The main form of government in colonial Paraguay that controlled the native Guaraní population was the reducciones system that was formed and controlled by the Spanish Jesuits in the 17th century. Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata region was not a priority of the Spanish crown in the conquering of the Americas because the region that consisted of colonial Paraguay had no gold and a very sparse population. Spanish colonists numbered only a few thousand by the beginning of the 17th century and were centered mainly around the colony of Asuncion. In 1604 the Jesuit province of Paraguay was formed of a vast region that included Chile (until 1625), Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and about one-third of Bolivia and Brazil.
The Jesuits organized and ruled their reducciones on the basis of a Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III in 1620 which empowered them to write and enforce any statute or order deemed necessary for the welfare and security of the missions. The Jesuit reducciones were also granted independence by the Spanish Crown from the Inquisition which gave the Jesuit priests total control of the religious education and maintenance of the natives. The Guaraní natives, as a result of being ushered into the reducciones system, were also able to avoid the encomienda system that was still taking place in Paraguay.
The Jesuit system consisted of several individual reducciones spread across the vast region of the province of Paraguay (click map to view) and each one was under strict rule of the Jesuit fathers who controlled the economic, religious, and social life of the Guaraní natives. Each reducciones was administered by two Jesuit fathers, sometimes assisted by a co-adjutor (assistant), under the general authority of a Superior. One of the fathers was also the parish priest and the chief of the community, making the important decisions concerning work and the economy, law enforcement, and the teaching and training of children and adults. The most interesting fact of these reducciones was that the number of Jesuit fathers who comprised the government of a population that reached 140,000, in a territory larger than England, never reached more than 100.
The Spanish Crown supported and encouraged the reducciones system because they provided protection from the Portuguese moving southward from Sao Paulo, Brazil into Paraguay territory looking for slaves and gold. As a result of being formed into the Jesuit reducciones the Guaraní natives found protection from the Portuguese looking for slaves, the colonists exploitation in the encomienda system, and against fierce nomadic tribes in the Paraguay province.
Bacigalupo, Mario F. "Bernardo Ibáñez de Echavarri and the Image of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay." The Americas 35, no. 4 (1979): 475-494.
Livi-Bacci, Massimo, and Ernesto J. Maeder. "The Missions of Paraguay: The Demography of an Experiment," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, 2 (2004): 185-224.
The Jesuits organized and ruled their reducciones on the basis of a Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III in 1620 which empowered them to write and enforce any statute or order deemed necessary for the welfare and security of the missions. The Jesuit reducciones were also granted independence by the Spanish Crown from the Inquisition which gave the Jesuit priests total control of the religious education and maintenance of the natives. The Guaraní natives, as a result of being ushered into the reducciones system, were also able to avoid the encomienda system that was still taking place in Paraguay.
The Jesuit system consisted of several individual reducciones spread across the vast region of the province of Paraguay (click map to view) and each one was under strict rule of the Jesuit fathers who controlled the economic, religious, and social life of the Guaraní natives. Each reducciones was administered by two Jesuit fathers, sometimes assisted by a co-adjutor (assistant), under the general authority of a Superior. One of the fathers was also the parish priest and the chief of the community, making the important decisions concerning work and the economy, law enforcement, and the teaching and training of children and adults. The most interesting fact of these reducciones was that the number of Jesuit fathers who comprised the government of a population that reached 140,000, in a territory larger than England, never reached more than 100.
The Spanish Crown supported and encouraged the reducciones system because they provided protection from the Portuguese moving southward from Sao Paulo, Brazil into Paraguay territory looking for slaves and gold. As a result of being formed into the Jesuit reducciones the Guaraní natives found protection from the Portuguese looking for slaves, the colonists exploitation in the encomienda system, and against fierce nomadic tribes in the Paraguay province.
Bacigalupo, Mario F. "Bernardo Ibáñez de Echavarri and the Image of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay." The Americas 35, no. 4 (1979): 475-494.
Livi-Bacci, Massimo, and Ernesto J. Maeder. "The Missions of Paraguay: The Demography of an Experiment," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, 2 (2004): 185-224.
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