You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

Omaha Institute and is sponsored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. the and welcome to episode 334, Oh, Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you,

learn more about how the people and events

of our early American past have shaped the present day world

we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Although many of us view early American history through the eyes of the English and

later British, Spanish explorers and colonists visited When thought of this way,

it was settled, and claimed territory

in 42 of the 50 states that now comprise the United States.

When thought of this way,

it seems clear that we should view much of the history of early America

through a Spanish lens and point of view. And that's what we're going to do today.

Brandon Bain, an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

joins us to investigate some of the religious aspects

of Spanish colonization.

Specifically, we're going to explore Spanish missionaries,

their work, and why this work was carried out by just a few religious orders, namely the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

Now during our exploration, Brandon reveals information about new Spain, its borderlands, and the ways in which Spanish and indigenous peoples interacted within those borderlands.

The work of Catholic missionaries and Spain's use of missionaries as instruments of colonization.

...