The Mainas (or Maynas) missions refers to a large number of small missions the Jesuits established in the western Amazon region of South America from 1638 until 1767, when the Jesuits were expelled from Latin America. Following the Jesuit expulsion, mission activity continued under Franciscan auspices. Roughly 60 missions were founded in total. Scholar Anne Christine Taylor notes that, '[o]f all the western Amazonian mission establishments, that of the Jesuits of Mainas was by far the most important'. She estimates that, prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the many ethnic groups (called Indians or Indios) in the mission field had a population of approximately 200,000. The population declined rapidly and many of the indigenous people resisted Christianity or had little contact with the Christian missionaries. Throughout their existence, the Jesuit mission settlements, known as reductions, were marked by epidemic disease (often smallpox) that exacted a tremendous death toll on the indigenous people resident in them. Slave raids also took a toll on the population and many of the indigenous people avoided or escaped missions. 'Maynas' or 'Mainas' refers to the Maina people, indigenous to the area around the Marañón River. The area in which the missions were established includes the 21st century area of Maynas Province, Peru, and adjacent areas of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. The Jivaro, Kokama, Cambeba, Secoya, and Yame were among the other indigenous peoples the missionaries sought to convert. Overview Christian missions by the Jesuits were one element of the broader Spanish colonial project in the Americas. Historian Ann Taylor characterizes the objective of the missions as "pav[ing] the way for the spread of colonial institutions through cultural means" by using religious and other ideological tools to induce indigenous people to conform to colonial priorities. The Jesuit missions competed with the secular colonists and government for control of the indigenous population which declined rapidly during the mission period due to the introduction of European diseases, overwork and exploitation on Spanish farms, and the ravages of the Bandeirantes, slavers from Portuguese Brazil. The result of the stress on native societies was a reduction in the indigenous population of the Mainas mission area from an estimated 200,000 in 1550 to 30,000 in 1730. The Jesuits sought to congregate semi-nomadic indigenous people into Spanish-style settlements called reductions, thereby facilitating their Christianization. The colonial governors sought in addition to subject the indigenous to the encomienda or repartimiento systems