Timeline of Jesuit History in Eastern Bolivia

Date	Event
1525-34	Francisco Pizarro enters Peru, founds Piura (first Spanish city in region); takes Cusco.
1535	Lima founded by Pizarro.
1536	Buenos Aires founded by Pedro de Mendoza.
1537	Asunción founded by Juan de Salazar y Espinosa.
1538	La Plata (or Charcas, later Sucre) founded by Gonzalo Pizarro y Rodríguez de Aguilar, younger brother of Francisco. Region named Chuquisaca; Pedro Anzúrez first governor.
1540	Society of Jesus approved by Pope Paul III.
1542	Viceroyalty of Peru (originally New Castile) established; Blasco Núñez Vela first viceroy.
1543	Audencia of Lima established as part of and subject to Viceroyalty of Peru.
1545	Massive silver strike discovered at Cerro Rico, later Potosí. Potosí founded by Juan Villaroel, although full legal status not given until 1561.
1547	Diocese of Asunción erected; Juan de los Barrios, O.F.M. first bishop.
c. 1548	Mizque (or Villa de Salinas) founded, although full legal status not given until 1603.
1548	Ñuflo de Chávez first Spaniard to traverse Chiquitania, en route to Lima from Asunción. La Paz founded by Alonso de Mendoza.
1549	Jesuits arrive in Brazil.
1552	Jesuit Province of Brazil established; Manoel da Nóbrega first provincial. Diocese of La Plata (Charcas) erected; Tomás de San Martín, O.P. first bishop.
1558	Spanish and Portuguese Jesuit Assistancies established. Chávez makes second journey to Lima from Asunción, again traversing Chiquitania.
1559	Soon-to-be Viceroy of Peru Diego López de Zúñiga petitions the Order’s commissary-general, Francisco de Borga, to send Jesuits to Peru. Audencia de Charcas, known as Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia), established as part of and subject to Viceroyalty of Peru, with headquarters at La Plata; Pedro Ramírez de Quiñones first president. Nueva Asunción, first community in present-day Santa Cruz province, founded by Chávez.
1561	Santa Cruz de la Sierra founded by Chávez near present-day San José de Chiquitos. Chávez named first governor of Paraguay.
1568	Jesuit Province of Peru established; Jerónimo Ruiz del Portillo first provincial. Chávez killed by hostile Itatine in ambush.
1569	Mita system introduced by new Viceroy of Peru Francisco de Toledo, making indentured servants of native peoples in the Spanish New World.
1570	Mercedarians first religious order to enter eastern Bolivia. Cochabamba founded by Jerónimo Osorio, although full legal status not given until 1572.
1572	Jesuits arrive in Bolivia, establish first chapter house in La Paz.
1574	Tarija founded (as San Bernardo de la Barranca) by Luis de Fuentes, although full legal status not given until 1575.
1576	Jesuits ordered by Toledo to assume control of doctrina of Juli, a town previously evangelised by Dominicans, located northwest of La Paz in present-day Peru.
1586	Jesuits Diego Samaniego and Diego Martínez reach Mizque en route to Santa Cruz, in answer to petition of Governor Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa for Jesuit missionaries.
1587	Jesuits arrive in Santa Cruz.
1587-1610	Samaniego makes annual evangelisation visits to hostile Chiriguano south and west of Santa Cruz.
1588	Martínez attempts evangelisation of Itatine outside of Santa Cruz. Jesuits arrive in Paraguay.
1590	San Lorenzo el Real (later San Lorenzo de la Frontera, 250 kms west of original settlement of Santa Cruz, on banks of Río Piraí) founded by Figueroa; majority of inhabitants of Santa Cruz eventually removed there.
1591	San Lorenzo el Real relocated across Río Piraí and renamed Cotoca.
1592	Jesuits establish chapter house in Santa Cruz.
1593	Jesuits arrive in Asunción.
1595	Many remaining inhabitants of Santa Cruz translated by Figueroa and Gonzalo Solís y Holgúin to Puente de San Bartolomé, to which many former inhabitants of San Lorenzo el Real then living in Cotoca also were transferred.
1596	Permission given to Jesuits to begin evangelisation of Chiquitania; also evangelisation of Moxos tribes (in the  Beni).
