Editing Mainas missions (section)

=== Rebellion ===
The immediate impetus for missionary work in the region was a 1635 (or 1637,{{Sfn|Markham|1859|p=xvii}} or 1640<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Steward|first=Julian Haynes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPPRjrzc6mYC|title=Handbook of South American Indians|date=1946|publisher=[[Government Printing Office]]|volume=3|location=Washington, DC|pages=630|language=en|id=[[Smithsonian Institution]] Bulletin 143}}</ref>) rebellion by the Maina people against [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonialists]].{{sfn|Reeve|1993|p=118}}{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=426}}{{Efn|Accounts of the precise date of this rebellion vary widely, but it—perhaps in multiple instalments—probably occurred between 1635 and 1640.|name=|group=}} The Maina rebelled against the ''[[encomienda]]'' system, a system analogous to slavery which 'gave individual Spaniards the right to demand labor and tribute from the Indians assigned to them … and also turned them into ''de facto'' administrators, responsible for the control and the welfare of these Indians'.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Keith|first=Robert G.|date=August 1971|title=Encomienda, Hacienda and Corregimiento in Spanish America: A Structural Analysis|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/51/3/431/152265/Encomienda-Hacienda-and-Corregimiento-in-Spanish|journal=Hispanic American Historical Review|language=en|volume=51|issue=3|pages=431–446|doi=10.1215/00182168-51.3.431|issn=0018-2168|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Reeve describes the system, as practised in the early 17th century in Mainas, as 'exceedingly harsh': the vast majority of indigenous peoples co-opted into Mainas ''encomiendas'' died, and the colonial government used military force to put down those who had not been brought into the system.{{Sfn|Reeve|1993|p=116}}

The colonial strategy changed around 1636–38, however. According to [[Clements Markham]], [[Pedro Vaca de Vega]] (known as Don Pedro Vaca and styled ''Governador de los Maynas''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rodriguez|first=Manuel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QEpEWDaBH-UC|title=El marañon, y amazonas: Historia de los descubrimientos, entradas, y reducción de naciones|date=1684|publisher=Imprenta de Antonio Gonçales de Reyes|location=Madrid|pages=93, 211|language=es}}</ref>), the colonial governor of Mainas province, had 'despaired of subjugating the Indians by force' and hoped that the Jesuits 'might succeed in tranquillizing them by persuasion'.{{sfn|Markham|1859|p=xviii}}<ref name=":0" /> Accordingly, he hoped to bring Jesuit missionaries to the area. Reeve concurs, suggesting that the governor's change of heart was due to the recent history of violence in the area.{{Sfn|Reeve|1993|p=116}}