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Christianity comes to the Americas: conquest and missions
from 1492; Franciscans in Mexico 1524; Guadalupe 1531 (tradition)· Event· Church, doctrine & the world
Historical recordConfirmed by archaeology, outside sources or contemporary records.
From 1492 Spanish and Portuguese conquest brought Catholic Christianity to the Americas, through missionary work and coercion alike.
See it on the Bible & Christianity map →What it is
Columbus's voyages were followed by papal bulls (1493) and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), dividing the right to colonize and evangelize between Spain and Portugal. In 1524 twelve Franciscans, the 'Twelve Apostles of Mexico', arrived after Cortés's conquest. Mass baptisms followed, alongside forced labor and epidemics that killed most of the native population. The Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas denounced the abuses. Tradition holds that the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego near Mexico City in 1531.
Why it matters
Latin America became Catholic and today holds about 40% of the world's Catholics. It also prompted Europe's first serious debates over the rights of native peoples.
Sources and history
Mission records, Las Casas's writings, the Valladolid debate (1550–1551) and native codices document it. Population-collapse estimates vary widely, from about half to over 90% in many regions, mostly from disease.
Questions and debates
The earliest detailed account of Guadalupe dates from 1648–1649, over a century later, so historians debate its origins; for Catholics it is a revered apparition.
Connections (2)
▸Christianity comes to the Americas: conquest and missions planted the Latin American churches behind Christianity's center shifts to the Global SouthHistorical record
The connection
Spanish and Portuguese missions made Latin America overwhelmingly Catholic over three centuries. That base, plus a later Pentecostal boom, made the region a major part of Christianity's shift south. In 2013 the Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas.
When and where
Mexico, Peru, Brazil and beyond from the 1500s; Latin America held about a quarter of the world's Catholics in 1910 and about 40% today.
Historical evidence
Church statistics and Pew Research Center data trace the shift; Brazil alone has more Catholics than any other country.
Questions and debates
How deeply native peoples embraced Christianity, versus blending it with older beliefs, is debated, as is how to weigh the colonial violence that came with it.
▸Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits ran missions as part of Christianity comes to the Americas: conquest and missionsHistorical record
The connection
Jesuits arrived in Brazil in 1549 and later worked from Canada to Paraguay. Their best-known effort was the Guaraní 'reductions' in Paraguay, self-governing mission towns that sheltered over 100,000 people at their 1730s peak from slave raiders. They also learned and recorded native languages. Portugal (1759) and Spain (1767) expelled them, partly over these missions.
When and where
Brazil from 1549 (Manuel da Nóbrega); the Paraguay reductions from 1609; New France, where Jean de Brébeuf was killed in 1649.
Historical evidence
The Jesuits' annual letters, mission censuses and surviving ruins, such as São Miguel and Trinidad, now UNESCO World Heritage sites, document the missions.
Questions and debates
Historians disagree whether the reductions protected Guaraní culture or remade it; the 1986 film The Mission dramatized the debate.