The California missions were designed to be temporary institutions that would turn natives into Spanish citizens. Once the neophytes knew the ways of the European world (voting, paying taxes, regular work habits, Spanish language), the missions were supposed to dissolve and the neophytes become Spanish citizens.

Yet, throughout the sixty-nine years of the mission period, the Franciscan friars never believed that the neophytes were ready to move beyond the missions. Had it not been for outside economic and political forces, the missionaries might have continued to run the missions indefinitely.

By the 1830s mission prosperity had diminished. The number of neophytes at the missions was dropping. Many neophytes had died, and fewer were joining the missions. Meanwhile, more settlers had come north to California from central Mexico. The newcomers envied the vast tracts of rich, productive land that the missions...