What role did the Catholic Church play in the colonization of Latin America?

The Catholic Church played a central, complex, and multifaceted role in the colonization of Latin America beginning in the early 16th century, shaping every aspect of life in the colonies both for the colonizers themselves and the indigenous peoples and places being colonized.

First, Catholic theology at the time provided the religious justification for colonization, arguing that it had the responsibility to “save” indigenous people by converting them to Christianity. The Pope and Papal Bulls gave Spain and Portugal the religious sanction to build their empires in the Americas and beyond.

As a result of this religious mission, much of Latin America was converted and culturally assimilated. Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican missionaries built missions across the Americas for the purposes of conversion. These missions would also become centers of education and European culture, teaching European languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, as well as farming and building methods. Another element of these cultural changes was the construction of schools, universities, and printing presses, which shaped intellectual life in the colonies and helped to reinforce European values. Some of the earliest universities in Latin America include the Royal University of the City of Kings (now the National University of San Marcos) and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. These cultural changes also became a tool of control for the empires.

The Catholic church also helped legitimize colonial racial and ethnic hierarchies, which would become the basis of the encomienda system, where indigenous workers were exploited under the pretext of Christian education. Economically, the Catholic church became one of the largest landowners in Latin America, controlling large estates, mines, and haciendas, which helped fuel the wealth of the European empires. Furthermore, the church collected “tithes,” which were taxes on agricultural output, giving them great wealth. Politically, the church played a crucial role in governance, with Catholic clergy advising and, in some cases, even controlling local leadership.

Today, over half of the population of Latin America still identifies as Catholic, and the church still holds immense power and influence.