Francisco Pizarro, the second cousin to Cortes, began the conquest of Peru and helped destroy the Incan Empire; he was the illegitimate and possibly illiterate son of a military officer. [4] In many cases natives were forced to do hard labour and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted. In this way, the crown could more easily direct the use of indigenous labor to activities deemed worthwhile, like mining. Sevilla: Moz Moya Editor, 1997. She has an M.A in instructional education. He argues that the Spanish unwittingly carried these diseases to the New World.[40]. An encomienda was a royal grant to collect tribute in the form of goods or labor. While different in detail, the encomienda system is similar to practices employed by the Roman Empire and the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans in their conquests of the British Isles. 23 Feb. 2023 . In turn, encomenderos were to ensure that the encomienda natives were given instruction in Catholicism and the Spanish language, to protect them from warring tribes or pirates; to suppress rebellion against Spaniards, and maintain infrastructure. Despus de Col: Trabajo, sociedad, y poltica en la economa del oro. How did the encomienda system work? The encomienda lasted from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the seventeenth century. The Spanish crown reluctantly approved the granting of encomiendas because it needed to reward the conquistadors and establish a system of governance in the newly-conquered territories, and the encomiendas were a quick-fix that killed both birds with one stone. The repartimiento was an attempt "to reduce the abuses of forced labour". . system abolished It was used from 1573 to 1812. It also swiftly led to abuses: encomenderos made unreasonable demands of the Native Peruvians who lived on their lands, working them excessively or demanding tribute of crops that could not be grown on the land. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). But they were directly allotted to the Crown, who, through a local Crown official, would assign them to work for settlers for a set period of time, usually several weeks. The northernmost extent of the encomienda system was in what is known now as the US state of New Mexico, and the southernmost extent was the Chiloe Islands of Chile. Lima: IEP, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2000. Conquistadors were fortune hunters granted authority by the Spanish Crown to establish colonies. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. 2 (April 1967), 89103. "Slaves and the Creation of Legal Rights in Cuba: Coartacin and Papel", Geggus, David Patrick. The encomienda system was one of the many horrors inflicted on the Indigenous people of the New World during the conquest and colonial eras. These problems appeared quickly. However, Las Casas gave up his slaves and his encomienda, becoming the first priest ordained in the Americas. Royal officials sent decrees ordering the fair treatment of the natives. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Encomenderos were required to provide protection and religious and cultural education to indigenous people under their control, a requirement often neglected. While the conquistadors were wringing every last speck of gold from their miserable subjects, the ghastly reports of abuses piled up in Spain. Slaves have few legal protections. Encomienda was brought to Spanish colonies by settlers who came to Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. . These were codified in the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and again in the New Laws of 1542. The conditions Las Casas protested were common throughout Spanish colonies and often drew criticism. The system was also instituted in Spain's only major colony in the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippines. Many priests and Catholic brothers were appalled at the treatment of indigenous people under the encomienda system. 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. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. DSST Western Europe Since 1945: Study Guide & Test Prep, Western Europe Since 1945: Certificate Program, CLEP Western Civilization II: Study Guide & Test Prep, Western Civilization From 1648 to Today: Certificate Program, Western Civilization 1648 to the Present: Help and Review, Western Civilization Since 1648: Homework Help Resource, ACCESS World History: Online Textbook Help, History 100: Western Civilization from Prehistory to Post-WWII, CSET English Subtests I & III (105 & 107): Practice & Study Guide, ILTS Social Science - History (246): Test Practice and Study Guide, Create an account to start this course today. The encomienda system did not grant people land, but it indirectly aided in the settlers' acquisition of land. Encomienda y encomenderos en el Peru: Estudio social y politico de una institucion colonial. Natives remained legally free. The New Laws removed all hope of perpetuity being granted. The system was created in the Middle Ages and was pivotal to allow for the repopulation and protection of frontier land during the reconquista. When the Crown attempted to implement the policy in Peru, shortly after the 1535 Spanish conquest, Spanish recipients rebelled against the Crown, killing the viceroy, Blasco Nez Vela. tried to enforce the New Laws, which provided for the gradual abolition of the encomienda, many of the encomenderos were unwilling to comply with them and revolted against him. The encomienda did not include a grant of land, but in practice the encomenderos gained control of lands inhabited by Indios and failed to fulfill their obligations to the indigenous population. Spain The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, meaning to entrust. However, during this time gold was scarce.