REDUCCIN

( (Spanish), ) Portuguese Reduo, in colonial Latin America, an Indian community set up under ecclesiastical or royal authority to facilitate the conversion of Indians to Christianity, to protect them, to teach them better farming methods and simple crafts, and in the case of civil reducciones (ruled locally by Indian caciques, or chiefs) to make them readily available for labour. The Indians, in turn, had to live under a strict regimen and were required to contribute their labour to various agricultural enterprises. The term implies reducing Indians to one place; another term used was congregaciones (congregating centres). The best known reducciones were those established by Jesuit missionaries in Paraguay. In the region between the Paraguay and Paran rivers, and in the Argentine Misiones and Corrientes provinces, between the Paran and Uruguay rivers, the Jesuits converted an estimated 700,000 Indians between 1610 and 1767; about 150,000 of them lived in 30 reducciones. The Jesuits tried to preserve their territory from outside interference, especially from Spaniards in search of Indian labourers. After their order was suppressed in 1767, most of their settlements went to ruin; some, however, eventually became cities, such as Encarnacin and Villarrica. In Brazil there were similar settlements in and to the south of the So Paulo region.