[size=+3]
Jesuit Reductions[/size]
From Vickywiki, the free encyclopedia
The
Jesuit Reductions (Sp.
campos jesuíticos de la muerte) were a series of
communist concentration camps for
native Americans undertaken by the
Jesuits in the region of the upper
Paraná and
Uruguay rivers. In exchange for
conversion to
Christianity, the natives lived under
their own leaders, spoke
their own language, and continued
their own lifestyle, minus the
cannibalistic,
pagan, and
polymorous bits. While some scholars view this as a
penance undertaken by the Jesuits for their failed attempt to take over the world through becoming
confessors to the
crowned heads of Europe, it was the
educated and
considered opinion of the time that they were simply attempting to build an
invincible indian army loyal only to the
Pope, gather together indian
MacGuffins of
incalculable power, crush the
Reformation, and
take over the world. This suspicion led to the Jesuits' removal from the
Americas and eventual
disbandment. Although the order survived in the
Russian Empire and was reinstituted after 32 years, to this day members are required to identify themselves with a postnomial SJ (for "Sneaky Jesuit") on all official documents and formal correspondence.
Contents
- [anchorlink=Foundation]Foundation[/anchorlink]
- [anchorlink=Structure]Structure[/anchorlink]
- [anchorlink=Eviction]Eviction[/anchorlink]
- [anchorlink=Further]Aftermath[/anchorlink]
[anchor=Foundation][size=+1]
Foundation[/size][/anchor]
The
Spanish Empire and the
encomienda ("
Slavery Lite") system through which it was administered were both premised on the conceit that
Iberian rule would be conducive to the conversion of the native peoples of the New World. For that reason, it was a major
scandal (
Conversogatehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_"-gate"_suffix) when it became apparent by the mid-16th century that several
generations of indians had actually been governed through the Portuguese "
Slavery Classic" system without more than a dozen
Marian idols being sold throughout the entire
hemisphere. Indeed, while copious instruction was being offered regarding the
Passion of the Lord, it was found to be so far from
canonical as to skirt
heresy.
Early attempts to reform the
encomienda system directly met with
outright rebellion. By 1580, though, the first generation of
conquistadores had made way for their copious
criollo and
mestizo descendants, and weariness at perennial native revolts permitted the introduction of a parallel system of
reducciones de indios -
encomiendas under the direct authority of missionaries, either
Friars Minor or Jesuits.
Felipe III, favoring the endeavor, provided in 1606 that "even if [the
criollo governor of the Río de la Plata] could conquer the indians on the Paraná, by force of arms he must not do so, but must gain them over solely through the sermons and instructions of the religious who had been sent for that purpose." As the governor had just recently seen a veteran force picked to pieces by the
Charrua and only managed to introduce a few
mustangs and
free-range cattle to the
Uruguayan pampas, this decree was (unusually) largely observed. Subsequent decrees prohibiting the
enserfment of converted indians (1607,) permitting them a ten-year
exemption from taxation (1607,) and establishing that "the indian should be as
free as the Spaniard" (1609) were less well received.
The reductions were focused principally on the
Guaraní of the Paraná and Uruguay watersheds; but there were other
successful efforts among the
Chiquito and
Moxos in Bolivia; and largely
unsuccessful ones among the nomads of the
Gran Chaco and
Tucuman. The indians came into the reservations partially for the benefits accruing to their
caciques and the free cattle offered by the missions; partially, too, they were driven by the
Mameluco slave raiders of
Sao Paulo. The destruction of ten of the twelve Jesuit missions around Sao Paulo (itself founded as one) was unopposed by the Spanish authorities in the region, provoked a
long march of natives into Paraguay, and was soon followed by the complete loss of the
Guayra to the
Brazilians.
[anchor=Structure][size=+1]
Structure[/size][/anchor]
While
encomiendas tended to arrange their
longhouses willy-nilly about a work site, the reductions placed them around three sides of a
quad, with the fourth occupied by a
church, a
school, an
infirmary, a
house for widows and orphans, and a
cemetary. While the Spanish settlements of the same period made due with
clay and
rushes, the reductions were tiled and segmented to minimize fire damage; tiled
arcades were connected to the
porticoes of each house, so that one could walk through the entire town in rainy weather without getting
wet. In the center of the quad was erected a large
cross and a
statue of the settlement's
patron saint, which the other settlements then attempted to capture in a spirit of
amiable and
brotherly rivalry. Weekly parades and skirmishes were also held in the quad, although
firearms were
strictly inventoried and controlled. Warehouses, river ports, and industrial buildings were placed away at some distance to build commercial demand between them and the residential district; as no power source or electrical lines were yet available, however, no development ever occured.
The reductions were under the superintendence of a
superior resident at
Candelaria, and two
vice-superiors, one for the Paraná watershed and another for the Uruguay. The few hundred to several thousand indians at each site were generally directed by only two priests at each site - the senior in charge of the reduction's
spiritual welfare, the junior in charge of its
temporal activities. The
town council (Spanish:
cabildo) consisted of a
corregidor, his deputy (
teniente,) three bailiffs (
alcaldes,) four councilmen (
regidores,) a prefect (
alguazil mayor,) a steward (
procurador,) and a recorder (
escribano,) all native, who formed a council for the Jesuits. Each activity had its
capitan, each work group its
fiscal, but none could order
any punishment without prior approval from the fathers.
Capital punishment was unknown; the worst infractions met with
expulsion into the Spanish community.
