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THE great colonial enterprises of the Spaniards and Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America were never limited to the commercial exploitation of their new found lands. If the first explorers and conquistadors were lured by ideas of legendary riches, spices, precious stones and metals, it was the indefatigable missionary zeal of the religious orders which provided much of the tenacity, flexibility, and endurance needed for the more difficult task of consolidation. The Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits in particular made themselves responsible not only for extending the first conquests and coastal settlements but also for the gradual adaptation of the natives to European ideas and techniques. It is only necessary to recollect the Philippine Islands, an Asiatic state with a present population of nineteen millions nearly all of whom are Christians, to appreciate the effective role played by the religious orders.
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