[9]. With the catastrophic decline in the Indian population and the replacement of mining activities by agriculture in Spanish America, the system lost its effectiveness and was gradually replaced by the hacienda system of landed estates. Natives were required to perform a fixed amount of labor. Christianization was also a feature of encomienda in Spanish colonies. The encomienda system had been used in feudal Spain during the reconquest and had survived in some form ever since. They helped the Spaniards deal with their ignorance of the surrounding environment. It also did not give encomenderos legal jurisdiction over the natives, although many encomenderos assumed that right. . Bogot: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispnica, 1995. Wages were paid, with most of the wages owed to the Crown. Slavery takes several forms. Ethnocide differs from genocide as it is the destruction of a culture, while genocide is the annihilation of a people; genocide can be a means of ethnocide. This lucidly shows that the encomienda system was dichotomous to slavery. [8] Like the encomienda, the new repartimiento did not include the attribution of land to anyone, rather only the allotment of native workers. Writing about the Black Legend and the conquest of the Americas, Cook wrote, "There were too few Spaniards to have killed the millions who were reported to have died in the first century after Old and New World contact" and instead suggests the near total decimation of the indigenous population of Hispaniola as mostly having been caused by diseases like smallpox. 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. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Gibbings, Julie. Adoption of an encomienda system of labor and tribute in Spanish colonies was expected under any circumstances. The encomienda became increasingly rare throughout the sixteenth century, and by the end of the following century it had disappeared altogether. The encomienda system was intended to be transitional. Each reduccin had a native chief responsible for keeping track of the labourers in his community. characteristics of the repartimiento system -Natives were paid wages. Keith, Robert G.. "Encomienda, Hacienda, and Corregimiento in Spanish America: A Structural Analysis." Encomienda. The adelantado often assigned it on behalf of the Crown. Leonor Moctezuma married in succession two Spaniards, and left the encomiendas to her daughter by her second husband. LA SITUACIN JURDICA DEL INDIO DURANTE LA CONQUISTA ESPAOLA EN AMRICA. ." The Encomienda System . Instead, the conveyance consisted of native peoples, identified by their chiefs, put at the disposal of the encomendero or grantee to work in their homes or on public and private construction projects, and in their fields and mines. The natives provided tributes in the form of metals, maize, wheat, pork, and other agricultural products. [23] He dedicated his life to writing and lobbying to abolish the encomienda system, which he thought systematically enslaved the native people of the New World. They were granted the right to compel indigenous people to work their land and to pay tribute. In the conquest era of the early sixteenth century, the grants were considered to be a monopoly on the labour of particular groups of indigenous peoples, held in perpetuity by the grant holder, called the encomendero; following the New Laws of 1542, upon the death of the encomendero, the encomienda ended and was replaced by the repartimiento.[1][2]. In 1550, Spain abolished the encomienda system and replaced it with a new repartimiento system. Once the encomiendas reverted to the crown, they were overseen by corregidores, royal agents who administered crown holdings. The encomienda system traveled to America as the result of the implantation of Castilian law over the territory. Critics of colonial powers accuse them of ethnocide in the Americas. - Mythology, Overview, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's Mystical Theology, Mark Antony of Rome: Biography, Facts & Death, Dante Alighieri: Biography, Works & Quotes, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. The system was created in the Middle Ages and was pivotal to allow for the repopulation and protection of frontier land during the reconquista. 2 See answers Advertisement By this system, pieces of territory, with their inhabitants and resources, were granted by the Spanish king to the colonizers as a reward for services to the Crown. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you 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]. [15] Initially, the encomienda system was devised to meet the needs of the early agricultural economies in the Caribbean. As councilmen they set prices for basic goods and services as well as the standards of morality and sanitation for the Spanish community. 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. 