Reductions (Settlements of Indigenous People) in the State of the Society of Jesus in Paraguay in the 17th–18th Centuries

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the origin and arrangement of the Society of Jesus reductions organized in Paraguay in the early seventeenth century. The main objective pursued by the active formation of these settlements was to protect the local inhabitants from the colonists’ tyranny and, later, from bounty hunters “Paulists”. The second goal attempted to carry out a Christian mission and convert local pagan tribes to Catholicism. That implied many challenges, for the most part, related to the fact that, during the Conquest era, the Indians naturally distrusted Europeans. To overcome this problem, it was decided in 1609 to set up a state where, apart from members of the Society of Jesus, no Europeans could enter without a special pass. The standard of living of the Indians was in many respects even higher than that of the average peasant in twelfth century Europe. Thanks to a wise arrangement of reductions: the Jesuits succeeded in monopolising trade throughout Latin America. As a result, the Order’s tedious work on the territory of the Paraguay reduction achieved high results – by the mid-18th century, about 100,000 of the 400,000 Paraguayan Indians had been baptised.