Spanish missions in the Americas

The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during the 12th to 19th centuries in an area extending from Mexico and the southwestern portions of what today are the United States, southwards as far as Argentina and Chile.

During the Age of Discovery; the Christian Church inaugurated a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World by converting indigenous peoples. As such, the establishment of Christian missions went hand-in-hand with the colonizing efforts of European powers such as Spain, France and Portugal. For these nations, "the colonial enterprise was based on the necessity to develop European commerce and the obligation to propagate the Christian faith." According to Adriaan van Oss, "Catholicism remains the principal colonial heritage of Spain in America. More than any set of economic relationships... more even than the language... the Catholic religion continues to permeate Spanish-American culture today, creating an overriding cultural unity which transcends the political and national boundaries dividing the continent."

Christian leaders and Christian doctrines have been accused of justifying and perpetrating violence against Native Americans found in the New World. Michael Wood asserts that the indigenous peoples were not considered to be human beings and that the colonisers was shaped by "centuries of Ethnocentrism, and Christian monotheism, which espoused one truth, one time and version of reality.” Jordan writes "The catastrophe of Spanish America's rape at the hands of the Conquistadors remains one of the most potent and pungent examples in the entire history of human conquest of the wanton destruction of one culture by another in the name of religion."

According to Colin Calloway, the "Spanish missions also produced massive population decline, food shortages, increased demands for labor, and violence."

However, other scholars point out that the Catholic Church often defended the rights of Native Americans. For example, Jesuits devoted themselves to the interests of Native Americans.

The Spanish missions in the Carolinas were part of a series of religious outposts that Spanish Catholics established to spread Christian doctrine among the local Native Americans. The principal coastal mission and fort in the area was Santa Elena, which survived until 1587. A small mission in the interior of North Carolina called

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