No Junipero Serra missions

[punkrockbowler805]

I live in California and there are a lot of monuments and streets named after Father Junipero Serra, who lead the expedition into Alta California in the 1700s that founded the Missions that colonized much of California. He has been beatified by the Catholic Church but is seen as controversial because he basically enslaved the Natives at missions. I walked by a school named for him in Carmel, and there is a park named for him in Ventura.

So lets say he dies of a leg wound he sustained early in his expedition.

Do the Spaniards still colonize? He worked after the Expulsion of the Jesuits in Spain created a power vacuum that his Franciscan Order used.

Is there a different religious order that moves in, or is it the Spanish military and ranchers? Or does it mean other powers move in on a mostly empty Alta California? Do more Natives survive and their cultures become less assimilated?

[eDGT]

I know little on the period, but I'll go out on a limb and make a few guesses.

If in the 1700's the Franciscans were the only ones making inroads in California then I'm going to guess that the area just wasn't of much interest to Spain or the governors in Mexico until Serra helped to open the area up.

If he dies early in the expedition then some of his party (if not all of it) will want to continue. Apparently one of his colleagues, Francisco Palóu, wanted him to stay behind and let him go on ahead, so he's a potential candidate for leadership.

If the mission utterly fails and turns back then there will only be a little Spanish interest in California until another serious effort is made, say 20 years later. In that time the only other powers moving in would be the Russians, who will only really focus on the northern area when it comes to colonisation. Also if the American Revolution fails then immigrants might start traveling to Mexico from the British colonies, and then moving on to California when they get sick of the Papists. In that case then the Mexican government will start trying to move their own settlers into the area to prevent the British gaining any influence through their former subjects. And if colonial conflict is the case then the Natives are gonna have a bad time, making them rather less assimilated and rather more likely to be enslaved and stuck in mines.