Colonial settlement of Latin America

Before the Reformation, papal lines of demarcation assigned to Spain and Portugal colonial spheres of interest in the western hemisphere. Spanish explorers, missionaries, and settlers penetrated and developed areas which are now part of the U.S., including Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and Florida. The Roman Catholicism of Latin America was theologically stamped by the Council of Trent, yet politically controlled by Spain and Portugal. Missionaries such as Eusibio Kino came from religious Orders like the Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans. Their chief strategy was "the mission," an enclosed community that taught agriculture and trades together with the Christian faith. Catholic missionaries often found themselves in conflict with their fellow countrymen who sought to exterminate, enslave, or exploit the Indians as in the Paraguay mission. Bartholomé de Las Casas and others protested such brutal treatment, but the African slave trade soon became a substitute for Native American slavery. In time, native peoples blended their own beliefs and practices into the Christian teaching they received from missionaries. The independence movements which freed Latin America from European control had both religious and political dimensions.