Reductions in the context of "Missionaries"

Paraguay (Guarani: Paraguái), officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country located in the central region of South America. It borders Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. Paraguay has access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Paraná–Paraguay Waterway. The country is governed as a unitary presidential republic composed of a capital district and seventeen departments. Its capital and largest city is Asunción.

The indigenous Guaraní had been living in eastern Paraguay for at least a millennium before the arrival of Spanish conquistadores in 1524. The city of Asunción was founded in 1537 as the first capital of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata within the Spanish Empire. During the 17th century, Paraguay was the center of Jesuit missions, where the natives were converted to Christianity and introduced to European culture. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories in 1767, Paraguay increasingly became a peripheral colony. Following independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Paraguay was ruled by a series of authoritarian governments. This period ended with the disastrous Paraguayan War (1864–1870), during which the country lost half its prewar population and around 25–33% of its territory. In the 20th century, Paraguay faced another major international conflict—the Chaco War (1932–1935) against Bolivia—in which Paraguay prevailed. It subsequently came under a succession of military dictators, culminating in the 35-year regime of Alfredo Stroessner, which lasted until his overthrow in 1989 by an internal military coup. This marked the beginning of Paraguay's current democratic era.

A sitio (Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a sitio's location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own barangay if its population were high enough. Sitios are similar to puroks, but the latter are more urban and closer to the center of the barangay, especially the barangay hall. The term is derived from the Spanish word sitio meaning "place".

During the Spanish colonial period the colonial government employed the reducción policy, allowing the remapping of various settlements. Several far-flung hamlets were identified, named, and organized into "sitios" so that municipalities and cities could more easily be governed through the barangay system, then known as the barrio system. A sitio does not have an independent administration; it is established purely for organizational purposes only.

The Spanish missions in California (Spanish: Misiones españolas en California) formed a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. The missions were established by Catholic priests of the Franciscan order to evangelize indigenous peoples backed by the military force of the Spanish Empire. The missions were part of the expansion and settlement of New Spain through the formation of Alta California, expanding the empire into the most northern and western parts of Spanish North America. Civilian settlers and soldiers accompanied missionaries and formed settlements like the Pueblo de Los Ángeles.

Indigenous peoples were forced into settlements called reductions, disrupting their traditional way of life and negatively affecting as many as one thousand villages. European diseases spread in the close quarters of the missions, causing mass death. Abuse, malnourishment, and overworking were common. At least 87,787 baptisms and 63,789 deaths occurred. Indigenous peoples often resisted and rejected conversion to Christianity. Some fled the missions while others formed rebellions. Missionaries recorded frustrations with getting indigenous people to internalize Catholic scripture and practice. Indigenous girls were taken away from their parents and housed at monjeríos. The missions' role in destroying Indigenous culture has been described as cultural genocide.

The Jesuit missions among the Guaraní were a type of settlement for the Guaraní people ("Indians" or "Indios") in an area straddling the borders of present-day Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay (the triple frontier). The missions were established by the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church early in the 17th century and ended in the late 18th century after the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the Americas. The missions have been called an experiment in "socialist theocracy" or a rare example of "benign colonialism". Others have argued that "the Jesuits took away the Indians' freedom, forced them to radically change their lifestyle, physically abused them, and subjected them to disease".

In their newly acquired South American dominions, the Spanish and Portuguese Empires adopted a strategy of gathering native populations into communities called "Indian reductions" (Spanish: reducciones de indios, Portuguese: reduções). The objectives of the reductions were to impart Christianity and European culture. Secular as well as religious authorities created "reductions".