The conquest of the Argentine pampas, with its well-known effects on Argentine expansion and on the political career of General Julio A. Roca, had a religious accompaniment which gave it some of the aspects of a crusade. Missionary priests went along with the military expedition and followed it up in order to convert and settle the Indians whose wanderings were forcibly suppressed by the operation of the army.
Efforts to Christianize the area had extended over two centuries, with only limited success.