Reductions

Common card · No. 421496

Reductions (Spanish: reducciones, also called congregaciones) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). The Spanish relocated, forcibly in many cases, indigenous inhabitants (Indians or Indios) of their colonies into urban settlements modeled on those in Spain. The Royal Spanish Academy defines reducción (reduction) as "a grouping into settlement of indigenous people for the purpose of evangelization and assimilation". In colonial Mexico, reductions were called "congregations" (congregaciones). Forced resettlements aimed to concentrate indigenous people into communities, facilitating civil and religious control over populations. The concentration of the indigenous peoples into towns facilitated the organization and exploitation of their labor. The practice began during Spanish colonization in the Caribbean, relocating populations to be closer to Spanish settlements, often at a distance...

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