Spanish Colonial Era Vocabulary

10/3-10/7

  1. Epidemic: the rapid outbreak and spread of a contagious disease; diseases brought by Europeans created huge epidemics among the Native American populations of the New World. Native Americans did not have the immunities to these diseases that Europeans had, so these epidemics were devastating, causing millions of Native American deaths in the years after contact with Europeans.
  2. Settlements:Any small permanent village built in a new territory; Spanish settlements in Texas usually started as mission/presidio complexes and then eventually grew into towns as the population increased around the mission.
  3. Cede: To officially give ownership of something to someone else; in 1763 France lost the French & Indian War against Great Britain and decided to cede the territory of Louisiana to Spain rather than let Great Britain take it away from them.
  4. Mission: a settlement set up for the purpose of spreading religion. Spanish missions were usually set up in Native American territory for the purpose of converting the Native Americans to the Roman Catholic religion. Catholic Friars would build a mission and invite Native Americans to live and work in the mission as they taught them about Christianity and Spanish culture. Once Native Americans entered the mission they were often not allowed to leave and were punished for failing to do the work assigned to them or for failing to learn and adopt the Catholic religion.
  5. Missionary:Someone who undertakes a mission to convert others to their religion. The Spanish friars & priests who built and worked in the Spanish missions throughout Texas were missionaries.
  6. Presidio: Spanish forts built near missions as a base for the Spanish soldiers that protected the mission settlements from attacks by hostile Indians, bandits, and foreign soldiers. Soldiers in these forts also helped the missionaries keep the Native Americans who lived in the missions under their control; they would often aid in catching any Native Americans who tried to run away from the missions.
  7. Friar:Spanish Catholic ministers, similar to monks, who worked as missionaries; building missions throughout Texas and running the daily operations of those missions including teaching Catholicism to the Native Americans who lived in them.
  8. Colonize: When a nation begins the process of setting up settlements in a new land it has discovered/taken control of. Even though the French set up the first European colony in Texas (Fort St. Louis), it was the Spanish who were primarily responsible for colonizing Texas in the Spanish Colonial Era. The Spanish primarily colonized by sending missionaries to set up Catholic missions throughout Texas, with the settlements that developed around those missions making up the first true colonies in Texas.
  9. Devout:having or showing a sincere, deep religious feeling or commitment. The Catholic missionaries that colonized Texas often struggled to transform the Native Americans into truly devout Christians; many tribes took advantage of the missionaries to get free food and supplies but would show little interest in learning about Christianity, this problem would eventually lead to the failure of the Spanish mission system in Texas.
  10. Convert:To change someone’s religious beliefs; Spanish Catholic missionaries tried to convert the Native Americans by teaching them about Christianity and Spanish culture in a series of missions that were built throughout Texas. However, the majority of Spanish missions in Texas showed little success at converting the tribes in their areas and the system was eventually ruled a failure.