Mission life in America thrived for more than 250 years in a belt of North America known as the Spanish Borderlands. From the 1560's to the 1820's, Spanish missionaries established themselves among the Indians in this region, which covered a vast area north of Spain's colonial empire in Latin America. Missions developed in what are now Georgia, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. French missions arose in the Great Lakes area, and there were some villages of Indian converts to Christianity in New England. Christian missions also were later established on United States Indian reservations.
In the 50 years after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Spain claimed most of the New World. The pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, granted the Spanish monarchs great authority over the church in the Americas. As a result, missions became agencies of the government. The Spanish government paid the missionaries' expenses, hoping they could persuade the Indians to become loyal Spanish citizens, as well as Roman Catholics. Spain's two chief interests
