The history of the Mormons has shaped them into a people with a strong sense of unity and commonality. From the start, Mormons have tried to establish what they call "
Zion", a utopian society of the righteous. Mormon history can be divided into three broad periods: (1) the early history during the lifetime of
Joseph Smith, (2) a "pioneer era" under the leadership of
Brigham Young and his successors, and (3) a modern era beginning around the turn of the 20th century. In the first period, Smith attempted to build a city called Zion, where converts could gather. Zion became a "landscape of villages" in Utah during the pioneer era. In modern times, Zion is still an ideal, though Mormons gather together in their individual congregations rather than in a central geographic location.
Beginnings 1820
First Vision The Mormon movement began with the publishing of the Book of Mormon in March 1830, which Smith stated was a translation of
golden plates containing the religious history of an ancient American civilization that the ancient prophet-historian
Mormon had compiled. Smith stated that
an angel had directed him to the
golden plates buried in the
Hill Cumorah. On April 6, 1830, Smith founded the
Church of Christ. In 1832, Smith added an account of
a vision he had sometime in the early 1820s while living in Upstate New York. Some Mormons regarded this vision as the most important event in human history after the birth, ministry, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The early church grew westward as Smith sent missionaries to proselytize. In 1831, the church moved to
Kirtland, Ohio, where missionaries had made a large number of converts and Smith began establishing an outpost in
Jackson County, Missouri, where he planned to eventually build the city of
Zion (or the
New Jerusalem). In 1833, Missouri settlers, alarmed by the rapid influx of Mormons, expelled them from Jackson County into the nearby
Clay County, where local residents were more welcoming. After Smith led a mission, known as
Zion's Camp, to recover the land, he began building
Kirtland Temple in
Lake County, Ohio, where the church flourished. When the Missouri Mormons were later asked to leave Clay County in 1836, they secured land in what would become
Caldwell County. The Kirtland era ended in 1838 after the failure of a
church-sponsored anti-bank caused widespread defections, and Smith regrouped with the remaining church in
Far West, Missouri. During the fall of 1838, tensions escalated into the
Mormon War with the old Missouri settlers. On October 27, the
governor of Missouri
ordered that the Mormons "must be treated as enemies" and be exterminated or driven from the state. Between November and April, some eight thousand displaced Mormons migrated east into
Illinois. In 1839, the Mormons purchased the small town of Commerce, converted swampland on the banks of the Mississippi River, renamed the area
Nauvoo, Illinois, and began constructing the
Nauvoo Temple. The city became the church's new headquarters and gathering place, and it grew rapidly, fueled in part by converts immigrating from Europe. Meanwhile, Smith introduced temple ceremonies meant to
seal families together for eternity, as well as the doctrines of eternal progression or
exaltation and plural marriage. Smith created a service organization for women called the
Relief Society and the
Council of Fifty, representing a future
theodemocratic "Kingdom of God" on the earth. Smith also published the story of his
First Vision, in which the
Father and the
Son appeared to him when he was about 14 years old. This vision would come to be regarded by some Mormons as the most important event in human history after the birth, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Smith was arrested, and on June 27, 1844, he and his brother
Hyrum were
killed by a mob in
Carthage, Illinois. Because Hyrum was Smith's logical successor, their deaths caused a
succession crisis, and
Brigham Young assumed leadership over most Latter Day Saints. Young had been a close associate of Smith's and was the senior
apostle of the
Quorum of the Twelve. Smaller groups of Latter-Day Saints followed other leaders to form other denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.
Pioneer era commemorating the
Mormon handcart pioneers For two years after Joseph Smith's death, conflicts escalated between Mormons and other Illinois residents. To prevent war, Brigham Young led the
Mormon pioneers (constituting most of the Latter Day Saints) to a temporary
winter quarters in Nebraska and then, eventually (beginning in 1847), to what became the
Utah Territory. Having failed to build Zion within the confines of American society, the Mormons began to construct a society in isolation based on their beliefs and values. The cooperative ethic that Mormons had developed over the last decade and a half became important as settlers branched out and colonized a large desert region now known as the
Mormon Corridor. Colonizing efforts were seen as religious duties, and the new villages were governed by the Mormon
bishops (local lay religious leaders). The Mormons viewed land as a commonwealth, devising and maintaining a cooperative system of irrigation that allowed them to build a farming community in the desert. From 1849 to 1852, the Mormons greatly expanded their missionary efforts, establishing several
missions in Europe, Latin America, and the South Pacific. Converts were expected to "gather" to Zion, and during Young's presidency (1847–77), over seventy thousand Mormon converts immigrated to America. Many of these immigrants crossed the
Great Plains in wagons drawn by oxen, while some later groups pulled their possessions in small handcarts. During the 1860s, newcomers began using the new
railroad that was under construction. In 1852, church leaders publicized the previously secret practice of
plural marriage, a form of
polygamy. Over the next 50 years, many Mormons (between 20 and 30 percent of Mormon families) entered into plural marriages as a religious duty, with the number of plural marriages reaching a peak around 1860 and then declining through the rest of the century. Besides the doctrinal reasons for plural marriage, the practice made some economic sense, as many of the plural wives were single women who arrived in Utah without brothers or fathers to offer them societal support. on the ice By 1857, tensions had again escalated between Mormons and other Americans, primarily due to accusations involving polygamy and the