1604	Diocese of La Paz erected; Domingo Valderrama y Centeno, O.P. first bishop. Francisco de Alfaro visits Santa Cruz in an attempt to persuade its remaining inhabitants to relocate to San Lorenzo de la Frontera.
1604-05	Remaining inhabitants of Santa Cruz relocate to new location between San Lorenzo de la Frontera and Cotoca; name town Santa Cruz de la Sierra la Nueva.
1605	Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra erected, with Mizque as temporary seat; Antonio Calderón de León first bishop.
1606	Oruro founded (as San Felipe de Austria) by Manuel Castro de Padilla.
1607	Jesuit Province of Paraguay established; Nicolas Durán first provincial.
1609	Diocese of La Plata elevated to Archdiocese of La Plata; Alonso de Peralta first archbishop.
1609-10	First Jesuit reducciones founded in Argentina (San Ignacio Miní and Nuestra Señora de Loreto) and Paraguay (San  Ignacio Guazú); 13 more follow in Argentina and 14 more in Paraguay.
1610	Before this date, Franciscans establish reducciones amongst Guaraní.
1621	Last inhabitants of Santa Cruz de la Sierra migrate to San Lorenzo de la Frontera; combined settlement eventually becomes nucleus of present-day Santa Cruz.
1622	Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola canonised by Pope Gregory XV. Combined populations of San Lorenzo de la Frontera and Santa Cruz de la Sierra de la Nueva relocated to Puente de San Bartolomé, which becomes present-day city of Santa Cruz; “la Nueva” dropped from name.
1624	Royal and Pontifical University of San Francisco Xavier established in La Plata; becomes primary educational base for Jesuits in Bolivia. Built by Juan de Frías y Hernán, S.J.; Luis de Santillán, S.J. first rector.
1626	First Jesuit reducción in Brazil (San Nicolás) founded; six more follow.
1635	First Jesuit martyrs in Paraguay, Antonio Ripari and Gaspar Osorio, killed by Chiriguano near Ledesma (Argentina).
1668	First Jesuit temporary establishment in Moxos founded, Santísima Trinidad (re-established permanently in 1686).
1682	First permanent Jesuit reducción in Moxos (Nuestra Señora de Loreto) founded; 25 more follow.
1686	Santísima Trinidad, first Jesuit mission in Moxos, re-founded by Jesuit Cipriano Barrase.
1690	Jesuit José de Arce ordered to find route between Paraguay reducciones and Santa Cruz. Jesuits establish college in Tarija.
1691	First Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Francisco Xavier de los Piñocas (present-day San Xavier) founded; 11 more follow.
1696	Second Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Rafael de Velasco, founded. Battle of San Xavier results in defeat of Portuguese slave traders by combined force of Jesuit-led Piñoca and Spanish.
1698	Third Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San José de los Borós (present-day San José de Chiquitos), founded.
1699	Fourth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Juan Bautista de los Borós (later San Juan Bautista), founded. Fifth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, La Inmaculada Concepción (present-day Concepción), founded (permanently founded in 1708).
1711	Death of Jesuit Lucas Caballero, first and only Jesuit martyr in Chiquitania.
1715	Deaths of Jesuits de Arce and Bartolomé Blende at hands of Payagua in Paraguay, returning to Santa Cruz after having opened route between Chiquitos and Guaraní missions.
1716	Route between Chiquitos and Guaraní missions closed by orders of Viceroy of Peru Diego Ladrón de Guevara.
1721	Sixth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Miguel Arcángel (present-day San Miguel de Velasco), founded.
1723	Seventh Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Ignacio de Zamucos, founded (originally founded in 1717 but only for a few months).
1745	San Ignacio de Zamucos abandoned; most inhabitants eventually migrate to San Ignacio de Loyola de Velasco.
1747	Jesuit Martin Schmid begins construction of church at San Rafael.
1748	Eighth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, San Ignacio de Loyola de Velasco (present-day San Ignacio de Velasco), founded.
1754	Ninth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santiago Apóstol (present-day Santiago de Chiquitos), founded.
