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how missionaries spurred settlement of the west

by Dr. Christ Jast Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Missionaries Travel West to Oregon in the 1830s Purpose of missionaries: to bring their religious beliefs to the Indians Famous missionary couple: Marcus and Narcissa Whitman How missionaries spurred settlement of the West: their reports of Oregon led eastern farmers to seek fertile land, mild climate, and plentiful rainfall

Full Answer

How did the settlement of the American West begin?

Beginning of Settlement in the American West 1 Trading-Posts Built on the Missouri River. Permanent occupancy of this country of the Great Plains can be dated from the early days of the fur traders. 2 Development into Settlements. ... 3 Settlements Become Towns. ... 4 Early Settlers in Kansas and Nebraska. ... 5 Squatters Along the Trails. ...

What led to the early settlement and organization of the Far West?

No one factor led to the early settlement and organization of the Far West more than the establishment of Spanish missions early in the nineteenth century. The Spanish mission was a tool for advancing political, economic, and religious goals.

Where did the missionaries go in Texas?

Missionaries traveled to East Texas along El Camino Real (the King's Highway). The missions of San Francisco de los Tejas and Santísimo Nombre de María were established along the Neches River. By 1693, both missions were abandoned.

What was the difference between the explorers and missionaries?

The explorers were looking for gold while the missionaries were looking to spread the Gospel to the American Indians. Conquistadors such as Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Hernando de Soto, and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca never found any gold and left disappointed and disillusioned.

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Who wrote the book The Beginning of Settlement in the American West?

About the Author: The Beginning of Settlement in the American West was written by Randall Parrish as a chapter of his book, The Great Plains: The Romance of Western American Exploration, Warfare, and Settlement, 1527-1870; published by A.C. McClurg & Co. in Chicago, 1907. Parrish also wrote several other books including When Wilderness Was King, ...

Where did the settlers settle in the wilderness?

Only a few, the more adventurous and those loving the wild frontier life, pressed across the wooded hills of Missouri, or the rolling pastures of Iowa, to make settlement on the untried prairies. They were bold hearts who first found passage over the yellow flood, and established their homes in the heart of the wilderness.

What were the workers at the Fort Lisa?

There were the trader and his clerk, wood-cutters and hay-makers, who were also boatmen upon occasion, probably a few white trappers under contract, with a worker or two in wood and iron. Sometimes, as at Fort Lisa, Nebraska, opposite Council Bluffs, Iowa and some others of those larger posts up the river, women braved the wilderness to be with the men they loved.

What was the population of Kansas in 1855?

The local census in 1855 credits Kansas with a population of 8,501, which increased in five years to 107,206. In Nebraska, the growth was less remarkable, its population in 1855 was 4,494, and in 1860, 28,441.

What did the Travelers' published letters, the reports of explorers, private messages to friends, all serve to?

Travelers’ published letters, the reports of explorers, private messages to friends, all served to increase steadily the inflowing tide. Soldiers whose terms of service had made them familiar with the country settled there; hunters, charmed with the rare beauty of this prairie land, became permanent residents; and the trader was ever close at hand with his stock of goods.

What did the first comers do in the prairie?

Led by prejudices engendered in the experiences of the East, they shunned the open prairie, holding it as of little value. In the timber by the river’s edge, or in the midst of those small groves common to the country, they built their log huts and led lives of privation, hardship, and occasional peril.

How did the Santa Fe trade affect Kansas?

The Santa Fe trade had much influence on the early settlement of Kansas ; and the Mormon migration, together with the opening of the Oregon Trail, on that of Nebraska. The more rapid development of the southern Territory can also be traced to the struggle against slavery bringing to Kansas soil ardent sympathizers with the North and the South, respectively, in the fiercely raging controversy. While the main outfitting of the caravans bound for Santa Fe occurred at Independence, Missouri, the necessities of the trade early developed a considerable settlement at Council Grove, Kansas.

What was the Spanish mission to Texas in 1690?

1690. 1690 El Camino Real . By 1690, the Spanish realized the need to defend Texas against the French and blazed a network of trails from Mexico City to Louisiana. Missionaries traveled to East Texas along El Camino Real (the King's Highway).

When was the separation between church and state so small?

The separation between church and state in 17 th century Spain was so small as to be virtually unnoticeable.

