Early Modern (1450 CE - 1800 CE)
Misión San Gabriel Arcángel
Founded in 1771, the San Gabriel Arcángel Mission joined a large network of Spanish colonial churches throughout the territory that today comprises the Southwest United States.
The Abolition of Slavery Project
By breaking up the site into different areas of focus, such as enslavement itself and abolition, it allows itself to be easily navigable by students and scholars alike.
Colonial North America at Harvard Library
Colonial North America at Harvard Library is an ambitious project that seeks to digitise Harvard’s vast collection of materials related to the North American colonies, circa the 17th and 18th centuries.
Old Mission San Buenaventura
Known as the ‘Mission by the Sea,’ this church once belonged to Spain’s extensive network of missions throughout the modern-day US Southwest. It was founded in 1782 by Franciscan friars whose objective was the evangelization of the native peoples in the region, who were the Chumash.
San José de Guadalupe
This church was founded in the late-eighteenth century by Francsisan friars in modern-day Fremont, California. Their goal was to establish a settlement to evangelize the native peoples and coerce them into adopting Spanish ways of living, worshiping, and working.
Misión San Cayetano de Tumacácori
This church was founded during the late-seventeenth century, when the Spanish Crown claimed this region as the northern border of its empire in North America.
Mission San Xavier del Bac
Located in southern-Arizona, this mission was originally founded by Spanish friars in the late-seventeenth century. The church that stands today was built with indigenos labor in the following century.
San Ysidro and San Buenaventura de Humanas (Gran Quivira)
This church complex was established by Spanish Franciscan friars in modern-day New Mexico in the early seventeenth century. The Crown authorized the creation of several missions throughout this region with the objective of converting the native peoples to Catholicism.
Nuestra Señora de Purísima Concepción de Quarai
This church complex was built in the early-seventeenth century as part of Spanish friars’ efforts to evangelize the native peoples. Yet within 50 years, the settlement stood abandoned as a result of natural disasters and sustained military attack from rival indigenous groups.
Misión San Francisco de Asís
Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Spanish Crown authorized the founding of dozens of missions in the modern-day borderlands region of the United States.