Asistencias ('sub-missions' or 'contributing chapels') were small-scale missions that regularly conducted Catholic religious services on days of obligation, but lacked a resident priest. In addition to the presidio (royal fort) and pueblo (town), the misión was one of three major agencies employed by the Spanish crown to extend its borders and consolidate its colonial territories. To facilitate colonization, the Catholic Church awarded these lands to Spain. New Spain consisted of the Caribbean, Mexico, and portions of what is now the Southwestern United States.

Background Misión de Nuestra Señora de Loreto Conchó was the second mission established on the Baja California Peninsula Mission San José del Cabo, the southernmost mission established on the Baja California PeninsulaĪs early as the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Kingdom of Spain sought to establish missions to convert pagans to Catholicism in Nueva España ( New Spain). Some of the mission churches survive and are still in use. Under secularization, native mission congregations lost their communal rights to the lands which they had farmed since baptism. By 1800 indigenous numbers were a fraction of what they had been before the arrival of the Spanish, yet even today many people living in Baja California are of indigenous heritage.Īll missions in Mexico were secularized by the Mexican secularization act of 1833 by 1834 and the last of the missionaries departed in 1840. In 1769, the Franciscans moved to Upper California, leaving Dominicans in charge of Baja California. Indigenous peoples were severely impacted by the introduction of European diseases such as smallpox and measles furthermore, the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish Empire in 1767 ripped the social fabric of the peninsula, although Franciscans were sent to replace them. Missionaries introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into the region. The missions gave Spain a valuable toehold in the frontier land, and would also act as a deterrent to prevent pirates from using the peninsula of Las Californias as a jumping off point for contraband trade with mainland New Spain. The missionary goal was to spread the Christian doctrine among the Indigenous peoples living on the Baja California peninsula. The Spanish missions in Baja California were a large number of religious outposts established by Catholic religious orders, the Jesuits, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, between 16.

Map of baja california