What was the second mission in Texas?

Four months later, a second mission, Santísimo Nombre de María, was established a few miles to the east. By 1692, the Spanish state had two new colonial footholds in Texas. It appeared that the Catholic church also had a potentially willing population of converts in the Nabedache peoples of the Hasinai Confederacy.

What was the name of the Spanish colony that was a Spanish colony in 1684?

La Salle 's unexpected and mostly disastrous arrival in 1684 near present-day Corpus Christi sent Spain into a panicked frenzy. Spanish land in Texas had to be protected from French takeover at all costs. In 1686, Franciscan friar Father Damián Massenet and General Alonso de León, the Spanish embodiments of church and state, headed north from Mexico into Texas. Their first task was to find La Salle and his colony. After three years of searching, they did.

Where did Massenet bless the first Spanish mission?

In 1690, one year after Father Massenet set fire to La Salle's doomed Fort St. Louis settlement, he blessed the timber church of San Francisco de los Tejas – the first Spanish mission in east Texas, near present-day Augusta.

How would the mission system help American Indians?

It would work like this. American Indians would report to the enclosed ground of the self-sufficient mission community where they would attend classes taught in non-native Spanish to learn about Christianity and the Cat holic church. The Indians would work hard within the mission walls, planting and harvesting crops, maintaining buildings, and learning valuable Spanish trades. They would come to understand, care about, and want to be part of the Spanish culture. They would grow and mature in both spirituality and citizenship. The American Indians would be saved and "secularized" and would eventually be released from the mission system as valuable members of the Catholic church and Spanish Texas society.

What did the missionaries wear in the 1500s?

The answer to both questions came wearing a blue robe and a cross. Missionaries and explorers had been wandering through Texas since the 1500s. The explorers were looking for gold while the missionaries were looking to spread the Gospel to the American Indians.

What were the early settlements of the Far West?

The Spanish mission was a tool for advancing political , economic, and religious goals . The missions were staffed by Franciscan priests who were paid by the government to convert Native Americans and settle them on mission lands. The mission at once became a center for trade from the East, oversaw the development of local government, and encouraged settlement of the Indians on mission lands in order to create a thriving class of workers able to aid in the development of the untamed West. Even as their direct impact waned due to "secularization" and the enmity of the Indians, their influence over the permanent settlement of the West remains clear even today in the names of towns and cities such as San Francisco and San Diego, scattered throughout the American West.

Where were the missions in California?

Missions were established all along the California coast and into the interior of Texas and New Mexico. The missionaries tried to convert the region's Indians, and built towns around their missions. By 1823, over 20,000 Indians had converted and were living in the missions of California.

Why did the Spanish decline the Mexican mission system?

Due to Mexico's expenditure of time, energy, and funding on its successful fight for Independence in 18 21, the mission system installed by the Spanish declined during the late 1820s and 1830s. The Mexican government "secularized" the missions during the late 1820s and 1830s by giving their lands to government officials and ranchers.

What Indians attacked New Mexico and Texas?

Apache and Comanche Indians attacked New Mexico and Texas, sweeping southward into Mexico. They advanced within 150 miles of Mexico City before being turned back. This turmoil in the Southwest made the settlers and Mexican government helpless to stop the advances of American settlers.

What was the impact of the Southwest in the 1820s?

During the 1820s and beyond, glowing reports of the Southwest led to a large influx of American settlers , especially into Eastern Texas. Meanwhile, the Spanish, and later Mexican, government attempted to promote the settlement of California and New Mexico by Hispanic people, largely through the use of the mission.

What was the West in 1840?

As late as 1840, when Americans talked about the West, they referred to the area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and perhaps a slight bit beyond. The areas of Texas, New Mexico, California, and Oregon were regarded as a vast, unknown, and shadowy region, even by the nations with claims there. Spain, and after 1821, Mexico, claimed Texas, New Mexico, and California, and Oregon was jointly occupied by the United States and Great Britain. These areas had, for the most part, remained devoid of settlers throughout the expansion boom of the 1820s and 1830s.

Where did fur trappers trade?

Fur trappers in California and Oregon traded cattle hides with eastern merchants for manufactured goods. The Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah saw the rise of the beaver trapping industry. The British Hudson's Bay Company established a similar pattern of trade.

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