1755	Tenth Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santa Ana de Velasco, founded.
1760	Eleventh Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Santo Corazón, founded.
1766	Jesuit José Sánchez re-opens route between Chiquitos missions and Guaraní missions.
1767	Twelfth and final Jesuit reducción in Chiquitania, Nuestra Señora de Buen Consejo (near present-day Puerto Suárez), founded; immediately abandoned as a result of expulsion decree (Extrañamiento). Spanish King Carlos III signs the order for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Chiquitania and Moxos on 27 February (and from Charcas on 4 September). Interim president of the Audencia de Charcas, Juan Victorino Martínez, charges Colonel Diego Antonio Martínez de la Torre with the forcible removal of all Jesuit clergy. At the time of the Extrañamiento, throughout the Chiquitania and Moxos there were 42,323 natives under the supervision of 47 Jesuits. Chiquitos missions secularised, put under control of Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
1768	Last remaining Jesuits in Moxos leave. Jesuits expelled from Guaraní missions.
1773	Pope Clement XIV suppresses Jesuit order worldwide with exception of Russia.
1776	Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata established; colonial administration of Chiquitania (part of Audiencia de Charcas) transferred from Viceroyalty of Peru; Charcas retains status as an audencia.
1782	Bolivia divided into four audiencias: Charcas, La Paz, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. The Chiquitania and Moxos are dependent upon Charcas, Cochabamba upon Santa Cruz, Tarija and Atacama upon Potosí, and the remaining areas upon La Paz.
1799	San Xavier re-named capital of Chiquitos Province; passes to Santa Ana later that year.
1810	Santa Cruz rebels against Spanish rule on 24 September, marking the start of Bolivia’s independence movement. Tarija follows suit immediately thereafter.
1814	Jesuits restored by Pope Pius VII.
1815	Massacre of Santa Bárbara (near present-day San Rafael): more than 1,000 supposedly loyalist Chiquitano killed by independent freedom fighter Ignacio Warnes.
1823	Franciscan missionaries arrive in Guarayos Province.
1825	Bolivia declares independence from Spain.
1830	San Ignacio named capital of Chiquitos Province.
1831-1832	French explorer Alcide d’Orbigny first European to describe state of post-Jesuit reducciones.
1840	Franciscan missionaries put in charge of Moxos and Guarayos missions.
1848	Three Jesuits return to Bolivia as confessors in Franciscan monastery in Tarija.
c. 1851	Final vestiges of reducción system formally abolished in Chiquitania.
1882	Jesuits re-establish chapter house in La Paz.
1931	Apostolic Vicariate of Chiquitos established with San Ignacio as seat; Bertoldo Bühl, O.F.M. first bishop. Austrian  Franciscan missionaries put in charge of former Chiquitos reducciones.
1939	Guarayos missions secularised (Moxos and Chiquitos remain under Franciscan control).
1940	Plácido Molina Barbery photographs Jesuit mission templos; with Viador Moreno Peña persuades Bolivian government to designate them National Monuments.
1944	Diocese of Tarija erected; Juan Niccolai, O.F.M first bishop.
1951	Apostolic Vicariate of Ñuflo de Chávez established with Concepción as seat; Jorge Kilian Pflaum, O.F.M. first bishop.
1954	Railway between Santa Cruz and Corumbá, Brazil completed, passing through length of the Chiquitania.
1957	Swiss Jesuit Felix Plattner visits San Rafael and vows to restore its templo.
1972	Architect and former Jesuit Hans Roth, et al. begin restoration of Chiquitos reducciones’ churches.
1975	Diocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra elevated to Archdiocese of Santa Cruz de la Sierra; Luis Aníbal Rodríguez Pardo first archbishop.
1984	Moxos missions transferred to Jesuits by Franciscans, marking first permanent return of Jesuits as parish administrators to eastern Bolivia in 217 years.
1990	Six Chiquitos reducciones (both church complexes and towns) declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
1994	Diocese of San Ignacio de Velasco erected with San Ignacio as seat; Federico Bonifacio Madersbacher Gasteiger, O.F.M. first bishop.
1996	First biennial "Missiones de Chiquitos" baroque music festival, dedicated to Jesuit mission music, held in former Jesuit redicciones throughout eastern Bolivia.
1999	Hans Roth dies in Feldkirch, Austria, after restoring or renovating more than 125 churches and other religious edifices  throughout Chiquitania, including each of those of Chiquitos reducciones.
2000	Church of San Julián, last Roth-designed building, constructed.

The above timeline (sans links) also may be downloaded here as a .pdf file.