The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during the 16th to 19th centuries in the period of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These missions were scattered thoughout the entirety of the Spanish colonies, which extended from Mexico and southwestern portions of the current-day United States to Argentina and Chile.
The relationship between Spanish colonization and the Catholicization of the Americas is inextricable. The conversion of the region was crucial for colonization. The missions created by members of Catholic orders were often located on the outermost borders of the colonies. The missions facilitated the expansion of the Spanish empire through the religious conversions and pacification of the indigenous peoples occupying those areas. While the Spanish crown dominated the political, economic, and social realms of the Americas and people indigenous to the region, the Catholic Church dominated the religious and spiritual realm. Similar to the way that colonization requires destruction of what existed before in order to construct something new, the Catholicization of the Americas sought to destroy indigenous spiritualities, tribal identifications, and traditional customs. The Church and its clergy replaced indigenous gods, goddesses, and temples with Catholic churches and cathedrals, saints, and other practices. Often indigenous peoples resisted the missionaries and the imposition of Catholicism and honored Catholic religious symbols in conjunction with symbols of their own spiritualities.
The promotion of Catholicism was motivated by conjoining desires and rationalizations. The Spanish crown was interested in the spread of the Spanish Empire, and viewed the spread of the Catholic Church as a primary means to colonize the land and the indigenous people. The Catholic Church as an institution was interested in redeeming the souls of the indigenous Americans. They believed that they were given the divine right and responsibility of Christianizing as many parts of the world as possible. Missionaries themselves were motivated by the desire to construct the Americas as the site of pure Christianity, as a departure from European Christianity. Many religious clergy had become critical of the increasingly corrupt papacy in Europe which demanded excessive tribute and accepted monetary indulgences for redemption. Many clergy ventured to the Americas to preach what they felt was a purer form of Christianity, and to redeem the souls of the indigenous peoples.
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