Indian reductions

Indian reductions (Spanish: reducciones) were mission towns built by Spanish Jesuit missionaries in Central and South America and populated by the forcible relocation of indigenous populations. The goal was to consolidate previously scattered populations to exert more control over them including increasing baptisms and to improve the flow of silver to the government in Spain. The local populations, who had adapted to a way of life suitable to the many, minor microclimates throughout the Andes, were uprooted and forced to assimilate. They new towns were sometimes located in areas know to be prone to natural disasters including flooding. The large population centers disrupted family and kinship relationships. The indigenous people were exposed to many new diseases like Smallpox, for which they had no immunity, and many died as a result.

Background

Reductions were part of the larger reforms of Don Francisco de Toledo, the fifth viceroy of Peru, beginning in 1567. This concept was part of what were known as the Toledo reforms, adopted by the Spanish crown to "aggrandize Spanish power by consolidating viceregal rule and to revive the flow of Andean silver to the metropolitan treasury." In order to achieve these economic and political goals efficiently, Toledo attempted to relocate the scattered Native American population of the Andes into larger settlements.