177 lessons Ovando instituted encomienda soon after his arrival in Hispaniola. [34] University of Hawaii historian David Stannard describes the encomienda as a genocidal system which "had driven many millions of native peoples in Central and South America to early and agonizing deaths". a model for the medieval system to be developed in Spain. Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. Tannenbaum and the Debates on Slavery, Emancipation, and Race Relations in Latin America,". In Mexico, for instance, it was not until the constitutional reform after the Mexican Revolution that the encomienda system was abolished. The encomenderos relied upon local chiefs to provide tribute. Important years to note for the encomienda system: 1503: The first encomiendas are granted to Spanish conquistadors in the Americas. Later-arriving Spanish immigrants depended on them for the help they needed to build homes and shops, tend plants and animals, or mine ore. Copy. ." 1528), Encomienda-Doctrina System in Spanish America, Encountering Tahiti: Samuel Wallis and the Voyage of the Dolphin, https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda-0, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda, Early Settlement of the Americas by Spain. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. [36] The program cites the decline of the Tano population of Hispaniola in 1492 to 1514 as an example of genocide and notes that the indigenous population declined from a population between 100,000 and 1,000,000 to only 32,000 a decline of 68% to over 96%. In the early colonial period of the New World, land had little economic value without the labor to exploit it. in the sixteenth century when it abolished slavery under the 1542 New Laws. Encyclopedia.com. The system essentially made landed nobility out of men whose only skills were murder, mayhem, and torture: the kings hesitated to set up a New World oligarchy which could later prove troublesome. Why The Serfs Abolished Russia 138 Words | 1 Pages. Charles V felt it prudent to suspend or repeal the most hated aspects of the New Laws. "Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System." In the Americas, the Crown portion amounted to 20% of the production of a colony; the system was an important money-making proposition. a system in which land was distributed to the native people. Encomenderos, addressed as encomenderos feudatarios, had no peers at first. [18] Upon hearing this, the adelantado captured the caciques involved and had most of them hanged. The crowns attempts to end the severe abuses of the system with the Laws of Burgos (151213) and the New Law of the Indies (1542) failed in the face of colonial opposition. Create your account. Missionaries there had . . From the time of the reconquest of Granada (1481-1492) to the introduction of the encomienda system in the Americas was only ten years. In the encomienda, the Spanish Crown granted a person a specified number of natives from a specific community but did not dictate which individuals in the community would have to provide their labour. . Encomienda was imposed in Hispaniola by Nicolas de. Fuente, Alejandro de la. The encomiendas became very corrupt and harsh. They held a monopoly of local political power as the only persons able to sit on the town council. Initially, the natives labored without limit, benefit, or tenure. The encomienda system was put in place in several areas, most importantly in Peru. These extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery. Tenochtitlan, Aztec Capital | Facts & Location, Taino Civilization: Economy and Political & Social Structure, Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act | History, Political Effects & Importance. Later it was adopted to the mining economy of Peru and Upper Peru. Encyclopedia.com. Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system, but it was not abolished until the late 18th century. Thus began an institution that supported a class of powerful individuals, created by royal fiat, that would figure prominently in the history of the New World for the next century and into the eighteenth century on the fringes of the Spanish New World empire. The appointment of Nicolas de Ovando to Hispaniola made it close to inevitable. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. Slaves are property. ThoughtCo. Encomiendas have often been characterized by the geographical displacement of the enslaved and breakup of communities and family units, but in New Spain, the encomienda ruled the free vassals of the crown through existing community hierarchies, and the natives remained in their settlements with their families. Encyclopedia.com. John Murra, Rolena Adorno & Jorge L. Urioste. Hispanic American Historical Review 51, no. ." They also were empowered to grant lands further afield. The land included any Indigenous cities, towns, communities, or families that lived there. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Along with those lands came the power to exact tribute. It was patterned on grants of land and tribute to those who fought for Spain during the Reconquista. The crown also actively prosecuted abuses of the encomienda system, through the Laws of Burgos (151213) and the New Laws of the Indies (1542). Along the way, The king bound himself "that the slave trade will be abolished in all the dominions of Spain, May 30, 1820, and that after that date it shall not be lawful for . Encomenderos were in the habit of resisting limits, and they opposed the New Laws. (ECONOMIC) Encomienda o Upon King Philip II's order in 1558, lands in Cebu were distributed to the Spaniards as encomienda. (2021, September 9). Proctor III, Frank T. "Gender and Manumission of Slaves in New Spain,". Pizarro's Conquest & the Inca Civil War | Who Conquered the Inca Empire? "Encomienda He has an MA in economics from the University of California. Encyclopedia.com. 