Jesuit Reductions

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Related article: Indian Reductions

The Jesuit Reductions were a particular version of the general Spanish colonial strategy of building reductions (reducciones de indios) in order to "civilise" and catechise the native populations of South America. They were created by the Catholic order of the Jesuits in the Tupi-Guarani areas of Portuguese Brazil and Spanish America and became famous for their resistance to enslavement and the absolute dominion of Crown representatives, which led to their ultimate repression and the expulsion of Jesuits from the Portuguese Empire.

In Brazilian reductions, the Tupí-Guaraní languages were spoken, leading to the língua geral. which was a single consolidated dialect of Tupi-Guarani with Latin and Portuguese influence that was once the sole language of the Portuguese settlements outside of the centers of Crown power, and is still spoken in isolated communities in Northern Brazil.

The indigenous people of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the Tupi and the Guaraní, would have been victims of the colonial conquest in South America, had the Jesuits not been able to persuade the King of Spain to grant that vast region to their care. Having first landed in South America in 1550, the Jesuits promised the Spanish monarch generous rewards, in the form of tributes, in exchange for exempting the Indians from hard labour to which all the other tribes were subjected.

For about 150 years, the Jesuits protected the Guaraní from the raids of the slave-hunters from Portugal and Spain. They founded several missions or reductions and developed a kind of evangelisation that was possibly unique in Christian history. Putting into practice the precepts of the Gospel through this bold experiment, they isolated the Guaraní from the influences of the Europeans and developed their creativity.

The Reductions were established over a vast area which today covers part of Argentina, Paraguay, southern Brazil and Uruguay. The first settlement was founded in 1609. Many other missions were established along the rivers, in the Gran Chaco, Guaira and Paraná territories.

Guided by the Jesuits, the Guaraní had advanced laws; they founded free public services for the poor, schools, hospitals, and abolished the death penalty. A society based on the principles of primitive Christianity was established. All the inhabitants of the Reductions worked the communal land, and all the products they produced were divided fairly among them.

The Guaraní were very skilled in handicraft works such as sculpture and woodcarving. Even advanced products such as watches and musical instruments were produced in the Reductions. The working day was about six hours, compared with 12–14 hours in Europe at that time. Free time was dedicated to music, dance, archery contests and to prayer. The Guaraní society was the first in the history of the world to be entirely literate.

The Jesuit missions reached their peak in the first half of the 18th century, with between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholic Indians in about thirty missions. They assumed almost full independence from the parts of South America ruled by Spain and Portugal, and were centres of community life.

In a Reduction, the main buildings, like the church, college and churchyard were concentrated around a wide square, with houses facing the other three sides. Each village also provided a house for widows, a hospital, and several warehouses. In the centre of the square, there was a huge cross and a statue of the mission's patron saint.

The missions ended in 1767, with the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish and Portuguese empires. The Guarani returned to the forest. All that remains today from that period are ruins of some of the Reductions, and two modified indigenous languages, Guarani and Nheengatu.