Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Sepé Tiarajú was the principal leader of the Brazilian resistance movement against the implementation of the Madrid Treaty during the years 1754–56. He became a symbol of courage to the indigenous population in South America struggling for their own land. Since the beginning of the colonization process in Latin America in the sixteenth century, the Jesuit missions, commanded by the Society of Jesus, were one of the most important strategies used by Portugal and Spain to dominate and control the native inhabitants of the region. Applying the catechism and organizing production, the Jesuits created several small cities called missions. Sepé Tiarajú was an indigenous Guarani leader raised in the Mission of São Miguel, which formed, with six other missions, the great Seven Peoples Missions, located on the east side of the Uruguay River–the region that currently covers the west part of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The Seven Peoples Missions was situated in a territory of the Spanish crown. In order to acquire that wide and valuable piece of land–which was already fairly well developed because of the work of generations of Indians–the Portuguese crown offered Spain the colony of Sacramento, located in the extreme south of what is now Uruguay. The purpose of these negotiations was to ease tensions between the two empires regarding the demarcation of areas in South America. Talks were ... log in or subscribe to read full text