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The eighteenth century brings further establishment and destruction of Spanish missions in Spanish Texas. 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.
Spanish Missions in The Handbook of Texas
Isidro Félix De Espinosa in The Handbook of Texas
Antonio Margil De Jesús 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 Beyond History
Learn about Texas Indians from Texas Parks and Wildlife
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