Editing Mainas missions (section)

{{Short description|Jesuit and Franciscan missions in the Western Amazon}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}}{{Use Oxford spelling|date = July 2020}}[[File:Campana de la época colonial en San Joaquin de Omaguas.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Remains of the 17th century colonial church of San Joaquín de Omaguas in Loreto.]]
[[File:Mainas.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Mainas region was mostly in Peru, but extended into Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia.]]
{{SpanishMissions}}
The '''Mainas''' (or '''Maynas''') '''missions''' refers to a large number of small [[Spanish missions in the Americas|missions]] the [[Jesuits]] established in the western [[Amazon rainforest|Amazon]] region of [[South America]] from 1638 until 1767, when the Jesuits were [[Suppression of the Society of Jesus|expelled]] from [[Latin America]].{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=426–27}}{{sfn|Reeve|1993|p=118}} Following the Jesuit expulsion, mission activity continued under [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] auspices.<ref name=":1" />

Roughly 60 missions were founded in total.{{Sfn|Reeve|1993|p=119}} Scholar Anne Christine Taylor notes that, '[o]f all the western Amazonian mission establishments, that of the Jesuits of Mainas was by far the most important'.{{Sfn|Taylor|1999|p=223}} She estimates that, prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the many ethnic groups (called ''Indians'' or ''Indios'') in the mission field had a population of approximately 200,000. The population declined rapidly and many of the indigenous people resisted Christianity or had little contact with the Christian missionaries.{{Sfn|Taylor|1999|p=225}} Throughout their existence, the Jesuit mission settlements, known as [[Jesuit reduction|reductions]], were marked by epidemic disease (often [[smallpox]]) that exacted a tremendous death toll on the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous people]] resident in them. Slave raids also took a toll on the population and many of the indigenous people avoided or escaped missions.{{Sfn|Taylor|1999|p=225}}

'Maynas' or 'Mainas' refers to the [[Maina people]], indigenous to the area around the [[Marañón River]].{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=424}} The area in which the missions were established includes the 21st century area of [[Maynas Province, Peru|Maynas Province]], [[Peru]], and adjacent areas of Peru, [[Ecuador]], [[Colombia]], and [[Brazil]]. The [[Jivaroan peoples|Jivaro]], [[Kokama people|Kokama]], [[Cambeba]], [[Secoya]], and [[Yame people|Yame]] were among the other indigenous peoples the missionaries sought to convert.{{Sfn|Waisman|2020|p=113}}