Jesuit missions among the Guaraní

Paraguay, 1609–1767. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Jesuit missions among the Guaraní were a type of settlement for the Guaraní people in an area straddling the borders of present-day Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, known locally as the triple frontier. The missions were established by the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church early in the 17th century and ended in the late 18th century after the expulsion of the order from the Americas. In 1609, acting under instructions from Phillip III, the Spanish governor of Asunción made a deal with the Jesuit Provincial of Paraguay. As a result of the suppression of the Society of Jesus in several European countries, including Spain in 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the Guaraní missions, and the Americas more generally, by order of the Spanish king Charles III.

Seat of power: Asunción

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

The Jesuits attempted to create a "state within a state" in which the native peoples in the reductions, guided by the Jesuits, would remain autonomous and isolated from Spanish colonists and Spanish rule.
A major factor attracting the natives to the reductions was the protection they afforded from enslavement and the forced labour of encomiendas.
The missions have been called an experiment in "socialist theocracy" or a rare example of "benign colonialism". Others have said that "the Jesuits took away the Indians' freedom, forced them to radically change their lifestyle, physically abused them, and subjected them to disease".
The Jesuit Río de la Plata reductions reached a maximum population of 141,182 in 1732 in 30 missions in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Picture

The Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue are located in the Itapúa Department, Paraguay, and were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993.

Image: Unknown author, GFDL, file

Sources

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.