Law Practice
Nov. 29, 2021
Few heroes: California mission secularization
As California has long taught schoolchildren, the 21 California missions were key in our state’s history. For better or worse, the missions provided a toehold for Christianity and European “civilization” in this remote outpost of Spain’s empire.
John S. Caragozian
Email: caragozian@gmail.com
John is a Los Angeles-based lawyer and sits on the Board of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. He welcomes ideas for future monthly columns on California's legal history at caragozian@gmail.com.
As California has long taught schoolchildren, the 21 California missions were key in our state's history. For better or worse, the missions provided a toehold for Christianity and European "civilization" in this remote outpost of Spain's empire.
Franciscan missionaries founded the first California mission in 1769 in San Diego and the last in 1823 in Sonoma. By the early 1830s, some 18,000 Native Americans work...
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