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Alan Taylor’s final chapter explains the colonization procedures performed in the West. Both Russia and Spain attempted to colonize this vast and generally unknown expanse of land during the mid to late 1700s. During this process, both nations partook in oppressive behavior towards the natives. Russians kidnapped women and children for ransoms as well as raped many of the native women during the affair. The Spanish took a different course by creating missions throughout California. In his recent blog post, Well’s describes these missions as “forced assimilation.” (http://sites.davidson.edu/his141/the-other-cold-war-imperial-paranoia-in-pacific-north-america/) I completely agree with his terminology. Not only did Spanish make the natives adapt to most facets of their lifestyle, but they didn’t give them any choice in the matter. It didn’t make matters any better that the Spanish destroyed the native land with their farming procedures and abused many native women.
But the question that arises is why did the Spanish create these missions? The answer relates back to why the Spanish settled California in the first place. Because of substandard communication in the 18th century, Spain believed the Russians were a danger to their small settlements on the west coast. The fear of losing settlements made Spain send more people to colonize California. The only problem was that Spain did not have many people to send. The Spanish citizens were generally happy with their lifestyles in both Spain and Mexico and did not want to travel many miles to a place they knew virtually nothing about. So, instead of forcing people to migrate, Spanish authorities did the next best thing: they converted Indians into Spanish colonists. This way the land could have Spanish support and would protect against Russian interaction.
The Spanish mass conversion was a desperate maneuver to colonize a vast land with very few colonists. This was an example of a nation wanting to expand more so than the colonists who inhabited the land. This process seems quite foolish but it was one of the reasons why the Spanish failed to successfully keep much of their land in the New World. They claimed too much land and thus, could not develop their settlements as effectively as other nations.