Reduction Of Nuestra De La Encarnación

, “ Therefore I removed the statues of the false gods, cleaned the temples, and taught the people our religion.” The Spaniards did not like the ways of the native peoples so they tried to instill their beliefs

The film “The Mission” (1986) was written by Robert Bolt and directed by Roland Joffe. It explores the various relationships distinguished between Spanish Jesuits and Indian (Guarani) civilization situated along the borders of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil around 1750. Although, as stated in the beginning of the movie that “The Mission” is “based on true historical events”, Bolt and Joffe distort the portrayal of the Guarani and Jesuit relationships. This essay will examine the distortions of the Guarani tribe and the inaccurate “historical” events that took place within the movie.

Spanish colonization areas where missions were constructed in order to educate the native people about Christianity; commonly NOT to their own will

Convinced of the superiority of Catholicism to all other religions, Spain insisted that the primary goal of colonization was to save the Indians from heathenism and prevent them from falling under the sway of Protestantism. The aim was neither to exterminate nor to remove the Indians, but to transform them into obedient Christian subjects of the crown. To the Spanish colonizers, the large native populations of the Americas were not only souls to be saved but also a labor force to be organized to extract gold and silver that would enrich their mother country. Las Casas’ writings and the abuses they exposed contributed to the spread of the Black Legend-the image of Spain as a uniquely brutal and exploitative colonizer. This would provide of a potent justification for other European powers to challenge Spain’s predominance in the New World.

Throughout colonial time there were many beliefs, movements, and conquests that happened within many countries. One of them in which was the spiritual conquest of the Spanish and the Portuguese. This spiritual conquest would undoubtedly be carried over to the Americas. Due to religion being very important to both the Europeans and the Natives this lead to a conflict that cause fights, missions, and resistances to increase.

The role of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain’s conquest and colonization of continental America was a two-fold process whereby under the façade of conversion and control lay the primary goal of gaining wealth, enforcing laws and the inevitable extension of control while condoning the beginnings of European slavery in the Caribbean.[i]

Those who moved to the new world had one of two motivations: the hope of free worship or to gain profit through the New World’s untapped resources. With the religious persecution of

Religious beliefs are one of the key factors that have shaped our world society today. The Spanish religious conquest was one of the first early history examples that played a big role in America. As soon as the Spanish landed in New Spain it changed the Native Mexican culture. The consequence of the spiritual conquest was the loss of the native people beliefs, buildings, and customs. However, the Native Mexicans did not respond well to the conquest, it caused them to rebelling against the Spanish, but with time they started to accept the Spanish ways.

The greed for gold and the race for El Dorado were the main inducements of the Spaniards who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels in a mad pursuit after the gold and all other precious property of the Indians” (Peace 479). The royal rulers of Spain made it a rule that nothing would jeopardize their ability to rob the land from the native people of Latin America. The missionary process, “had to be encouraged, but the missionaries could not be permitted to dominate the colony at the cost of royal rule” (Gibson 76). The European governments established missionaries to cleanse their minds of any guilt aroused by the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children. When European “ships arrived in the 16th century to colonize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization” (Ribero). The overall devastations caused by the Christianization of the native inhabitants created a blend of cultures within the indigenous civilizations which gradually isolated old native ways into a small population of oppressed people. The Christianized people became a symbol of loyalty to the European powers and were left alone simply on their religious status. This long term mission of total religious replacement caused very strong and advanced

Religion was one of the leading forces behind the conquistadors traveling across waters to new lands. Most of the time these conquests were also journeyed by not just conquistadores, but also religious missionaries (Foner, Give Me Liberty, 21). When these explores first viewed the indians, they saw them as “lacking a genuine religion” and worshiping “false gods” (Foner, Give Me Liberty, 11). Indian’s belief in spirits in nature compared with Europeans view of nature as a commodity, created a line between both religious groups that then later created breaches of freedom (Foner, Give Me Liberty 11). Freedom in this time period was intertwined with religion. Freedom to the Europeans meant that instead of leading a life of sin, they embraced

