The Jesuit Missions

The Jesuits had missions all across South America though the most famous, thanks to Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, are close to the Iguazu falls in the northeast of Argentina, Misiones province. Though the Jesuit missions and missionaries are a controversial topic, wandering around the ruins you cannot help but marvel at what the Jesuits achieved. At their height, in the region round Iguazu alone, they housed over 80,000 Tupi-Guraní indigenous people and were entirely self-sufficient. Of course, the Tupi-Guraní were nomads and would have been very happy left alone. In fact, if it wasn’t for the Portuguese and Spanish slave traders hunting them the Jesuits would have probably found themselves rather lonely. However, it quickly became obvious to the indigenous people that the protection the missions gave them was worth having to go to Mass everyday. And to be fair the Jesuits taught the Tupi-Guraní a huge amount. Not just music and other arts, which they became famous for, but also farming and craftsmanship. The considerable profit made from these efforts was dealt fairly between the members of the community.

Unfortunately this accumulation of money and power soon became a bargaining chip on the table of politics. Eventually the Pope, who was going through a rocky patch back in Europe, ended up letting the missions go. Secret orders were dispatched round the empire with strict instructions to be opened at midnight on the 1st April, 1767. The following day 6,000 Jesuit priests were marched to the coast and deported, leaving a quarter of a million indigenous peoples from around the empire at the mercy of the considerably less merciful local governments.