REDUCTIONS
From the very beginning of Spanish colonization in America, the system of reductions (*reducciones*) came into force, following the instruction issued by the King of Spain in 1503, which ordered that nomadic Indians be gathered into villages to bring them to civilization, a settled way of life, and Christianity. Wherever the Spanish encountered nomadic tribes not settled in a fixed location—such as the Aztecs in Mexico, the Incas in Peru, or the Muiscas in Colombia—the missionaries attempted to gather them into reductions.
**Reductions** — Type of reduction. *Descriptio oppidi Beatae Mariae Virginis a Candelaria, apud Indos Guaranios*. Print of 1767 — Copy from the Vatican Library. Roberto Ridolfi
**DIAGRAM OF THE SPANISH CONSPIRACIES OF 1570**
**Diagram of the Spanish Conspiracies of 1570**
**Diagram of the Spanish Conspiracies of 1570**
Surplus agricultural and livestock products were transported to Spanish cities to procure necessary supplies of metals, salt, etc., and to pay the modest taxes owed to the crown. The layout of each reduction was uniform: at the center stood the main square with the church, the missionaries' house, the school, workshops, and the communal storehouse. From there, straight streets radiated outward, lined with houses, each family provided for. Religion dominated both public and private life. Sacred functions began and guided the day. Festive days were celebrated with great pomp, music, sacred songs, and after meals, both sacred and secular theatrical performances. Thus, each reduction formed a compact community of Christian Indians directed by the missionaries, with a certain theocratic and communal organization.
Some imperfections of the reductions—such as the excessive control exercised, which can be explained by the times and the cultural state of the Indians, as well as the external religious and civil formalism—were greatly exaggerated in the 18th century by the enemies of the Jesuits and later in the 19th century by Protestant writers such as Gothein and Pfotenhauer. Despite some defects, the reductions achieved excellent results in religious and moral education, always placed at the forefront, as well as in the stability of the peoples, colonization, and culture. For Spain, the reductions, despite their relative independence, did not form a separate state but were members of the colonial empire.
Similar reductions were founded by the Jesuits during the 17th and 18th centuries among the Chiquito, Chiriguan, and Mojoco in Bolivia, the Mayna along the Marañón River, and the Otomachio along the Orinoco River. In Brazil, too, the reduction system was introduced by the Jesuits, especially in the northern Maranhão, where flourishing reductions were established in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Following the example of the Jesuits, the Capuchins also founded reductions isolated from the outside environment among the Indians between the Orinoco and Caroní Rivers in Venezuela in the 18th century. By the end of the century, there were about 30 reductions in the region with approximately 25,000 Christian Indians.
The reduction system was likewise introduced by the Franciscans in California, where from 1769 to 1823 they founded 21 stations with 30,000 Christian Indians.
The reduction system experienced a kind of revival in the African missions of the 19th and 20th centuries, though not in the strictly isolationist form of the Jesuit reductions. Thus, in the missions of the Holy Spirit Fathers, both in West and East Africa, Christian villages were founded: in East Africa as refuges and bulwarks against slavery, and in the West against rampant paganism and the overwhelming influence of pagan chiefs. A similar system was used by the Jesuits in the Congo and in Zambesia. In the Congo, the so-called *fermes-chapelles* were first established—stations near indigenous dwellings serving as centers for missionary schools and agriculture, with the aim of educating youth in work and shielding nascent Christian communities from the influence and power of pagan chiefs. After the Belgian government prohibited the *fermes-chapelles*, Christian families gathered instead in special Christian villages. In the Zambesia mission, the system of founding Christian villages was also employed.
With the progress of the missions, however, this system was abandoned everywhere due to the deficiencies and difficulties inherent in it, such as frequent divisions within the tribes, the lack of zeal among Christians for converting the people, and suspicions—more or less justified—on the part of chiefs and colonial authorities.