Although the original intent of the encomienda was to reduce the abuses of forced labour (repartimiento) employed shortly after Europeans 15th-century discovery of the New World, in practice it became a form of enslavement. Both natives and Spaniards appealed to the Real Audiencias for relief under the encomienda system. ." Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. -Natives were required to perform a fixed amount of labor. The resulting widespread protest throughout Spanish America along with a rebellion and civil war in Peru forced the crown to back down in the short run, but they also strengthened its resolve to break the power of the encomendero elite. The mining of precious metals and the production of cash crops were the focus of encomienda activity. Spain The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, meaning to entrust. [15] Initially, the encomienda system was devised to meet the needs of the early agricultural economies in the Caribbean. In Peru, where encomiendas were granted on the ruins of the rich and mighty Inca Empire, the abuses soon reached epic proportions. The prime motivation for this system was to bring Christianity to the 'heathens', as the natives were called by the colonial settlers. The Safavid Empire: Creation, Rulers, Characteristics & Shi'ism. Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain (Mexico) were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants. One chief source of abuse, the encomienda system, was not abolished until the end of the 18th century. ThoughtCo, Sep. 9, 2021, thoughtco.com/spains-american-colonies-encomienda-system-2136545. The encomienda system (in theory) was a feudal-like system where Spaniards would offer protection and education to the native populations in exchange for labor and money/gifts. Pizarro's Conquest & the Inca Civil War | Who Conquered the Inca Empire? The encomienda system was intended to be transitional. The colonial elite was livid with rage when the provisions of the New Laws became known. system abolished It was used from 1573 to 1812. The encomienda system was ended legally in 1720, when the crown attempted to abolish the institution. Some women and some indigenous elites were also encomenderos. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Several factors eroded encomienda, including the design of the system itself, a massive decline in indigenous populations, the creation of a hacienda economy, and Crown intervention to stem the brutality of encomenderos. Once formalized, the system spread with the Spanish colonialism from Cuba in 1511 to New Spain in 1519, and so on. Slaves have few legal protections. It was patterned on grants of land and tribute to those who fought for Spain during the Reconquista. The surviving native population, under increasingly Hispanicized chiefs and overlords, then became liable for a tribute payment to a royal official and for periodic, temporary, rotating, and paid labor service to designees of the Spanish crown. The priest of Hispaniola and former encomendero Bartolom de las Casas underwent a profound conversion after seeing the abuse of the native people. The formal establishment of the system followed through a series of royal decrees, beginning in 1503. Spoils of war were crucial during the Crusades and the Reconquista (reconquest) in Iberia (see below). Leaders of the Reconquista were granted the title of adelantado (one who goes in advance) with the authority to establish control on behalf of the Crown. morganarmstrong380 morganarmstrong380 03/31/2021 History . Tenochtitlan the Aztec Capital History & Defeat | Who Conquered the Aztecs? Image retrieved from alamy.com highlighting the treatment of Amerindians by the Spaniards. Population Collapse: Aztec Smallpox Victims. Native Americans were also enslaved in Florida by the encomienda system. The land included any Indigenous cities, towns, communities, or families that lived there. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1991. Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System. The encomienda system traveled to America as the result of the implantation of Castilian law over the territory. Control of Indian labor became the basis of the fortunes of the encomendero elite, who became wealthy by selling provisions to arriving Spanish immigrants and by renting them stores and homes that had been built with the Indian labor they controlled. 2 See answers Advertisement Ovando instituted encomienda soon after his arrival in Hispaniola. 23 Feb. 2023 . (February 23, 2023). With the major native empires in Mexico and Peru in ruins, the Spanish had to put a new system of government in place. Journey to the New World. [19] Although expecting Spanish protection from warring tribes, the islanders sought to join the Spanish forces. Christianization was also a feature of encomienda in Spanish colonies. succeed. The encomienda was based on the reconquista institution in which adelantados were given the right to extract tribute from Muslims or other peasants in areas that they had conquered and resettled.[8]. Encomenderos were those who were under the encomienda system. The encomienda was a grant of the right to use labor and exact tribute from a given group of natives conveyed to a person in return for service to the Spanish crown. The New Laws removed all hope of perpetuity being granted. The origins of the institution in the Americas dates back to 1497 when Christopher Columbus assigned native communities to Francisco Rold and his men. Encomienda (roughly translated: trustee) was a formal system of forced labor in Spanish colonies in Latin America and the Philippines, intended to encourage conquest and colonization. 3 (August 1971): 431-446. Refer to each styles convention regarding the best way to format page numbers and retrieval dates. Like the encomenderos, many individuals who received land grants were given parcels from among those that had been abandoned by Indians because of either death or flight. They were granted the right to compel indigenous people to work their land and to pay tribute. