Because of their privileged status as a transnational religious institution and their allegiance to the pope, the Jesuits enjoyed considerable autonomy from both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. This status allowed them to avoid taxes and disregard the colonial elites, who envied their ability to monopolize labor and resources. Colonial dissatisfaction was exacerbated by palace intrigue in Lisbon and Madrid, as well as in Rome, which led to their expulsion from the Portuguese and Spanish empires in 1759 and 1767, respectively. In Maynas, Chiquitos and Moxos, responsibility for administering the productive assets of the reducciones was assumed by civil authorities as representatives of the crown, while the missions’ spiritual operations were passed to diocesan clergy. Wholesale dysfunction motivated the Spanish to transfer the religious system to the Franciscans in 1780, but the separation of the economic means of production from religious control denied the friars the means of supporting the missions, and by 1804 the entire system had essentially collapsed. In Maynas, the advance of the Portuguese was kept in check by the military post at Iquitos, but access to the region was now organized via the colonial towns on the upper Marañón (Jaen) and Huallaga (Moyobamba) rivers, which were linked to the coast by an Inca road that traversed a low point in the Andean Cordillera (Huancabamba Gap). Administrative control was now exercised from Lima (Virreinato del Perú) rather than Quito (Audiencia de Quito). This arrangement was formalized in 1801, when the region was organized as the Comandancia General…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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