As the population declined the Spanish government made regulations to do away with the system. Population Collapse: Aztec Smallpox Victims. He would have been familiar with Reconquista tribute practices. Ed. However, such cases were relatively few in number. 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. The encomienda system traveled to America as the result of the implantation of Castilian law over the territory. "Slave Resistance in the Spanish Caribbean in the Mid-1790s," in. The latter were incorporated into Cortes' contingent. The crown also actively prosecuted abuses of the encomienda system, through the Laws of Burgos (151213) and the New Laws of the Indies (1542). 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. Get the answers you need, now! This system originated in the Catholic south of Spain to extract labour and tribute from Muslims (Moors) before they were exiled in 1492 after the Moorish defeat in the Granada War. 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. Encyclopedia.com gives you the ability to cite reference entries and articles according to common styles from the Modern Language Association (MLA), The Chicago Manual of Style, and the American Psychological Association (APA). Encomenderos were required to provide protection and religious and cultural education to indigenous people under their control, a requirement often neglected. "Encomienda 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. The encomienda system was ended legally in 1720, when the crown attempted to abolish the institution. The encomienda system was intended to be transitional. Unit 4 - Labor Systems Graphic Organizer 1450-1750 - Name In Mexico, for instance, it was not until the constitutional reform after the Mexican Revolution that the encomienda system was abolished. In return the encomendero promised to settle down and found a family in the nearest Spanish town, or villa; to protect the Indians; and to arrange for their conversion to the Roman Catholic faith. Repartimiento - Wikipedia Moya Pons, Frank. Encomienda - Wikipedia Encomiendas devolved from their original Iberian form into a form of "communal" slavery. The goal of encomienda was, at least initially, to generate portable wealth. . 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 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. crown, whereby - Traduo em portugus - exemplos ingls | Reverso Context [5] However, Queen Isabella I of Castile forbade slavery of the native population and deemed the indigenous to be "free vassals of the crown". The system did not entail any direct land tenure by the encomendero; native lands were to remain in the possession of their communities. [32], Raphael Lemkin (coiner of the term genocide) considered Spain's abuses of the native population of the Americas to constitute cultural and even outright genocide, including the abuses of the encomienda system. Spanish Exploration and Conquest | US History I (AY Collection) He lobbied the King to abolish encomienda. Identify the key characteristics of the repartimiento system. Labor service officially granted by the Crown was only for a few days or weeks each year. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. o In return, the encomendero had to protect the natives, ensure their conversion to Christianity, and . Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda. 2019Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. While the conquistadors were wringing every last speck of gold from their miserable subjects, the ghastly reports of abuses piled up in Spain. [19] Although expecting Spanish protection from warring tribes, the islanders sought to join the Spanish forces. In 1503, the crown began to formally grant encomiendas to conquistadors and officials as rewards for service to the crown. The formal establishment of the system followed through a series of royal decrees, beginning in 1503. After Spain conquered Mexico and Peru in the mid-1500s, the system was established on the mainland as well. [25], The liberation of thousands of Native Americans held in bondage throughout the Spanish empire by the new viceroy, Blasco Nez Vela, on his journey to Peru, led to his eventual murder and armed conflict between the encomenderos and the Spanish crown which ended with the execution of those encomenderos involved. Encomenderos brutalized their laborers with punishing labor. Bartolome de las Casas: Destruction of the Amerindians ThoughtCo. Conquistadors were fortune hunters granted authority by the Spanish Crown to establish colonies. As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 88,000 The encomienda system was a slavery system except that the enslaved could not be sold off the land. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . In contrasting the encomienda system with slavery, it is necessary to distinguish between encomienda as it existed in law and reality. Royal officials sent decrees ordering the fair treatment of the natives. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. [7][pageneeded], The heart of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust". It proved disastrous to the native populations. ." In Peru, colonists went into open revolt. She has an M.A in instructional education. The repartimiento was an attempt "to reduce the abuses of forced labour". In the Pacific, Spain competed with English, Dutch, Malay, Chinese and Muslim interests. 1.4: Spanish Exploration and Conquest - Humanities LibreTexts [9] This system was a method of rewarding soldiers and moneymen who defeated the Moors. 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. Reasonable tribute could be collected, but any additional work was to be paid for. The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, meaning "to entrust." 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. Workers could be sent away from their villages during this period. (ECONOMIC) Encomienda o Upon King Philip II's order in 1558, lands in Cebu were distributed to the Spaniards as encomienda. 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. . This was the case when and where encomenderos used their positions of authorityon the town council, for exampleto grant themselves land parcels (mercedes) from among the lands once used by their Indian charges. Encyclopedia.com. In 1542, Charles V of Spain finally listened to them and passed the so-called "New Laws.". Leonor Moctezuma married in succession two Spaniards, and left the encomiendas to her daughter by her second husband. Serfdom at the time was abolished everywhere except Russia. The system was also instituted in Spain's only major colony in the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippines. [4] In many cases natives were forced to do hard labour and subjected to extreme punishment and death if they resisted. 