Missions in Spanish Florida

Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established missions in Spanish Florida (La Florida) in order to convert the indigenous tribes to Roman Catholicism, to facilitate control of the area, and to obstruct regional colonization by Protestants, particularly, those from England and France. Spanish Florida originally included much of what is now the Southeastern United States, although Spain never exercised long-term effective control over more than the northern part of what is now the State of Florida from present-day St.

Source: Wikipedia — Missions in Spanish Florida (CC BY-SA 4.0)