“The difficulties of creating and maintaining maroon societies in the colonial slave systems of the Americas required the full range of the collective experiences of Africans from a variety of cultures who had to adapt themselves not only to a challenging environment but also to a new social community that could range from newly arrived Africans to highly acculturated Creoles” “In Cuban slave society people from all the African ethnic groups were divided into naciones (nations) upon their arrival”. These divisions were unreliable and inexact as they often referred to the ports of embarkation rather than the place of origin. Religious indoctrination in Cuba was sporadic. Religious instruction in the countryside was lax, this was where the majority of the slaves were. The Catholic Church was weaker in Cuba, there was less religiosity primarily because of the “secular, cosmopolitan, port city of Havana”. Spain was indifferent to the colony, matched by the Church’s disinterest in organization. Conflict with plantation owners unwilling to grant slaves time for religious activities. Majority of the Spanish settlers to the “New world” adapted a folk practice incorporating Catholicism. “Two types of Catholicism resulted: the Catholicism of the priests and that of the people”. As well, “The Cuban Catholic Church sponsored religious cabildos for the purpose of evangelization through a policy of ‘guided change,’ tolerating those African values that could be reinterpreted within Catholicism and radically opposing those that could not”. These were mutual aid societies – Church sponsored cabildos were built around the cofradias – “groups gathered to assist one another in times of need and to worship their patron saint”. These were initially developed with the idea of controlling the slaves and enforcing conversion through “guided change”.

The founding of religion gave birth to quite a few contentions between separate groups, raising moral dialectics. These moral bickers from religion fueled groups to spread their specific beliefs or ideals. For example, in the year 1769 Spanish Missionaries, led by Junipero Serra, attempted to christianize those Native Americans who habited California. The missionaries accumulated thousands of semi-nomadic Indians to strong missions which taught ideas like horticulture. Missionaries fiercely shoved the idea of christianity down the throats of the natives, yet they did so with retaliation. It was common for the natives to violently rebel against the religious influences pushing into their private, peaceful lives. Also, French-Catholic Missionaries called Jesuits, attempted to "save" Native Americans and convert them into Christianity. Jesuits went as far as to try and convert Native Americans even though they were rebellious to the point of violence, like the Native Americans in California. A majority of the Jesuits' attempts failed because copious amounts of the conversions were not permanent. In the small world of politics and religion, philosopher John Locke emphasized the separation

“Las Casas was a Dominican priest who came to the New World a few years after Columbus, spent forty years on Hispaniola and nearby islands, and became the leading advocate in Spain for the rights of the natives”. In 1502, Las Casas moved towards Hispaniola, in the Caribbean. His enthusiasm for the organization was well supported by a Dominican minister and moreover his affectability toward the desolation of the neighborhood inhabitants. In 1509, he denied his domain surrender, released his bondservants, and returned to Rome to take his divine promises. In 1512, he returned to Hispaniola as the chief designated pastor in America and scrutinized ill-treat of the Spanish for Indians and the armed triumph of the New-fangled Biosphere. Emperor

In the article it talks about the conquest of mexico while the progress was still going on. Cortes wrote to the Emperor asking for the missionaries and they arrived within a few months and twelve Franciscan friars arrived. they destroy all of the indians churches and images of their gods. the indians where temporal power of charles V and the pope. supposedly They went to help out the indians in their perpetual salvation, they didn't want to sek in there benefits like there land sliver and gold. they wanted to teach children because children will be able to understand easily the doctrines spanish where teaching. after teaching the children they are going to teach adults the things that they taught children. The missionaries gathered the children into the schools where they learned the rudiments of Catholic practice and they built churches and other building with large room to teach the indians. The indians, Aztecs, Mayas, Incas, and other people work at whatever occupation require for them to build new buildings. Thew indians request baptise them and if the missionaries did not come to them the indians would take long roads and travels hundreds of miles to be baptism remarriage. Some indians got baptize over and over again because they believe it please the spaniards. Also faine was growing by the hundreds of churches. Also women teachers brought to mexico in 1534 to make a school for girls. in a lot of school young Indians were to be doctrinero. indians were accepted Christianity has been a subject for amazement.

The initial difference between the Jesuits in the 16th century and later missionaries is how they were allowed to proselytize. “Famed Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci” achieved such success by commandeering existing networks which he had noted “were admired and respected,” as such they “adopted the dress of the literati” as well as presenting their message in a manner similar to Confucian, and even Buddhist, ideals. Additionally the Jesuit understanding of “science, math, astronomy, philosophy, and religion and their attention-getting instruments…” opened doors and discussions with the Jesuit missionaries (Schoppa 47). Relationships weren’t all tea and roses as even seemingly acculturated Jesuits were still considered ‘other.’ It took the unequal treaties, specifically the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, following the Second Opium War, to grant widespread access to Christian missionaries (Schoppa 50-61).