Editing Guaraní people (section)

===European contact===
[[File:Indian Soldiers from the Coritiba Province Escorting Native Prisoners.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A Guarani family captured by slave hunters. By [[Jean Baptiste Debret]]]]
In 1537, [[Gonzalo de Mendoza]] traversed through Paraguay to about the present Brazilian frontier. On his return, he made acquaintance with the Guarani and founded the city of [[Asunción]], later the capital of Paraguay. The first governor of the Spanish territory of [[Guayrá]] initiated a policy of intermarriage between European men and Indigenous women; the descendants of these matches characterize the Paraguayan nation today. The [[Laws of the Indies]] forbade slavery in [[Hispanic America]].

The first two [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]], Father Barcena and Father Angulo, came to what is now the State of [[Paraná (state)|Paraná]], Southern Brazil, in 1585, by land from the west. Others soon followed, and a Jesuit college was established at Asunción. In 1608, as a result of the Jesuit protest against the enslavement of the Indigenous population, King [[Philip III of Spain]] gave authority to the Jesuits to convert and colonize the tribes of Guayrá. In the early period, the name Paraguay was loosely used to designate the entire river basin, including parts of what are now Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Exploring expeditions were accompanied by [[Franciscan]] [[friar]]s. Early in the history of Asunción, Father [[Luis de Bolaños]] translated the [[catechism]] into the Guarani language and preached to Guarani people who resided in the area around the settlement. In 1588–89 St. [[Francis Solanus]] crossed the [[Gran Chaco|Chaco]] wilderness from Peru and stopped at Asunción, but gave no attention to the Guarani. His departure left the Jesuits alone with their missionary work, and to defend the natives against slave dealers.<ref>"The larger portion of the population regarded it as a right, a privilege by virtue of conquest, that they should enslave the Indians" (Page, 470).</ref> The Jesuit [[Provincial (religion)|provincial]] Torres arrived in 1607, and "immediately placed himself at the head of those who had opposed the cruelties at all times exercised over the natives".<ref>Page, 470</ref>