Mission Santa Clara De Asis

California History: Mission Santa Clara De Asis

When looking at present day America it is difficult to picture what is was like just a few hundred years ago, it is hard to believe that such a vast amount of land could change as drastically as it did in such a short amount of time. This huge change that America went through was caused by the colonization of the multiple European empires. When it came to the colonization of the ‘new world’ and the assimilation of its native people, one of the most common methods was the use of religion. One of the reasons most of the European empires saw the Native Americans as savages and of lower status was because of how greatly their religion differed from the colonists. Although many of the colonists believed

While all of this is happening with the church Mexico ends up gaining its independence from Spain in 1822 which made the push for secularization of the missions even stronger. In 1834 the government of Mexico granted secularization of the churches but unfortunately this did not end well for the Indians. Soon after the land was turned over to the Native Americans, many ended up losing their land to speculators, fraud, and thieves; eventually priests take over most of the missions again. In 1850 California joins the union as a free state which leads to priests taking over Mission Santa Clara again in

When Mission Santa Clara was first built there was no college surrounding it, it was just a hut with residence building made up of upright logs and dirt roofs surrounding it. Due to multiple natural disasters Mission Santa Clara has had to be relocated and restored multiple times. Unlike the first two versions of the church, the structure was made out of white washed adobe. It was not until 1851, after the establishment of the fifth version of the church and multiple changes in ownership, was Santa Clara College built around the mission. In 1928 the church underwent its final restoration and constructed in its original one tower design with the outside adorned with wooden saints instead of painted designs. As of today, when walking into Santa Clara University one of the first sights you will see is Mission Santa Clara. On both sides of the mission there are walls covered in shrubbery with a gate leading to the cemetery to the right. Although mission is surrounded by multiple buildings, your eyes seem to be drawn to it. The inside of the mission has changed a considerable amount as well. Due to an electrical fire in 1928, the church ended up getting destroyed, but instead of trying to duplicate