Colonization and the Indigenous

The original people living in what is now Paraguay were Guaraní Amerindians of the Tupi-Guaraní language family among many other indigenous groups. At the time of the European arrival it is said that there were as many as 150,000 Amerindians living in present day Paraguay. Sebastian Cabot is the first known European to explore Paraguay from 1526 to 1530 under the Spanish order. The first permanent Spanish settlement, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption, which the capital), was founded where the Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers meet on Assumption Day, 15 August 1537. Then in the following two centuries Paraguay was dominated by the Jesuit Missions, these Jesuit missionaries were there to protect the natives from Portuguese slave trade and the Spanish colonist. Priests organized Guaraní families in mission villages ( reducciones ) designed as self-sufficient communities in which they were taught trades, improved methods of cultivation, and the fine arts, as well as religion. Eventually the colonist became jealous of the growing communities and therefore expelled the Jesuit from the New World. After the expulsion of the Jesuit the reducciones were taken over by civil authorities and the mismanagement caused their population to decline. The survivors either were assimilated into the rural mestizo population or fled to the hinterland.