Mainas missions

thumb|right|250px|Remains of the 17th century colonial church of San Joaquín de Omaguas in Loreto.

thumb|right|250px|The Mainas region was mostly in Peru, but extended into Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia.

The Mainas (or Maynas) missions refers to a large number of small missions the Jesuits established in the western Amazon region of South America from 1638 until 1767, when the Jesuits were expelled from Latin America. Following the Jesuit expulsion, mission activity continued under Franciscan auspices.

Knowledge of the Mainas missions derives largely from missionary accounts of their activities. Thus, as Newson notes, a complete account is "difficult to establish in detail".

Rebellion

The immediate impetus for missionary work in the region was a 1635 (or 1637, or 1640) rebellion by the Maina people against Spanish colonialists. The Maina rebelled against the encomienda system, a system analogous to slavery which 'gave individual Spaniards the right to demand labor and tribute from the Indians assigned to them … and also turned them into de facto administrators, responsible for the control and the welfare of these Indians'.

Reeve describes the system, as practised in the early 17th century in Mainas, as 'exceedingly harsh': the vast majority of indigenous peoples co-opted into Mainas encomiendas died, and the colonial government used military force to put down those who had not been brought into the system.

The colonial strategy changed around 1636–38, however. According to Clements Markham, Pedro Vaca de Vega (known as Don Pedro Vaca and styled Governador de los Maynas), the colonial governor of Mainas province, had 'despaired of subjugating the Indians by force' and hoped that the Jesuits 'might succeed in tranquillizing them by persuasion'.

In 1689, Fritz began his descent down the Amazon River, entering by the area occupied by the Portuguese along the Solimões River, in the current state of Amazonas in Brazil. He founded the missions of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (current city of Fonte Boa, AM), São Paulo dos Cambebas (São Paulo de Olivença, AM), Castro de Avelães (Amaturá, AM), Santa Teresa do Tape (Tefé, AM) and Santana de Coari (Coari, AM), all on already identified Portuguese routes since 1660 (LOREIRO, 1978 apud

REZENDE, 2006, p. 135).

Reeve notes that the missionaries were largely dependent on 'indigenous guides and interpreters' in seeking out new fields for expansion: guides would bring the Jesuits to territories their people knew well, or with which their people were allied. She observes, then, that '[t]o a remarkable degree, the process of proselytization and mission formation followed indigenous alliance networks across the region'.

18th century

thumb|The [[General Command of Maynas (in mustard yellow), a district of the Viceroyalty of Peru, as it appeared . Missions were dispersed throughout this area.]]

Samuel Fritz served as superior of the Mainas missions from 1704–12. Fritz sought to expand the missions further outwards, which provoked trouble with Portuguese slave traders.

After the Jesuits were expelled in 1767, Mainas came under the control of Franciscans. At the time of the expulsion the Jesuits had between 25 and 37 Mainas missions with about 14,000 Indians in residence.

19th century

There was evidently a mission infrastructure in Mainas as late as the 1850s. William Lewis Herndon, exploring the Amazon for the United States Navy, described missions in the Mainas region that traded various goods with Brazil. He further noted:<blockquote>I know of no legal establishment in the Missions—the law proceeding out of the mouths of the governors. Indians are punished by flogging or confinement in the stocks; whites are sometimes imprisoned; but if their offence is of a grave nature, they are sent to be tried and judged by the courts of the capital.</blockquote>Herndon also observed that the indigenous inhabitants of the Mainas missions, unique among the 'Indians of Peru', had been exempted from the payment of a head tax, because 'these people had the forest to subdue, and were only able to wring a hard-earned support from the cultivation of the land'. He remarked that white settlers objected to this, and thought that 'some law compelling them to work' would be preferable.

Effects

Disease and slavery were common in the Mainas missions.

Over the 129 years of Jesuit missionary activity in the Mainas region, numerous epidemics of smallpox and other diseases exacted a severe toll on indigenous peoples.

Slave raids, whereby Portuguese colonialists, known as bandeirantes, would capture and enslave indigenous people, were frequent throughout the period. Fritz's tenure in the Mainas missions, in particular, was marked by a number of Portuguese slave raids.

Mainas missions

Rebellion

18th century

19th century

Effects

See also

Notes

Explanatory notes

References

Sources

Further reading