Introduction

In the past decades historians have interpreted early modern Christian missions not simply as an adjunct to Western imperialism, but as a privileged field for cross-cultural encounters.1 Placing the Jesuit missions into a global phenomenon that emphasizes economic and cultural relations between Europe and the East, I want to analyze the possibilities and limitations of the religious conversion in the Micronesian islands of Guåhån (or Guam) and the Northern Marianas. While colonial authorities depicted the Marianas as isolated spots in a vast ocean, this book falls into line with some scholarship that challenges the simple application of deterministic notions, such as their geographic (isolation), economic (poverty and lack of mineral resources), or demographic (low population) conditions as a way to justify missionary permanency.2