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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 3 of 13

Spanish Colonial Texas

Missions, presidios and towns

What your child practices

Missions, presidios, towns and ranches, Massanet, Margil de Jesús and Francisco Hidalgo, the founding of San Antonio, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo purposes for settlement, and Spanish influence on Texas culture. Told plainly: the missions harmed many American Indian people through disease, forced labor and the loss of land and culture.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.2(C); 7.2(F); 7.18(C) · Spanish colonization, missions and settlements, purposes and methods of settlement, and Spanish influence on Texas

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Spain built missions to spread Christianity, presidios (forts) to protect them, and towns like San Antonio (1718).
  2. Missions harmed many American Indian people through disease, forced labor and loss of land and culture.
  3. Spanish influence lasts in ranching, words like rodeo and place names like Amarillo.

Example: What were presidios built to do? Presidios were Spanish forts with soldiers. They guarded the missions and settlers nearby. Answer: protect missions and settlers

Spanish Colonial Texas in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 3 of 13 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Natural Texas & Contact and before Mexican National Texas.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Spanish settlement in Texas was mainly for…

    • building factories
    • defense, religion and holding territory
    • growing cotton for export
    • finding oil

  2. Question 2

    Missions harmed many American Indian people because…

    • they built railroads
    • they ended all fighting
    • diseases spread, labor was forced, and land, beliefs and ways of life were taken away
    • they paid high wages

  3. Question 3

    Spanish land grants to settlers were often used for…

    • railroads
    • cattle ranches
    • oil wells
    • cotton mills

  4. Question 4

    Spain's three main types of settlements in Texas were…

    • missions, presidios and towns (villas)
    • plantations, banks and railroads
    • forts only
    • factories, mines and ports

  5. Question 5

    San Antonio was founded in 1718 because…

    • it had water and lay halfway between Mexico and the East Texas missions
    • the French chose it
    • it was on the coast
    • it had gold mines

  6. Question 6

    Why did the Spanish move the capital of Texas from Los Adaes to San Antonio in 1772?

    • the French threat in Louisiana had ended
    • oil was found
    • Texas became a republic
    • a hurricane struck

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