Socially, the reductions were organized around the
snitch principle, whereby young boys attained approval, status, and recognition for outing the location of their parents'
fetishes and grandparents'
shrines and
stills. The boys were also encouraged to ridicule and abuse the village
shamans, forcing them to wear comical hats and signs proclaiming themselves "Satanic Running Dogs" and "Paganite Roaders." Watches were introduced, and an internal passport system prevented movement between parishes and external trade. Although most communities were open and all had hostels for travelers, all outside Spaniards without warrant from the governor or bishop were excluded from the communities.
[anchor=Eviction][size=+1]
Eviction[/size][/anchor]
A law of
1550 made it obligatory to teach
Spanish to the
indians. It was - like
many,
many,
many colonial Spanish laws - largely ignored, as the
encomenderos had no reason for the natives to understand the
Requerimiento when it was being read or to say much apart from "
¡Qué te trabajas!" and "
Envía esa mujer a mi casa" after it had been carried out; and the clergy found they had no reason to remove themselves as sole intermediaries between the natives and the Spanish administration. The Jesuits did do what they could, however, to systematize the various dialects into the Guaraní creole that was often the
lingua franca for everyone but the peninsular officials.
Thus, despite living under nominal Spanish rule and paying (some) Spanish taxes, actual Spanish
administration and
culture was unknown.
German and
Dutch Jesuits were not only responsible for the introduction of industrial production in the reductions (
bell casting,
gunpowder production,
tanneries, etc.) but also the development of the region as a whole, erecting colleges, foundries, and fortifications in Buenos Aires and Cordoba.
Following the devastation of the Guayrá by the Portuguese, the Jesuits were able to persuade the king to allow the Guaraní to form native units to oppose them. The Jesuits drilled the native infantry weekly in the
bolo,
bow,
sling,
sword, and
musket; the cavalry with
saber,
lance, and
carbine. Despite the penalties to their combat rolls, they were able to throw back the
Paulistas in 1641 and 1651. Afterwards, in the perennial revolts of the
encomenderos, the
encomienda indians, and the contenders for the governorate of Asunción, the indians fought always on the king's side on
more than fifty occasions, usually with success. Per Spanish policy of the
Bourbon period, such a bulwark of good governance and loyalty was dismantled as expeditiously as possible.
In 1750, King
Fernando VI - displaying the acumen which in the Spain of his time earned him the epithets "the Prudent" and "Just" - agreed upon no consultation whatever to exchange seven of the fertile, developed and loyal reductions for the single Portuguese city of
Colônia do Sacramento - an unproductive, non-national-culture settlement whose prosperity consisted entirely in Brazilian and British smuggling, which Spanish officials immediately
forbade. While the Jesuits themselves accepted this after their initial appeals were all
refused, their charges had a harder time understanding their need to abandon their homes and workshops to the very
bandeirantes they had so long opposed. A number of caciques wrote to the king of their ties to the land and unaltered loyalty to Spain; in response to which, one of the king's interns forwarded a codex of Spanish law with the bits about
peonage highlighted.
After the indians under
Sepé Tiaraju refused to open their doors and be properly served with their eviction notices, Spain was forced to assist the Brazilians in a
war against its own loyal subjects. The conflict went badly for the natives owing to the Jesuits' loyal removal of their guidance and firearms from the Guaraní. Following the indians' extermination and owing to the war, the Portuguese regent
Sebastião de Melo forbade the Jesuits' return to Brazil, dispossessed them throughout his kingdom during a
papal vacancy, and then expelled the order entirely following an
assumed assassination attempt on King
José I in 1758.
Three years later, the new Spanish king
Carlos III renounced the Treaty of Madrid at El Pardo and encouraged the return of the nonexistent survivors. Then, just as the missions were beginning to reform, the
success of the Spanish Jesuits in calming the
Hat Riots of 1766 led the kings'
advisors (who had actually been responsible for them) to propose the fathers had been its instigators. After yielding to the rioters' demands in full, the annoyed Carlos III ordered the expropriation and expulsion of the entire order. Colleges and missions were surrounded and emptied at midnight and the fathers allowed only their
breviaries,
linens,
chocolate,
snuff, and
money. The Spanish Jesuits found their ships barred from the
Papal States as well, and remained at sea for six months before
Genoa allowed them to land at
Sardinia. Plans for the orderly arrest of the the Jesuits of the New World were abandoned as reports about the Spanish fathers began to filter in to Buenos Aires; instead, the bailiffs were ordered to detain and process them as quickly as they could be located. The main victims of the purge in the end were the bailiffs themselves, as the governor tortured them extensively for the location of the nonexistent Jesuit gold they were thought to have squirreled away from him.
Although the Franciscans were given charge over the reductions and the Spanish governors attempted to maintain the previous quarantine of the region, the settlements quickly dissipated. At Ildefonso in 1777, Carlos reinstated the terms of the Treaty of Madrid, and the left bank missions were again depopulated.
[anchor=Further][size=+1]
Aftermath[/size][/anchor]
The fate of the Jesuit missions was subsequently used by Uruguay to justify their wars of reconquest up the Paraná. Even during the period when Montevideo dominated the entirety of Brazil, the region of the missions were the only parts directly incorporated into the Oriental state. The history of the Jesuit missions was also important - along with the much changed demographics of the region - in the decision by the victorious Allied powers to leave Guayrá as a part of Southern Uruguay during and after its occupation.
The surviving Guaraní subsequently became the masters of Paraguay following its occupation in the 1850s, and their creole remains the official language of the state.
Following the removal of the Jesuits, a number of indigenous beliefs syncretized with the Christianity of the indians and even Spanish and Portuguese settlers. Sepé Tiaraju continues to be revered as a saint in Paraguay and Guayrá.
More famously,
São da Morte (Spanish:
San la Muerte) - a mixture of native ancestral rites and Christian hagiography - became an important aspect of lay belief throughout Uruguay and a central symbol of the Falangist party.
