USA HISTORY

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FIRST CONTACTS 28000 BCE 1821 CE

SPANISH COLONIES

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
One of San Juan Bautista’s missionaries was Father Francisco Hidalgo, a friar who had known the Tejas people of San Francisco de los Tejas. For over ten years he had asked Spanish officials to rebuild the mission for the Tejas. Desperate, Hidalgo wrote a letter to the French governor in Louisiana, asking the French to build a mission among the Tejas. The letter was sent in secret, without the Spanish officials’ permission. The French governor liked Hidalgo’s proposal, as it offered an opportunity to open trade with Native American people and the Spanish settlements.Based on the excerpt, why did Francisco Hidalgo write a letter to the French governor?
A
He asked the French to build a mission among the Tejas.
B
He wanted to help the French expand their trade.
C
The French governor had close ties with friars in Lousiana.
D
He wanted to help the French take over the Spanish settlements.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Francisco Hidalgo, a Spanish priest of the Franciscan order of Roman Catholicism, was a missionary to the American Indians in what are now northern Mexico and East Texas. His efforts helped lead to the long Spanish occupation of Texas. Hidalgo was born in Spain, probably in 1659.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1690, De León and Massanet founded the San Francisco de los Tejas Mission. The following year they began an offshoot, Santísimo Nombre de Maria, a few miles away.

Detailed explanation-3: -Frustrated for more than a decade in his efforts to expand missionary activities beyond the Rio Grande, in 1711 Hidalgo dispatched a letter to the French governor of Louisiana. In it he asked for assistance in reestablishing missions in East Texas.

Detailed explanation-4: -French colonists settled on the Texas coast in 1685. In response, the Spaniards built Mission San Francisco de los Tejas in a village of Caddo Indians in 1690. It was the first mission in the province of Texas. The Caddo blamed a smallpox epidemic that winter on the Spaniards and plotted to overthrow them.

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