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. [28][29][30][31], The encomienda system was generally replaced by the crown-managed repartimiento system throughout Spanish America after mid-sixteenth century. The successful conquistadors and colonial officials used the encomienda system.Under the system, an individual or family was given lands, which generally had Indigenous people living on them already. Labor service officially granted by the Crown was only for a few days or weeks each year. The Spanish Crown aimed at converting indigenous people away from their own beliefs to Catholicism and to displace indigenous government with their governance. The Indigenous people were often forced to walk for days with heavy loads to be delivered to their encomendero. ." Kindle Edition. Heuman, Gad, and Trevor Graeme Burnard, eds. In Peru and New Spain, local conditions were more favorable, and they lasted considerably longer. "Slave Law and Claims Making in Cuba: The Tannenbaum Debate Revisited. Lowcountry Digital History Initiative", "Slavery and Atlantic slave trade facts and figures", "A century between resistance and adaptation: commentary on source 021", "Slavery took hold in Florida under the Spanish in the 'forgotten century' of 1492-1619", "Perspective - Everyone is talking about 1619. That can reasonably be seen as ethnocide. [5] However, Queen Isabella I of Castile forbade slavery of the native population and deemed the indigenous to be "free vassals of the crown". Raphael Lemkin's History of Genocide and Colonialism, Holocaust Memorial Museum, 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom, Marriage of enslaved people (United States), Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Historiography of Colonial Spanish America, "A History of the Mexican-American People", "Blasco Nez Vela Cronologa histrica", "La encomienda en hispanoamrica colonial", "La rebelin indgena de 1712: los tributarios de Chilo contra la encomienda", https://www.ushmm.org/confront-genocide/speakers-and-events/all-speakers-and-events/raphael-lemkin-history-of-genocide-and-colonialism, "The new book 'The Other Slavery' will make you rethink American history", "Encomienda, Hacienda, and Corregimiento in Spanish America: A Structural Analysis", Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System, Independence of Spanish continental Americas, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northernmost France, Colonial universities in Hispanic America, Law of coartacin (which allowed slaves to buy their freedom, and that of others), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Encomienda&oldid=1142735044, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2022, Articles with dead external links from December 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Chamberlain, Robert S., "Simpson's the Encomienda in New Spain and Recent Encomienda Studies", This page was last edited on 4 March 2023, at 02:28. 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. In 1510, an Hispaniola encomendero named Valenzuela murdered a group of Native American leaders who had agreed to meet for peace talks in full confidence. This implied that enslaving them was illegal except under very specific conditions. Native people were being brutalized and oppressed under this system. El indio antillano: Repartimiento, encomienda y esclavitud (14921542). Therefore, that information is unavailable for most Encyclopedia.com content. Black Legend History & Culture | What is the Black Legend? Dominican priests played an important role in the movement to abolish it . Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. The colonial elite was livid with rage when the provisions of the New Laws became known. Corrections? The Spanish crown still steadfastly refused to grant encomiendas in perpetuity, however, so slowly these lands reverted to the crown. Recipients of land were required to Christianize Muslim and Jewish residents. The rebellion and civil war in the Andes together with continuing news of the unchecked mistreatment of the natives and their dwindling numbers forced the crown to take steps to reconquer the Americas from an ever more powerful and semi-autonomous encomendero nobility. Only in 1721 did the Crown stop granting encomienda. It was essentially enslavement, given but a thin (and illusory) veneer of respectability for the Catholic education that it implied. The origins of the institution in the Americas dates back to 1497 when Christopher Columbus assigned native communities to Francisco Rold and his men. Power passed to royal officials, miners, landowners, and eventually merchants. It placed hundreds and sometimes thousands of Indians under the control of individual Spaniards at a time when a bureaucracy had not yet been established. