The Guarani militia of the Paraguay reductions (from 1639)

In 1638 the mission Indians of the Parana and the Uruguay asked to be given firearms, and the Crown broke its own standing rule and agreed. Within a year the raiders out of Sao Paulo had been beaten in the field; a century later the order's historian called the result the greatest military resource the king had in that part of South America, and one costing him "not a single farthing". The same troops deposed a bishop in 1644, and their weapons stayed locked in the missionaries' stores.