El Camino Real and the Colonization of California

When Pope Alexander VI issued the Papal Bull of May 23rd, 1493, laying down a line of demarcation, to the east of which Portugal was granted exploring rights, while Spain had the same privilege to the west, he set the pattern for the exploration and colonization of the New World. But to this declaration was attached a condition: each venture was to be accompanied by “worthy, God-fearing, learned, skilled and experienced men, in order to instruct the inhabitants in the Catholic faith.” History bears out that this condition was not very scrupulously fulfilled. In Spain’s endeavour to colonize the northern regions of her American empire, however, the religious element played a decisive part, and especially in California. El Camino Real, The Royal Highway, and the twenty-one Franciscan missions bear witness to the joint achievements of the Spanish soldier and padre.