Introducing Jesuit Missions
In the early 17th century Jesuit missionaries established a series of Indian missions in a region straddling northeast Argentina, southeast Paraguay and neighboring bits of Brazil. Between 1631 and 1638, after devastating attacks by slaving expeditions from São Paulo and hostile Indians, activity was concentrated in 30 more easily defensible missions. These became centers of culture as well as religion – in effect a nation within the colonies, considered by some scholars an island of utopian progress and socialism, which at its height in the 1720s had over 150, 000 Guarani Indian inhabitants.
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Seven of the now-ruined missions lie in the northwest of Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, eight are in Paraguay and 15 in Argentina.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
Thorn Tree forum discussion
Recent posts
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RE: 10 Days in Paraguay
by afz 15 October 2010
There's no view of Iguazú Falls from anywhere in Paraguay. You can go to the Itaipú dam if that interests you. I found Asunción to be…
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RE: Near by towns to visit by Iguazu Falls in Brazil??
by bergamoand 28 July 2010
Where? In Brazil? I can't remember any worthwhile city to be visited within a 4-hour drive from Foz do Iguaçu. Cities in western Paraná…
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RE: Southern Brazil ideas
by Griot_NJ 09 September 2008
No one has mentioned Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state and the real capital of south Brazil. It may not really be of…
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