4x4abc
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Colonization of Baja California
The Jesuits colonized Baja California for the Spanish Crown
they did so on their own dime
it was an investment
investments require returns
no, not in converted souls - in real money
some souls were lost in the process
collateral damage?
did religion kill those souls?
probably hard work and imported diseases - I am not an expert
but I can read numbers
1697 - 41,500 souls
1768 - 7,149 souls
big loss
the Jesuits were in command
and they made sure nobody else would eat any part of their Baja cake
the only sanctioned (by the Royal Hacienda in Guadalajara) settlement during that time was the mining operation in Santa Ana
but that was in 1748
16,500 souls had already perished
did the Jesuits do that intentionally?
I don't think so - they needed a good workforce
so why did the Indians disappear?
the Jesuits did not tell us in their detailed reports
intentionally?
or did the Indians migrate north across the border?
(last line was a joke)
[Edited on 3-11-2019 by 4x4abc]
Harald Pietschmann
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David K
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Border? I know you you mean north of the peninsula. Sadly, that would likely be lethal if they crossed into other tribal lands. Indians killed other
Indians without any justification other than distrust.
The documents from the 1700s are many. Mining was of no interest to the Jesuits other than hoping for support from the king for their efforts. They
did write about discovering minerals but never mining. They spent all their energy just to grow enough food to not starve. They hated the silver mine
project (Real de Santa Ana) and it never provided well as the miners came to the mission seeking food... a distraction from their goals to serve the
natives' needs or at least what they perceived the needs should be.
Sorry, it's late and I will add more... on my phone now... Hard to type for me. Just wanted to share what I have learned from reading so many Jesuit
letters. I am reading Kino's diary now from 1683 at San Bruno.
My interest is in maintaining the factual history and not the broad brush used by the popular PC movement that paints all religion as bad or that even
the belief in God was wrong. That is an opinion.
What we have to go by are the actual letters written by those alive in the 1700s to witness events and they did record a lot of details. Population
figures are often estimates and could only come from the number of baptisms and births and deaths witnessed at the missions and not in all the open
country where most of the natives lived.
Did disease kill many natives? Of course, yes. Was it intentional, absolutely not and that is a ridiculous idea. The Jesuits fought hard to protect
the Californians from foreign harm as well as from the soldiers. There were only a few Jesuits ever in California at the same time and could not
police the entire coastline from intrusion by pearl fishers or other foreigners.
Get angry with the government of Spain who took over Californa after removing the Jesuits. They forced the relocation of entire tribes to meet
government production quotas which led to the deaths of them all, in the end. This kind of mass death happened in China, Cambodia, and Soviet
Russia... all atheist countries at the time.
The Franciscans were in charge of the California missions from mid-1768 to mid-1773, then they handed off the peninsula to the Dominicans who were
there the longest of the three orders. The Dominicans did perform inoculations (a new treatment discovered) to try and halt the spread of diseases
like smallpox and measles. It was just too late and the population dive could not recover. It was also under the Franciscan and Dominican period (or
simply when Spain was in control over the civil government) that the stories of keeping Indians inside the mission compound, punishment, etc.
happened. The Indians did revolt and padres at Santo Tomás and San Diego were murdered. The Indians also ended the missions at Santa Catalina and
Guadalupe (del Norte) and tried to kill Padre Caballero. He would soon after die after drinking his morning cocoa at San Ignacio, where he escaped to.
[Edited on 3-11-2019 by David K]
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Barry A.
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Excellent stuff, David. Thank you.
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wilderone
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_the_Americ...
The destruction by the Spaniards was cataclysmic. Missionaries included.
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David K
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One person's "destruction" is another's "civilization"
Regardless if it was the Spanish, the French, the English, the Mongols, or Martians... when one group travels far to another group, diseases will be
introduced that there will be little or no resistance to.
If not Spain with its Catholics it would have been another group, such as the Russians who were advancing into California. It was bound to happen. The
natives of California were very primitive and were easily enticed to join the missions with its easier supply of food (initially). Guns and canons
beat bows and arrows, every time. It's not right in today's way of thinking, but it is what happens.
Read to learn, don't take my word for it... and don't take Wiki posts as the end all of historic facts. The current book I am reading (thanks to Nomad
gueribo for the link to a copy) is 'Rim of Christendom, A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino' which is filled with quotes and pages from Kino's
diaries. Kino was the Jesuit who tried to establish the first missions in California (at La Paz and San Bruno, in 1683) and mapped California as a
peninsula after traveling north from Sinaloa to see the Colorado Delta.
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MrBillM
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Beating a Dead Friar
OK - GOT IT !
Evil conquerors and conquered collateral damage go hand in hand.
Without exception worldwide, the conquerors committed Genocide to varying degrees in support of whatever their goals and greed demanded.
For the most part in the west, those times are long past and the perpetrators long dead.
Of course, an exception is the Irish. Who have been subjected to a conquest, occupation and genocidal oppression for near 800
Years which continues to this day in the occupied North.
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wessongroup
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