"El control del territorio. Misiones en la demarcación de fronteras amazónicas"

Abstract

Portuguese America had a large contingent of Catholic missionaries who took charge of the administration and control of the different groups of indigenous peoples. Their work was crucial for the control and consolidation of the new territories. For instance, in the Brazilian Amazon region, on the border between French Guyana and Brazil, both indigenous peoples and runaways slaves, who had escaped the slave system (Mocambos),were a threat to state control. As Brazil became independent, it became vital to fix the country’s frontiers, in the face of threats by other powerful countries. So, once again and after different military failures, the state called upon the missionaries to attract these “poblaciones of indigenous peoples as well as runaways slaves to the fringes of the territory so that the frontiers could definitely be established.