knows about the missions on a website. On her website there is a lot of information that no one else has published. I also used wikipedia. The wikipedia information is straight forward facts about the missions. It gives you a lot of information on what they are and where they came from.