Slavery And Christianity In The Mission

As new worlds on earth were discovered, the world as everyone knew it became increasingly more complex. The Mission by Roland Joffé would prove as a great educational tool in a world history classroom, it touches upon 18h century slavery and Christianity in the new world; two of the most important topics of time. While also making students much more interested in the subject than a standard documentary. The Mission shows an accurate portrayal of what went on in the Portugal and Spain slave trade and shows the viewer how the world has evolved. In this time period trade increased to a global scale, the two hemispheres were linked, and information plus disease was spreading quicker than ever before. Through new conquest and the spread of

This film claims that the Jesuits were on a mission to convert Guanarí to Christianity. This is completely accurate, as Indian tribes did not have a profound religion, they were very easy to convert as they had nothing to protest these new beliefs with. “The New Testament specifically urged Christians to spread their faith throughout the world.” (Bentley and Ziegler 468) This quote from established historians reinforces the idea that Jesuits are in fact spreading Christianity to the new world. Christianity is a missionary religion, therefore the construction of missions in South America in The Mission is historically accurate making it an even more reliable movie for learning about historical events. (Bentley and Ziegler 468) When the Treaty of Madrid was signed in 1750, seven missionaries were transferred over to the Portuguese, and many of the Guanarí militants resisted and attempted to keep the missions alive. (Ganson 155-157) This exact event was portrayed in The Mission as seen in the battle scene between the Guanarí and the Portuguese military, as described in the book the Guanarí were asked to leave the highlands and they when they refused, they fought for their homeland. Gansons book backs up the historical accurateness of The Mission and further raises it’s case to be an academic visual as a way for students to learn the material in

There has always been supporters, but also people who despised one of the ideas, sometimes both. While these two ideas are not always related directly, in the case of The Mission or the Guaraní in real life, the decisions on these two subjects will directly affect the Guaranís future. History shows patterns in human nature and this information is critical to understanding the political and humanitarian issues that went on in this time period. The Mission opens the viewers eyes to how strong Christianity was in the 18th century, it enables a person to understand that many governments were not secular and that faith still played a big role in decisions. To the contrary, it also showed that many believed the Jesuits were becoming too powerful and the events in the movie replicate events that helped lead the Jesuits to expulsion from the Americas in 1767. (“The expulsion of the Jesuits” 1) The Mission comments on the lack of social standards in the world and investigates how quickly society has evolved in the past 100 years from the murdering of innocent people for their land, to the protection of human rights that prevents people from being severely mistreated in any developed nation. In addition it helps viewers students understand how critical the discovery of the Americas was to the progression of Christianity and the economic prosperity of European