section_path: Baroque, Enlightenment and revolutions/Church in North America
section_name: Church in North America
paragraph_text: Church in North America
  
  In what is now the Western United States, the Catholic Church expanded its missionary activity but, until the 19th century, had to work in conjunction with the Spanish crown and military. Junípero Serra, the Franciscan priest in charge of this effort, founded a series of missions and presidios in California which became important economic, political, and religious institutions. These missions brought grain, cattle and a new political and religious order to the Indian tribes of California. Coastal and overland routes were established from Mexico City and mission outposts in Texas and New Mexico that resulted 13 major California missions by 1781. European visitors brought new diseases that killed off a third of the native population. Mexico shut down the missions in the 1820s and sold off the lands. Only in the 19th century, after the breakdown of most Spanish and Portuguese colonies, was the Vatican able to take charge of Catholic missionary activities through its Propaganda Fide organization.