Objective/context:

The article examines the utilitarian and modern vision that the Franciscans of the province of Peru had for the Amazonian waterways as the most important means of communication, transportation, trade and development of the region, which in turn constituted the pillar of the various projects for economic, and even political autonomy, formulated by Franciscan missionaries for the Amazon region under their domain since the second half of the XVII century.

Originality:

This article unveils the guiding principle that allows us to understand the specificity and unity of the missionary, pre-enlightened and manuscript foundations of modern scientific knowledge of the western Amazon, overcoming the historiographical constraints that subordinate all Amazonian missionary science to that produced within secular, urban and printed circles in the late 18th century.

Methodology:

A set of materials that includes maps, letters and reports produced by Peruvian Franciscans are textually and visually analyzed, and contrasted with reports and documents prepared by vice-royal officials and intellectual circles in Lima about the western Amazon.

Conclusions:

The article shows that the Peruvian Franciscans used their geographic and hydrographic knowledge to project a utilitarian and autonomous vision of the Western Amazon, and that modern and pragmatic knowledge of the region among Franciscans was rooted in a line of thought that was formulated within missionary circles by manuscript means, at least a century before the Enlightenment.

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