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. 2 (April 1967), 89103. Indigenous leaders were charged with mobilising the assessed tribute and labour. The encomienda system was one of the many horrors inflicted on the Indigenous people of the New World during the conquest and colonial eras. As councilmen they set prices for basic goods and services as well as the standards of morality and sanitation for the Spanish community. By 1572, the system was in place in the Philippines. "Encomienda An encomienda was a royal grant to collect tribute in the form of goods or labor. Lesson summary: The Spanish empire (article) | Khan Academy The encomenderos were then required to pay remaining encomienda laborers for their work. One provision of the latter abolished encomiendas at the death of the current holder. Explain why the encomienda system was eventually abolished. 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. Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain (Mexico) were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants. Some have argued that the hacienda developed directly from the encomienda. That grant of labor accompanied a grant of land use. The encomienda system played a different role in the Philippines than in the Americas. Corrections? . He is a former head writer at VIVA Travel Guides. "From Slaves to Citizens? Outside of New Spain and Peru, encomienda was short-lived in most Spanish colonies, as the depopulation of the Americas due to war and disease, pressure for reform from the Crown, and changes in colonial economies made the system less serviceable. Encomienda | Definition & Facts | Britannica Once formalized, the system spread with the Spanish colonialism from Cuba in 1511 to New Spain in 1519, and so on. 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. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. Puerto Rico | Genocide Studies Program - Yale University Under Crown law, a few days of labor was all that people owed. Native people were being brutalized and oppressed under this system. ", Johnson, Lyman L. "A Lack of Legitimate Obedience and Respect: Slaves and Their Masters in the Courts of Late Colonial Buenos Aires,". ThoughtCo, Sep. 9, 2021, thoughtco.com/spains-american-colonies-encomienda-system-2136545. The encomenderos were then required to pay remaining encomienda laborers for their work. An encomienda was booty given to a Spaniard who conquered a Moorish province. 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. In the Antilles the institution was firmly established under Governor Nicols de Ovbando. The encomienda system was ended legally in 1720, when the crown attempted to abolish the institution. Las Casas wrote extensively about his life in Hispaniola and in Cuba, including the treatment of indigenous people. morganarmstrong380 morganarmstrong380 03/31/2021 History . Missionary and historian 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. The system of encomiendas was aided by the crown's organizing the indigenous into small harbors known as reducciones, with the intent of establishing new towns and populations. So many died that climate scientists think a period of global cooling may have resulted. 3 (1971): 431-446. Monasticism Overview, History & Orders | What is Christian Monasticism? He argues that the Spanish unwittingly carried these diseases to the New World.[40]. However, in the most remote areas, encomiendas were often kept throughout the colonial period in complete defiance of the royal decree in order to populate these regions. They also were empowered to grant lands further afield. The system did, however, result in loss of life and freedom, which was similar to the loss under chattel slavery and cruelty on a historic scale. 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 1500s, Spain systematically conquered parts of North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. 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. Slavery in colonial Spanish America - Wikipedia In Peru, where encomiendas were granted on the ruins of the rich and mighty Inca Empire, the abuses soon reached epic proportions. 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. Proctor III, Frank T. "Gender and Manumission of Slaves in New Spain,". Although the encomienda was not officially abolished until the late 18th century, in September 1721 the conferment of new encomiendas in Spains colonies was prohibited. Create your account. In reality, Indigenous colonial subjects had no protection from their encomendero. The adelantado often assigned it on behalf of the Crown. The Encomienda System was a system that was developed by Spain in order to grant labor to former conquistadors by taking Native Americans and "requesting" tribute. He did graduate study in linguistics at Indiana University, European and Latin American area studies at the U.S State Department. Encomenderos were in the habit of resisting limits, and they opposed the New Laws. [39], Skepticism towards accusations of genocide linked to the encomienda and the Spanish conquest and settlement of the Americas typically involve arguments like those of Noble David Cook, wherein scholars posit that accusations of genocide are a continuation of the Spanish Black Legend. system abolished It was used from 1573 to 1812. An error occurred trying to load this video. From the Spanish perspective, encomienda contributed to an enormous increase in wealth, thus Spain becoming a global power. The crown also appointed local magistrates, called corregidores de indios, as its representatives to mediate the relations between encomenderos, non-encomendero settlers, and the natives. With the ousting of Christopher Columbus in 1500, the Spanish Crown had him replaced with Francisco de Bobadilla. They used the encomienda to gain ownership of large expanses of land, many of which (such as Makati) continue to be owned by affluent families.[16]. In 1519, Velazquez commissioned Hernan Cortez to go to what would soon become New Spain. Constitutional Rights Foundation The New Laws were a series of royal ordinances designed to halt the abuses of the encomienda system, particularly in Peru. As initially defined, the encomendero and his heirs expected to hold these grants in perpetuity. 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. 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 encomienda system was different from slavery on paper, but not all that different in practice. Later-arriving Spanish immigrants depended on them for the help they needed to build homes and shops, tend plants and animals, or mine ore. It was the landowners (and the mine owners) who eventually displaced the encomenderos at the top of the colonial social pyramid.

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