Spanish Plan for Colonization
            
            
             When the Spanish decided that they were going to colonize various parts of Texas they did not realize the task they had before them. The Spanish's main goal was to convert the Indians into Christians or Spaniards. They decided to build missions to teach the Indians their way of life and religious beliefs. Although their goal was estimated to take ten years for each colony, they were not prepared for the realities of this uneasy assignment. Some of the main problems with colonizing the northern frontier were the conflicts between the settlers and the missionaries, the aggressive Indians, and the distance between the missions.
             There were many conflicts between the settlers and the missionaries. The settlers from the Canary Islands had many complaints about their way of life. The settlers complained they didn't like the church they attended and wanted a new one built. They also believed there weren't enough jobs for them to make a decent amount of money. They said that the only work for them was farming and the profits were to small to benefit from because the missionaries sold the corn for cheaper. Another major problem was that the settlers wanted the Indians to be able to work for them and this wasn't allowed. Father Benito, one of the missionaries, disputed all of these things saying that they were ordinary problems that everyone has. He believed that the settlers could work together to finish the church if they wanted to. He also said there were plenty of jobs besides farming. Many of the settlers were many other things such as bricklayers, merchants, carpenters, and soldiers. The reasons that the missionaries didn't want the Indians to be day laborers with the other settlers was because this would take the time away from teaching them to be Christians.
             One of the main problems that hurt many of the missions was some of the more aggressive Indian tribes att...