Making Christians

Abstract

The intentions of European colonists and administrators toward the native peoples they encountered often included—along with less lofty motives—that of sharing with them sincerely held religious beliefs, in the conviction that acceptance of these beliefs and the accompanying behavioral norms was essential to their happiness in this life and beyond. There can be no question that the colonists also hoped that adoption of Christian beliefs and the associated (as Europeans understood them) behaviors would make the native peoples more tractable.