USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Alta California missions, known as reductions (reducciones) or congregations (congregaciones), were settlements founded by the Spanish colonizers of the New World with the purpose of totally assimilating indigenous populations into European culture and the Catholic religion.

Detailed explanation-2: -Mission Nombre de Dios was the first Spanish mission established in North America. It was founded on the same day as Saint Augustine, Florida, in 1565. The mission system then spread throughout northeastern Florida and into coastal Georgia. Many of these missions served the Timucua Native Americans.

Detailed explanation-3: -For Hispanics, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were the “Spanish Far North.” The “mission", as the Spanish crown understood it, was the self-imposed task to Christianize and civilize the native populations.

Detailed explanation-4: -Spanish missions were explicitly established for the purpose of religious conversion and instruction in the Catholic faith. However, the mission system actually served as the primary means of integrating Indians into the political and economic structure of Florida’s colonial system.