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It was not until 1716, again motivated by concerns of French encroachment, that the Spanish government decided
to attempt another entrada to eastern Texas. Captain Domingo Ramon, along with Fray Isidro Felis de Espinosa,
reestablished Mission Tejas and founded three new missions: Nuestra Señora de la Púrisma Concepción, Nuestra
Señora de Guadalupe and San José de los Nazones. Within the year, Fray Antonio Margil also founded Nuestra
Señora de los Dolores de los Ais and San Miguel de Linares de los Adaes. Although the hostilities between
Spain and France forced the missionaries to evacuate eastern Texas between 1719 and 1721, they returned to
the area under the escort of the Marquis de Aguayo. Aguayo reestablished the six missions and two presidios
that protected the eastern province. Although the westernmost presidio and missions were abandoned after
20 years, Presidio de los Adaes and the remaining missions survived on the borderland frontier until the
New Regulations ordered the abandonment of eastern Texas in 1773. Although the Spanish would reoccupy
eastern Texas by 1780, it would be on different terms. Rather that a state-supported, Church-sanctioned
endeavor, the people who returned to Nacogdoches in 1779 did so because it was their home
(“Chroniclers of the Borderlands,” the Stone Fort Museum).
- 1721 Marqués San Miguel de Aguayo, the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, sets out with men and livestock to Texas; this is the beginning of Spanish ranching
- 1773 The Governor of Texas, Baron Juan María de Ripperdá closes all eastern Texas missions and removes the entire Spanish population. The capitol is moved from Los Adaes to San Antonio
- 1774 San Antonio refugees resettle eastern Texas at the settlement of Bucareli
- 1779 The population of the Bucareli settlement moves to Nacogdoches
- 1793 Founding of Mission Nuestra Señora del Rufugio the last of the Texas missions
The reactions of the Native Americans in Spanish Texas to the missions and missionaries were as varied as the people the missionaries sought to minister to. Some Native peoples invited the missionaries into their land, while others attacked and killed the residents of the missions. "By the late 1770s several factors caused the mission system to fall out of favor as an important element of Spanish frontier strategy. The weaker Indian groups who had been more ready mission recruits declined steadily in numbers due to high infant-mortality rates, European-introduced epidemics, continued hostile pressure from other Indians, demoralization, and assimilation into either other Indian groups or Spanish society. Secondly, governmental frontier policy shifted more emphatically away from maintaining missions, which were now seen not only as economic liabilities but also as against the rising spirit of liberalism. This spirit championed individual human rights and a capitalist economy advocating private rather than communal property (Spanish Missions, the Handbook of Texas Online)." In the 1790s, the Spanish government began to secularize missions and answer the demands of their growing civilian population for the land occupied by the missions. By the end of the eighteenth century, many Spanish missions had succeeded in assimilating Native American populations into a Hispanic lifestyle.
Ramón, Diego in The Handbook of Texas
Espinosa, Isidro Félix De in The Handbook of Texas
Margil De Jesús, Antonio in The Handbook of Texas
Aguayo, Marqués De San Miguel De in The Handbook of Texas
Presidios in The Handbook of Texas
Spanish Missions in The Handbook of Texas
New Regulations for Presidios in The Handbook of Texas
Ranching in Spanish Texas in The Handbook of Texas
African Americans in The Handbook of Texas
Slavery in The Handbook of Texas
Caddo Indians in The Handbook of Texas
Apaches in The Handbook of Texas
Jumanos in The Handbook of Texas
Tonkawas in The Handbook of Texas
Coahuiltecans in The Handbook of Texas
Atakapans in The Handbook of Texas
Patarabueyes in The Handbook of Texas
Karankawas in The Handbook of Texas
Texas History Timeline
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