A visit to Mission San Jose
I am going to take this opportunity to dive into California’s colonial history. (Needless to say, a lot of this is from Wikipedia)
The Native Americans (also confusingly called the Indians) were living in this land for centuries — indeed for millenia. Living in very small settlements, they probably numbered between 100,000 (capacity of Eden Gardens cricket stadium, Kolkata) to 1,000,000 (i.e. 1 million or 10 Eden Gardens). In other words, very sparsely populated compared to modern California (the current population of just the San Jose city is around 1 million).
The Spanish explorers/conquerors came in the late 15th century (Columbus in 1492, Cortez in 1519, etc) and all but wiped out the Aztec (Central Mexico), Mayan (Yucatan) and Inca (Peru) civilizations. With their main interests in Mexico and the Carribean, they also “claimed” a lot of current North America.
Very few Spaniards actually settled or even explored most of this vast continent for the next 200 years. Reports of sightings of Russian fur traders in mid 1700s on the Californian coast prompted the Spanish to make a serious attempt at “settling” California. The plan was to setup “missions” along the California coast. These were religious outposts meant to evangelise the Native Americans so as to integrate them into the Spanish empire. The missions were to be interconnected by an overland route which later became known as the Camino Real. The detailed planning and direction of the missions was to be carried out by Friar Junípero Serra.
Between 1769 to 1823, 21 missions were built from San Diego to San Franscico — all within 1 day’s horse ride from the next mission.
But, even before the grand project could properly get under way — in 1810, the Mexican War of Independence (independence from Spain) started and the support for these missions from Spain stopped. By 1819, Spain decided to limit its “reach” in the New World to Northern California due to the costs involved in sustaining these remote outposts.
The new Mexican republic began “secularizing” these outposts for fear that the converted peoples under the missions would remain loyal to the Catholic Church and hence Spain. Mexico passed an Act for the Secularization of the Missions of California in 1833 which took away much of the California Mission land and sold or gave it away in large grants called ranchos.
The Mexican government basically gave large land grants to “prominent” men and encouraged forming farms — with cattle and sheep — and employing the Native Americans. The description in the pictures below do a good job of explaining the Ranchos.
Although, now highly romanticised, this “Rancho system” lasted not much more than a decade. In 1846, a young and angry nation came from across the vast eastern desert and thus started the Mexican-American war. When the dust settled in 1848, the US of A had snatched a vast territory from Mexico — comprising current day Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.
Immediately after, in January 1848, gold was found near Sacramento and thus began the famous Gold Rush. During the next 8 years or so, there was a great influx of people from the rest of the United States and from abroad as well. Around 300,000 people came for the gold and many then stayed. The effects of this event, for the region, cannot be overemphasized.
Agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. In 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by referendum vote, and the future state’s interim first governor and legislature were chosen. In September, 1850, California became a state.
What is sometimes forgotten is the near wiping out of the indigenous population during this period. The native population was decreasing since the arrival of the Spaniards. But, the Gold Rush settlers dealt the final blow.
The period immediately following the U.S. conquest of California has been characterized by numerous sources as a genocide. Under US sovereignty, after 1848, the Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000 in 1870 and reached its nadir of 16,000 in 1900.
OK, enough history. Now some photos of the San Jose Mission (which is in current day Fremont)
Epilogue
Fast forward a little more than 150 years - it is twisted irony that the road right next to the San Jose mission is now apparently “adopted” by a different kind of “Indians” :-)
