The San Antonio missions were communities as well as churches, each a fortified village with its own church, farm, and ranch, where Franciscan friars gathered native peoples, converted them to Catholicism, taught them to live as Spaniards, and helped maintain Spanish control over the Texas frontier. The Franciscans established six missions along the San Antonio River in the early 1700s, and five of them flourished and, with the Villa de San Fernando, became the foundation of the city of San Antonio. Today the missions stand as reminders of the contribution of Indian and Hispanic peoples to the history of the United States.