During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, several catholic missions were created by the Jesuits in South America. Having arisen in the thirteenth century with the order of mendicants, work in evangelism and catechesis was greatly expanded in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the context of the maritime European expansion. Although they had an objective to diffuse the faith and convert natives, the missions ended up more as an instrument of colonialism. In exchange for political support from the Church, the State was responsible for sending and maintaining the missionaries and for protecting the Christians. In the analysis of Darcy Ribeiro in “As Américas e a Civilização”, the missions characterized themselves as a highly successful attempt of the Catholic Church (1) to Christianize native people, (2) to assure a refuge to native populations threatened by absorption or being enslaved by the diverse nuclei of descendants of Europeans, and (3) to organize native people in new forms that were capable of guaranteeing their survival and progress.
During the eighteenth century, the missionary movement faced problems in South America in areas of litigation between Spanish and Portuguese colonialism.
In the south of Brazil, the native population of the Sete Povos das Missões was submitted to the Madrid Treaty (1750), one of the main treaties signed by Portugal and Spain to define the colonized areas. (Blank, 2003) According to the Treaty of Madrid, it was established that transference of natives to the western margin of the Uruguay River, would mean for the Guaranis the destruction of the work of many generations and the deportation of more than thirty thousand people. The decision was made in agreement between Portugal, Spain, and even the Catholic Church, which sent emissaries to impose obedience over the natives. This placed the Jesuit missionaries in a delicate situation. If they supported the natives, then the church would consider them rebellious. But if they did not support the natives, the Indians would not trust the Jesuits anymore.
Some Jesuits remained in support of the crown, but others, such as the priest Lourenço Balda from the mission of São Miguel, supported the natives, and organized the resistance of those Indians to the occupation of their lands and slavery. The slaughter of the natives and Jesuits by soldiers of Portugal and Spain is named “Guerras GuaranÃticas” (wars of Guarani). Despite the absurd military inferiority, the native resistance remained until 1767, thanks to the tactics and the leaderships of Sépé Tirayu and Nicolau Languiru. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Indians had been scattered, enslaved, or were refugees attempting to re-establish the tribal life that they treasured before the missions. (Blank, 2003)