History - Coastal California - page 1113

trade and agricultural skills, and ultimately establish pueblos, which would be like little
Spanish towns. Or so the plan went.
But these garrisons created more threats than they deterred, as the soldiers aroused local
hostility by raiding and looting tribal camps and kidnapping and raping indigenous wo-
men. Not only were the Spanish presidios in Alta California militarily weak, their weak-
nesses were well known to Russia and Britain, and they didn't much strengthen Spain's
claims to California.
Ultimately, the mission period was a failure. The Spanish population remained small;
the missions achieved little more than mere survival; foreign intruders were not effectively
deterred; and more Native Americans died than were converted. Several of California's
original Spanish missions still stand today, though a few are in ruins - some toppled by
earthquakes, others broken by forced secularization under Mexican rule.
Don't-Miss Missions
San Juan Capistrano
Santa Barbara
San Diego
La Purísima
San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo
Mission Dolores
From Mexico to Manifest Destiny
When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, many in that new nation looked
to California to satisfy their thirst for private land. By the mid-1830s all but one Spanish
mission had been secularized, so that Mexican governors could dole out hundreds of free
land grants, or ranchos . By law, half of the land grants were supposed to go to Native Cali-
fornians who worked at the missions, but few actually received their entitlements.
The new landowners, called rancheros or Californios, prospered by raising livestock for
the profitable hide and tallow trade. Rancheros became the social, cultural and political
elite of Alta California under Mexican rule. Meanwhile, American explorers, trappers,
traders, whalers, settlers and other opportunists showed increasing interest in the territory,
seizing on economic prospects that the rancheros largely ignored. Some Americans who