theocratic rule of the Utah Territory by Brigham Young. In 1857, U.S. President
James Buchanan sent an army to Utah, which Mormons interpreted as open aggression against them. Fearing a repeat of Missouri and Illinois, the Mormons prepared to defend themselves, determined to torch their own homes if they were invaded. The
Utah War ensued from 1857 to 1858, in which the most notable instance of violence was the
Mountain Meadows massacre when leaders of a local Mormon militia ordered the killing of a civilian emigrant party that was traveling through Utah during the escalating tensions. In 1858, Young agreed to step down from his position as governor and was replaced by a non-Mormon,
Alfred Cumming. Nevertheless, the LDS Church still wielded significant political power in the Utah Territory. At Young's death in 1877, he was followed by other
LDS Church presidents, who resisted efforts by the
United States Congress to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages. In 1878, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in
Reynolds v. United States that religious duty was not a suitable defense for practicing polygamy. Many Mormon polygamists went into hiding; later, Congress began seizing church assets. Although this Manifesto did not dissolve existing plural marriages, relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, such that Utah was admitted as a U.S. state in 1896. After the Manifesto, some Mormons continued to enter into polygamous marriages, but these eventually stopped in 1904 when church president
Joseph F. Smith disavowed polygamy before Congress and issued a "
Second Manifesto" calling for all plural marriages in the church to cease. Eventually, the church adopted a policy of
excommunicating members found practicing polygamy, and today actively seeks to distance itself from "
fundamentalist" groups that continue the practice.
Modern times During the early 20th century, Mormons began reintegrating into the American mainstream. In 1929, the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir began broadcasting a weekly performance on national radio, becoming an asset for public relations. Mormons emphasized patriotism and industry, rising in socioeconomic status from the bottom among American religious denominations to the middle class. In the 1920s and 1930s, Mormons began migrating out of Utah, a trend hurried by the
Great Depression, as Mormons looked for work wherever they could find it. As Mormons spread out, church leaders created programs to help preserve the tight-knit community feel of Mormon culture. In addition to weekly worship services, Mormons began participating in numerous programs such as
Boy Scouting, a
Young Women organization, church-sponsored dances, ward basketball, camping trips, plays, and
religious education programs for youth and college students. During the Great Depression, the church started a
welfare program to meet the needs of poor members, which has since grown to include a humanitarian branch that provides relief to disaster victims. During the later half of the 20th century, there was a retrenchment movement in Mormonism in which Mormons became more conservative, attempting to regain their status as a "peculiar people". Though the 1960s and 1970s brought changes such as
Women's Liberation and the
civil rights movement, Mormon leaders were alarmed by the erosion of traditional values, the
sexual revolution, the widespread use of recreational drugs,
moral relativism, and other forces they saw as damaging to the family. Partly to counter this, Mormons put an even greater emphasis on family life, religious education, and missionary work, becoming more conservative in the process. As a result, Mormons today are probably less integrated with mainstream society than they were in the early 1960s. Although
black people have been members of Mormon congregations since Joseph Smith's time, before 1978, black membership was small. From 1852 to 1978, the LDS Church enforced
a policy restricting men of black African descent from being ordained to the church's lay
priesthood. The church was sharply criticized for its policy during the
civil rights movement, but the policy remained in force until
a 1978 reversal that was prompted in part by questions about mixed-race converts in Brazil. In general, Mormons greeted the change with joy and relief. Black membership has continued to grow substantially, especially in West Africa, where two
temples have been built. Some
black Mormons are members of the
Genesis Group, an organization of black members that predates the priesthood ban and is endorsed by the church. The LDS Church grew rapidly after World War II and became a worldwide organization as
missionaries were sent across the globe. The church doubled in size every 15 to 20 years, and by 1996, there were more Mormons outside the United States than inside. In 2012, there were an estimated 14.8 million Mormons, with roughly 57 percent living outside the United States. It is estimated that approximately 4.5 million Mormons – approximately 30% of the total membership – regularly attend services. A majority of U.S. Mormons are white and non-Hispanic (84 percent). Most Mormons are distributed in North and South America, the South Pacific, and Western Europe. The global distribution of Mormons resembles a contact diffusion model, radiating out from the organization's headquarters in Utah. The church enforces general doctrinal uniformity, congregations on all continents teach the same doctrines, and international Mormons tend to absorb a good deal of Mormon culture, possibly because of the church's top-down hierarchy and missionary presence. However, international Mormons often bring pieces of their own heritage into the church, adapting church practices to local cultures. As of December 2019, the LDS Church reported having 16,565,036 members worldwide.
Chile,
Uruguay, and several areas in the South Pacific have a higher percentage of Mormons than the United States (which is at about 2 percent). South Pacific countries and dependencies that are more than 10 percent Mormon include
American Samoa, the
Cook Islands,
Kiribati,
Niue,
Samoa, and
Tonga. == Culture and practices ==