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. These problems appeared quickly. The king usually intervened directly or indirectly in the bond, by guaranteeing the fairness of the agreement and intervening militarily in case of abuse. The encomenderos did not own the land on which the natives lived. The increasing control and eventual disappearance of these grants ended the political dominance of the encomendero class. ." Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system, but it was not abolished until the late 18th century. a noble attempt to care for the native people. The Crown saw their Indigenous colonial subjects as having rights. It was the landowners (and the mine owners) who eventually displaced the encomenderos at the top of the colonial social pyramid. The encomienda system came close to slavery. In fact, a revised form of the repartimiento system was revived after 1550. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Cortez conquered the Aztec empire, then imposed encomienda in the parts of New Spain under his control. [26], In most of the Spanish domains acquired in the 16th century the encomienda phenomenon lasted only a few decades. Where was the Encomienda system used? Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. [28] In the rest of Chile it was abolished in 1789, and in the whole Spanish empire in 1791. Despus de Col: Trabajo, sociedad, y poltica en la economa del oro. An error occurred trying to load this video. in the sixteenth century when it abolished slavery under the 1542 New Laws. The receiver of the grant, the encomendero, could exact tribute from the Indios in gold, in kind, or in labour and was required to protect them and instruct them in the Christian faith. The Codice Osuna, one of many colonial-era Aztec codices (indigenous manuscripts) with native pictorials and alphabetic text in Nahuatl, there is evidence that the indigenous were well aware of the distinction between indigenous communities held by individual encomenderos and those held by the Crown.[21]. The system did not entail any direct land tenure by the encomendero; native lands were to remain in the possession of their communities. The encomienda system was a slavery system except that the enslaved could not be sold off the land. [11] Two of Moctezuma's daughters, Isabel Moctezuma and her younger sister, Leonor Moctezuma, were granted extensive encomiendas in perpetuity by Hernn Corts. Subsequently, under Governor Frey Nicols de Ovando (in office 15021509), who as Commander of the Order of Alctara had administered encomiendas in Spain, the grants were institutionalized and extended to the entire Island of Hispaniola as a means to control the natives. The fact that the settlers rebelled, fought and died to fight the New Laws only shows how deeply they had sunk into greed and cruelty. Initially, the natives labored without limit, benefit, or tenure. In 1542, due to the constant protests of Las Casas and others, the Council of the Indies wrote and King Charles V enacted the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians. o In return, the encomendero had to protect the natives, ensure their conversion to Christianity, and . Encomienda System Impact . From the time of the reconquest of Granada (1481-1492) to the introduction of the encomienda system in the Americas was only ten years. The task of collecting tribute and overseeing the Indian communities was given to the corregidor de indios, a district administrator or governor, who was part of the bureaucratic apparatus established by the crown to regain control of the New World kingdoms from the all-powerful encomenderos. The natives provided tributes in the form of metals, maize, wheat, pork, and other agricultural products. Black Legend History & Culture | What is the Black Legend? Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . By the time the new laws were passed, in 1542, the Spanish crown had acknowledged their inability to control and properly ensure compliance of traditional laws overseas, so they granted to Native Americans specific protections not even Spaniards had, such as the prohibition of enslaving them even in the case of crime or war. crown. The impact of encomienda is difficult to separate from the general impact of Spanish colonization. The Indigenous people could also be made to work for a certain amount of time, say on a sugarcane plantation or in a mine. Natives were paid wages. When the news of this situation and of the abuse of the institution reached Spain, the New Laws were passed to regulate and gradually abolish the system in America, as well as to reiterate the prohibition of enslaving Native Americans. Furthermore, anyone who abused Indigenous people or who had participated in the conquistador civil wars could lose their encomiendas. Rold and his company had risen in revolt against the Crown's authority and refused to reestablish peace except at that price. 3 (1971): 431-446. Rodrguez Baquero, Luis Enrique. Under repartimiento, workers provided two to three weeks of labor per year to colonists. The other major form of coerced labor in their colonies, the encomienda system, was also abolished, . In 1564, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, formerly the governor of Mexico City, established a colony at Cebu in the Philippines. Encomienda that requires extensive use of forced labor simply did not have enough people to function. Therefore, its best to use Encyclopedia.com citations as a starting point before checking the style against your school or publications requirements and the most-recent information available at these sites: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. Slaves could be sold, and their families would break. In 1550, Spain abolished the encomienda system and replaced it with a new repartimiento system. 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