Catholic Church and Colonial Latin America: Power and Society

Introduction

The relationship between the Catholic Church and Latin America is one that goes back to the earliest history of Spain's first explorations of South America. The Church has had an integral role in the development of Latin America in an economic, political, and social capacity that continues to be reflected in the region today. It began with the conversion of indigenous peoples during the colonial period, which was the most pivotal period in gaining control of Latin America. The indigenous people had, as we know from archaeological artifacts and study, a sophisticated society — albeit different, but nonetheless comparable to that of the Europeans, with the exception of Catholicism (Lockhart and Schwartz, 1983, 1). Therefore, it was essential to eliminate the authority that governed the South American indigenous peoples and to indoctrinate them into the authority of the Church, socializing them in Catholic ways. This would make them susceptible to the political and economic reforms that would be implemented through colonization of the lands, making the colonial period and the Catholic Church the most significant time and institution in the history of South America.

This essay examines the relationship between the Church, economics, and political systems in South America during the colonial period in order to understand how those relationships produced changes in the indigenous peoples and shaped the environments of Latin America that persist today.

The Conquest of the Indigenous People

The indigenous people of Latin America were sophisticated in their social, economic, and political structures — perhaps more complex than the early Spanish conquistadors realized. Where the indigenous peoples were vulnerable was in their inability to physically withstand exposure to European disease, or to resist the sheer numbers of Spanish who continued to pour onto the continent from Europe. In this way, the Spanish colonization of Latin America was not so different from that experienced by Native Americans in North America. However, unlike the Native Americans of North America, South American indigenous peoples were largely unaware of one another as social groups, due to the vast distances between them and the nature of the terrain, which made contact far less likely than it was across the open plains of North America (Lockhart and Schwartz, 31). Therefore, when the Spanish began arriving in South America in large numbers, individual indigenous societies were too few in number to deal with the overwhelming Spanish presence (Lockhart and Schwartz, 31).

Immediately upon successful conquest of the indigenous peoples, the Spanish set about establishing cities and, especially, ports that could receive goods and more settlers (Lockhart and Schwartz, 86). The Catholic Church, intricately woven into Spanish society, was transferred to these new cities. Building churches was a priority, because it was necessary to indoctrinate the indigenous peoples as rapidly as possible into Spanish culture. Catholicism replaced the indigenous peoples' polytheistic and pagan belief systems. The expansion of Spanish cities and their social areas of influence spread further with the discovery of natural resources that drew interest to specific locations (Lockhart and Schwartz, 91).

Into the Spanish cities of the central areas, the moment their wealth became evident, there began to pour hundreds and then thousands of immigrants, including all the elements of Spanish civil society: merchants, artisans, professional people and notaries, and Spanish women. Except for the women, the immigrants were of types similar to those who had carried out the conquests; the newcomers were primarily the conquerors' relatives and fellow townsmen, drawn by promises of help and tales of opportunity. Like immigrants of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, both the conquerors and those who came after them wrote letters home, telling an attractive mixture of lies and truth about available jobs and wealth. Some of the richest of the conquerors and early migrants returned home to Spain, where their stories and ostentatious displays convinced those around them to follow their example. This transatlantic movement — of nephew following uncle, townsman following townsman — continued across the entire span of the colonial period (Lockhart and Schwartz, 91).

The earliest authorities of the cities and expanding social areas were ruling governors, mayors, and appointed officials. However, the Church spread further into the rural areas in ways that the appointed officials' network of control did not. The Church thus took on an increasingly political role in the colonization of South America (Turner, 1971, 3). Historian Frederick Turner notes that this would come as a surprise to those who perceive the Church as a purely religious body without political affiliation — but that impression is false, especially in the early years of Christianity. The Church was actually on the same political footing as emperors and kings, and in South America, Church politics served as an assurance that both the goals of the Church and the Spanish monarchy were being met (Turner, 3).

As far as the indigenous peoples were concerned, the Catholic clergy began to see themselves as the protectors of the indigenous people, both spiritually and politically (Turner, 56). This helped to assimilate the indigenous peoples into Spanish society and even gave rise to a high incidence of intermarriage and mixed bloodlines between the indigenous population and the Spanish (Turner, 56). The indoctrination of the indigenous people into the Catholic belief system, combined with intermarriage, helped establish a social order and kept the Church socially and politically viable among the people of Latin America.

Intermarriage, however, was not as widely accepted among the colonial period's Spanish elite (Johnson and Lipsett-Rivera, 1998, 18). The patriarchal hierarchy found in indigenous societies was absorbed into Latin American colonial societies alongside the patriarchal structure of the Spanish elite, who — unlike the Church — held a greater regard for pure bloodlines (Johnson and Lipsett-Rivera, 18). The clergy in Latin America, while recognizing the political significance of the elite over the lower classes, were far less concerned with maintaining those distinctions of blood.

Conclusion

During the colonial period, the interests of the Church and the European Spanish state cannot easily be separated. It can be said, however, that the Church was a more significant social factor in the lives of the assimilating indigenous people and the Spanish colonists who arrived to settle the continent. There was no mistaking the potential wealth of Latin America, and the letter cited from Queen Isabella clearly articulates the need for the Church and the state to be partners in exploiting the region's natural resources — especially gold. Both the Church and Spain needed the economic wealth that could be gained by exploiting South America, but doing so also required a process of socialization, and in that process the Church played a more significant role than the Spanish rulers. It was the Church that converted the polytheistic and pagan beliefs of the indigenous people to the monotheism of Christianity.

The conversion of the religious identity and beliefs of an indigenous people is essential to creating the basis for a society organized along the colonizer's lines. Even though the indigenous peoples had complex societies when the Spanish encountered their civilizations, conquering their religious beliefs and indoctrinating them into Christianity caused them to become part of the conquering society — and ultimately to surrender themselves to the political and economic interests of the Church and the state.

Works Cited

Gill, Anthony. 1998. Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Johnson, Lyman L., and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera, eds. 1998. The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame, and Violence in Colonial Latin America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Lockhart, James, and Stuart B. Schwartz. 1983. A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Turner, Frederick C. 1971. Catholicism and Political Development in Latin America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.