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Paraguay: The Yerba Mate Jesuit Empire
Description
Why did a Jesuit republic of 140,000 people in the subtropical forests of South America — with its own armed militia, its own printing presses, its own Baroque composers, and the only successful mate plantation in colonial history — get destroyed by a riot about hats? How did the Guaraní and the Society of Jesus together solve a domestication mystery that no one else could crack, and why did that knowledge vanish the moment the priests were expelled?
Join John as he tells the story of Paraguay and yerba mate — the Jesuit utopia, the bandeirante raiders, the angel faces carved in subtropical sandstone, and the leaf that built a kingdom...
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