Spanish missions in Mexico

The Spanish missions in Mexico are a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholic Franciscans, Jesuits, Augustinians, and Dominicans to spread the Christian doctrine among the local natives. Since 1493, the Kingdom of Spain had maintained a number of missions throughout Nueva España (New Spain, consisting of what is today Mexico, the Southwestern United States, the Florida and the Luisiana, Central America, the Spanish Caribbean and the Philippines) in order to facilitate colonization of these lands. In 1533, at the request of Hernán Cortés, Carlos V sent the first Franciscan monks with orders to establish a series of installations throughout the country.