Origins of the Jesuit-Guarani alliance and its consolidation in the 18th century

Abstract

The current paper analyzes the way a long lasting alliance between the Jesuits fathers and the Guaraní chiefs was built, both living in missions of  colonial Paraguay. In order to understand the alliance´s initial success, we start researching the first negotiations done by Guaraní chiefs with the fathers who founded missions -reducciones- along the Paraná and Guayrá rivers. This occured in an atmosphere of inter-tribal wars, colonist explotation and by the need to obtain weapons to ensalve them. The analysis focuses upon the role of Indian leaders in the negotiations. The paper reveals the effort the Jesuit father undertook with colonial authorities and the Crown to accomplish the religious conversion project and the pressures the Indian Chiefs exerted to obtain extraordinary privileges  to satisfy material needs and to assure the territory´s defense.