How the Spanish Inquisition affected the history of California


Everyone knows about the Spanish Inquisition. If you're like me, you've heard of Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor, who lived in the 1400s. You also may have visited some of the Missions that were built in the 1700s in California. And yes, there is a connection. And while there are many things that people don't talk about, I will. Time-travel with me to the Dark Ages.

Friar Tomás de Torquemada

The Dark Ages in Europe, also called the Medieval Era, can also be called The Age of Faith. No, I'm not defending the Spanish Inquisition, I'm looking at it from their point of view. And while ultimately the Age of Faith gave way to the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment, that doesn't help you to understand the history of California. For that, you will have to understand Faith, a Faith that was stronger than the fear of death.

When the United States of America was established, it embraced the ideals of the Enlightenment. That is, humanism, truths that were seen as self-evident. The new country rejected the idea of Kings, and that government needed to be based on divine power. This was a country by the people, and for the people. There was to be no official state religion. Authority to govern was the power of the people, not God.

California, created as New Spain, was not a product of this ideology. Spain was a Catholic country, and even though the extremist attitudes of people like Torquemada had diminished, the basic concept remained - the importance of spreading the word of the Gospel all over the world. And so, while we take the word "Mission" for granted, take another look it it. It was a project, a goal. A mission for God, that people were willing to die for. And many people did.


The Missions of California have become curiosities, tourist attractions. Most people just know that they were built "back in the day". That day was a dangerous time, and a time of Faith.

Thank you to my patrons on Patreon who help support History Adventuring! If you like these blog posts, and would like to make suggestions for future ones, please go to patreon.com/PhoenixHistoryAdventuring where you can show your support for as little as $1 a month. Thank you!

What Patreon is http://bradhallart.blogspot.com/2016/03/supporting-creators-on-web-with-patreon.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more