The Spanish crown wanted native peoples in its American territories to be evangelized and, to that end, facilitated the establishment of missions by various Catholic orders. Focusing on the Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda in Northern New Spain (Mexico) and the Jesuit missions of Chiquitos in what is now Bolivia, Frontiers of Evangelization takes a comparative approach to understanding the experiences of indigenous populations in missions on the frontiers of Spanish America. Marshaling a wealth of data from sacramental, military, and census records, Robert H. Jackson explores the many factors that influenced the stability of mission settlements, including the indigenous communities' previous subsistence patterns and family structures, the evangelical techniques of the missionary orders, the social and political organization within the mission communities, and epidemiology in relation to population density and mobility. The two orders, Jackson's research shows, organized and administered their missions very differently. The Franciscans took a heavy-handed approach and implemented disruptive social policies, while the Jesuits engaged in a comparatively 'kinder and gentler' form of colonization. Yet the most critical factor to the missions' success, Jackson finds, was the indigenous peoples' existing demographic profile - in particular, their mobility. Nonsedentary populations, like the Pames and Jonaces of the Sierra Gorda, were more prone to demographic collapse once brought into the mission system, whereas sedentary groups, like the Guarani of Chiquitos, experienced robust growth and greater resistance to disease and natural disaster. Drawing on more than three decades of scholarly work, this analysis of crucial archival material augments our understanding of the role of missions in colonization, and the fate of indigenous peoples in Spanish America.
Robert H. Jackson is an independent historian who has published extensively on Latin America and the Southwest Borderlands. Among his many titles are Race, Caste, and Status: Indians in Colonial Spanish America; Indian Population Decline: The Missions of Northwestern New Spain, 1687-1840; and From Savages to Subjects: Missions in the History of the American Southwest.
"Drawing on his tireless archival investigation, Robert H. Jackson details the stories of both nonsedentary and sedentary native peoples of the colonial frontier. He narrates this history with great respect for the agencies of all parties - native and missionary alike - a respect that sets his perspective apart from those of many previous authors. Historians will be struck by the diligence and care Jackson has exercised in analyzing the demographic data he uses to reconstruct the lives that were led in these missions. Frontiers of Evangelization should find ready acceptance in history classrooms and in the developing historical discourse about native history." - Richard R. Warner Jr., Associate Professor of History, Wabash College "Few historians can claim Robert H. Jackson's breadth of experience in researching mission environments throughout Spanish America. Frontiers of Evangelization puts this experience to work in a comparative study of missionary aims, indigenous lives, and demographic change from the lowlands of Bolivia to Northern Mexico." - Sean F. McEnroe, author of From Colony to Nationhood in Mexico: Laying the Foundations, 1560-1840
