Editing History of Christianity (section)

=== Colonialism and missions ===
{{Main|Christianity and colonialism}}{{See also|Christianity in China|Christianity in Korea|Christianity in Vietnam}}
[[Colonialism]], which began in the fifteenth century, originated either on a militaristic/political path, a commercial one, or with settlers who wanted land.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19}} Christian missionaries soon followed with their own separate agenda.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19, 20, 21}}{{sfn|Nowell|Magdoff|Webster|2022}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Robinson|1952|p=152}} "Companies, politicians, missionaries, settlers, and traders rarely acted together" and were often in conflict.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19, 20, 21}} Some missionaries supported colonialism while others took stances against colonial oppression.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|pp=11, 69-70}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=134}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=3}}{{sfn|Sanneh|1985|p=200, 204, 210-211}} 

Between 1500 and 1800, Catholic Christianity gained followers worldwide through missionaries from the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]], and [[First French Empire|French]] empires.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=XX-XXIII}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=105}} During the Hispanic colonization of the Americas, Latin America largely became a [[New World]] form of [[History of the Catholic Church in Spain|Iberian Catholicism]], while the merging of native and Spanish traditions also created a multitude of indigenous Christianities.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=77, 80}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2016|p=14}} Spanish missionaries tried to suppress the trade in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian]] slaves in the Caribbean, but the Catholic church became one of the largest holders of black slaves.{{sfn|Eltis|Bradley|Cartledge|Drescher|2011|pp=257–259, 499}}

Long before the first European colonists arrived, indigenous Christian communities, which were often in conflict with the newcomers, had existed in Asia and Africa.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=XX-XXI}} Prior to the Portuguese' landing, [[Saint Thomas Christians|St.Thomas Christian communities]] in southern India had existed continuously for more than 1000 years.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=9}} In the 16th century, baptized Kongolese Christians were taken by Portuguese slavers to the [[Caribbean]] and [[Brazil]] where there are clear traces that they evangelized among their fellow sufferers. Former slaves returned to West Africa "with Bible in hand" preceding the European Protestant missionaries. These [[Freedman|freedmen]] founded [[Freetown]] which played a central role in the Christianization of West Africa.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=XXIII}}

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, [[Reductions|reductionist villages]] for natives in regions of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil were established by Jesuits and other orders. Jesuits promoted local skills and technical innovations, working exclusively in the native language to form an "agrarian collective" kept separate from the rest of colonial society, with serfdom and forced labor forbidden. The Spanish crown resented this autonomy, and the Jesuit order was banned; its members were expelled from Spain in 1767. Thereafter, reduction territories became open to settlers, and natives often became bondmen.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=82-83}}{{refn|group=note| In 1986, [[ Roland Joffé]] made a film titled [[The Mission (1986 film)|The Mission]] dramatizing these events.{{sfn|Scranton|2015}}}}