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Kindle Locations 338-341). Men and women were forced to work in mines for weeks at a time, often by candlelight in deep shafts. The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, meaning "to entrust." In contrasting the encomienda system with slavery, it is necessary to distinguish between encomienda as it existed in law and reality. Native Peruvians were to have their rights as citizens of Spain and could not be forced to work if they did not want to. The encomienda system was different from slavery on paper, but not all that different in practice. -Natives were required to perform a fixed amount of labor. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. In reality, indigenous people were forced to provide labor. The owners of the encomiendas were not supposed to ever visit the encomienda lands: this was supposed to cut down on abuses. Some have argued that the hacienda developed directly from the encomienda. During the spread of Spanish colonies, Spain had few serious rivals in the Americas. Deaths, disease, and accusations of ethnocide or genocide, Skepticism toward accusations of genocide, Noble, David Cook. Their wealth and their status as first-and second-generation conquerors gave them the leisure and respect that enabled them to exercise an early monopoly of the town councils. Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain (Mexico) were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants. Gonzalo Pizarro's supporters had urged him to declare himself King of Peru, but he refused: had he done so, Peru might have successfully split from Spain 300 years early. Minster, Christopher. Queen Isabella of Spain (14511504) considered the natives of the Americas, from the start of Spanish colonization, as free vassals with cert, 14841566 A Bishop and a Scholar Bartolome must have rejoiced, but he knew he faced a struggle as he returned to the New World . Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. Later, a chieftain named Guarionex laid havoc to the countryside before an army of about 3,090 routed the Ciguana people under his leadership. [6] Various versions of the Laws of the Indies from 1512 onwards attempted to regulate the interactions between the settlers and natives. It seems counter-productive to kill off your own workers, but the Spanish conquistadors in question were only interested in getting as rich as they could as quickly as they could: this greed led directly to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the Indigenous population. The formal establishment of the system followed through a series of royal decrees, beginning in 1503. (February 23, 2023). Unlike the Spanish peninsular version of the encomienda, the grant in the New World did not give the grantee, or encomendero, legal right to own land. The mercury mines were particularly lethal. Encomenderos were those who were under the encomienda system. In Mexico, the system was abolished in 1917 after the Mexican revolution of 1911. . After Bartolome de Las Casas published his incendiary account of Spanish abuses ( The Destruction of the Indies ), Spanish authorities abolished the encomienda in 1542 and replaced it with the repartimiento. "Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System." Seville, Spain: Diputacion Provincial de Sevilla, 1992. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Bartolome de las Casas: Destruction of the Amerindians, Las Casas, Valladolid Debate & Converting the New World, The Pueblo Revolt of 1680: Lesson for Kids. The encomienda system amounted to the practice of a spoils system. With the major native empires in Mexico and Peru in ruins, the Spanish had to put a new system of government in place. On November 13, 1717, a royal decree abolished encomiendas , an act that was confirmed by other decrees in 1720 and 1721. Reformers such as Bartolom de las Casas were predicting everything from the complete depopulation of the Americas to the eternal damnation of everyone involved in the whole sordid enterprise. In reality, all the labor that could be done was required, and unless the encomienda was ended, the next generation would also owe labor. However, such cases were relatively few in number. . Encomenderos in Mexico protested this assault on their status and wellbeing. The son of a merchant who would accompany Christopher Columbus on his second voyage and, PUEBLO REVOLT. Ovando was a Knight of the Order of Alcantara, which fought the Moors during the Reconquista. To the conquistadors and settlers, the encomiendas were nothing less than their fair and just reward for the risks they had taken during the conquest. Journey to the New World. Mistreated by their supposed protectors and exposed to European diseases (such as smallpox, and measles) to which they had no immunity, the Indians died in large numbers. In 1503, the crown began to formally grant encomiendas to conquistadors and officials as rewards for service to the crown. [35], Yale University's genocide studies program supports this view regarding abuses in Hispaniola. What was the. It was the landowners (and the mine owners) who eventually displaced the encomenderos at the top of the colonial social pyramid. In reality, however, the encomienda system was thinly-masked enslavement and led to some of the worst horrors of the colonial era. Those families that held land would eventually become oligarchies that controlled the Indigenous people. It was based upon the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista (Reconquest) of Muslim Spain.
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