What led to the founding of the California missions?
Around the 1760s, as Russian ships came California’s coast in search of sea otter pelts and British trappers and explorers were spreading throughout the West, the Spanish king became worried that they might occupy the coast and become a threat to Spain’s claim on the land. Also, the Catholic Church was anxious to start missionary work among the native peoples. A combination of Catholic missions and military forts (presidios) were founded in the new territory. The Indian converts would live in the missions, learn trade and agricultural skills and ultimately establish pueblos that would be like little Spanish towns. The first Spanish colonizing expedition called the `Sacred Expedition,’ was a major undertaking, with land-based parties an supply ships converging on San Diego 1769. On July 1 that year, a sorry lot about 100 missionaries and soldiers, led the Franciscan priest Junipero Serra and the military commander Gaspar de Portol gimped ashore at San Diego Bay. They had just spent seve
