Title: Extent and Location of the Governments of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Matogroso, Cuyaba, and Towns of Native Americans Called Chiquitos

Description

This map shows the present-day Bolivian provinces of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Chiquitos, and the Brazilian state of Mata Grosso. The map indicates the settlements of native people, known at that time as Chiquitos. This area was a center of Jesuit activity and many of the settlements may have been the remnants of Jesuit centers, called reducciones (reductions or townships). The Jesuits began their missionary work in South America in 1609. At the height of their activity, they sponsored 40 communities that were home to more than 150,000 native people. The major cities mentioned on the map, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cuyaba, were religious centers. Santa Cruz was an important staging point for the Jesuit missions, and Cuyaba, the capital of Mata Grosso, was established as a Catholic primature in 1745. The Jesuits were expelled from the Spanish colonies in 1767.