From Apogee to Collapse

Chapter six explores Ocopa’s history during the last three and a half decades of Spanish colonial rule in Peru. This period is the apogee of Ocopa’s missionary enterprise under the control of the Aragonese faction. These new leaders fervently began to incorporate many of the economic and political principles behind the Bourbon reforms in their evangelization efforts. This new emphasis was in part an outcome of the new leaders’ philosophical beliefs, but was also implemented to please Crown officials, who exercised more and more authority over the College. The new propaganda worked, and Ocopa was granted its largest concession from the Crown to date, almost complete pastoral control over the newly created diocese of Maynas. Their success, however, was hollow, as miscommunication and incompetence in the Spanish bureaucracy led to confusion and dissension in the diocese. The French invasion of Spain and the wars of independence ultimately sealed Ocopa’s fate.