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The missions were relatively autonomous from Spanish rulers — intentionally so to protect the Guarani from the abuses of the encomienda leaders who wanted them as a source of labor.

Argentina’s brutal encomienda system literally worked indigenous laborers to death.

The encomienda, a system common within the Spanish empire that forced indigenous people to work for Europeans and their descendants, did not penetrate big parts of the territory that eventually became Paraguay.

Moreover, “the encomiendas are ruined,” while the natives are not instructed in religion, and are hostile to the Spaniards.

Within a single year’s time most of the coast country of Luzon had been traversed, important positions seized, and the inhabitants portioned out in encomiendas.