Spanish Missions in Texas 1650-1800

Race to Claim Texas Texas was between Spanish Mexico & French Louisiana La Salle had established Fort Saint Louis for France. Spain Texas France La Salle

In 1689 Spaniard Alonso de Leon finds the remains of Fort St. Louis In 1689 Spaniard Alonso de Leon finds the remains of Fort St. Louis. He continues on to East Texas looking for La Salle. Alonso de Leon reported favorably on the land of East Texas and the Caddo Indians Father Damian Massanet who was with de Leon requested help from Mexico City to convert the Caddo, or the Tejas as they called them, to Catholicism

Missions The mission was Spain’s main tool for colonizing Texas. Their purpose was to convert Native Texans to the Catholic faith, In addition the mission workers attempted to convert the natives into Spanish subjects. Missions in Texas were supported by the Catholic church, but they were designed to be self sufficient. They also would help keep the French out of Texas

Most missions in Texas consisted of a square compound enclosed by four walls. They also had a main chapel which was at the center of life in the mission. Early missions were small and made of wood. While later missions were large and built with stone. The land around the mission was also used for animals and growing crops for food.

Spain’s First East Texas Mission In 1690 de Leon and Massanet , a few other priest and 100 soldiers set off to build a mission in east Texas. They build the Mission San Francisco de los Tejas Reconstruction of San Francisco de los Tejas

A year later the mission was in trouble A year later the mission was in trouble. Drought had caused the crops to fail. Disease caused the Native Texans to become hostile & they refused to work in the missions The Mission could not survive so in 1693 it was abandoned.

The French Return By 1700 the French return to Louisiana and developed trading relationship with Native Americans In 1713 Spanish Priest Father Francisco Hidalgo asked French priests to provide churches to East Texas Natives The French sent Louis de St. Denis to visit Father Hidalgo

France and Spain were at war But St. Denis and Hidalgo both wanted to convert the east Texas Indians. Spanish government had St. Denis arrested Spain decided to establish more missions to protect their territory

Spain Reclaims East Texas In 1716 San Francisco de los Tejas was reopened A mid-point for supply caravans was needed. In modern day San Antonio the Mission San Antonio de Valero and the Mission San Antonio de Bexar was built. Valero would become the Alamo

w Mission San Antonio de Valero

The Chicken War East Texas missions were unsuccessful because of the same reasons as before. The Indians didn’t want to live in them. In 1719 French Lt. Philippe Blondel “invaded” Texas with 6 soldiers. They captured a mission near Nacogdoches.

Blondel and his men looted the mission and Blondel took and tied a few chickens to his saddle. The chickens made his horse buck (jump) and Blondel fell from his horse. The Spanish missionaries escaped when this happened.

The Incident referred to as “The Chicken War” The escaped Spanish exaggerated the news claiming that a huge French army was invading The Spanish panicked and retreated back to San Antonio abandoning East Texas The Spanish realized how weak they were in Texas