A Franciscan’s View of the Dutch Challenge to Iberia’s American Empire

Luis Gerónimo de Oré (1554–1630), a Franciscan friar in the Spanish empire, was a first-generation creole who was appointed as the new bishop of Concepción, Chile. This chapter follows Oré’s journey to his new post in one of the lesser known but critically important areas of the Spanish empire where the evolution, nature, and impact of Old World dynastic entanglements and decades of wars over religion unfolded too. Oré’s concern with the consequences of the rapid rise of Protestant sects and their ability to recruit Indian allies informed his desire to preserve Spanish hegemony and disseminate the Catholic faith through converting Indigenous groups. In Chile, he sought to convert the Mapuche, a fiercely independent nation, as allies against an approaching Dutch fleet. The Dutch attacks failed, but Oré’s confrontations with state officials and fellow clergy over the treatment of Indians, in particular the Mapuche, testify to the complicated and hybrid culture Oré helped build in Andean America as a result of the Spanish encounters with foreign interlopers.