Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda-0. ", Fuente, Alejandro de la. Both were conceived of as temporary so that the Spanish Crown retained ultimate sovereignty in the colonies. Note that conditions for indigenous workers remained particularly brutal in Peru, even under repartimiento. Soldiers were fed and perhaps armed by their leaders but not paid. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda, "Encomienda Some even became silent partners with merchants involved in lucrative import and export activities. However, such cases were relatively few in number. The system was created in the Middle Ages and was pivotal to allow for the repopulation and protection of frontier land during the reconquista. ", Johnson, Lyman L. "A Lack of Legitimate Obedience and Respect: Slaves and Their Masters in the Courts of Late Colonial Buenos Aires,". https://www.thoughtco.com/spains-american-colonies-encomienda-system-2136545 (accessed March 4, 2023). Learn the encomienda definition, the conquistador definition, and the impact of the encomienda system. "Slave Resistance in the Spanish Caribbean in the Mid-1790s," in. Sevilla: Moz Moya Editor, 1997. When Blasco Nez Vela, the first viceroy of Peru, 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. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. The encomenderos put the Indians to work mining gold and silver; building houses, town halls, and churches; cultivating indigenous and imported crops; herding animals; and transporting goods. Conquistadors were fortune hunters with commissions from the Spanish Crown to explore, conquer and colonize territory on behalf of the Crown. The encomienda system was different from slavery on paper, but not all that different in practice. As the Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Abraham Lincoln to free all slaves being held in states at war with the Union, the envisioned "Second . To the crown he said, "I obey crown authority but do not comply with this order. Encomenderos were in the habit of resisting limits, and they opposed the New Laws. However, in Peru and New Spain the encomienda institution lasted much longer. They were granted the right to compel indigenous people to work their land and to pay tribute. Encomienda was a system of forced labor imposed on indigenous workers by Spanish colonists. Harsh treatment of the natives and the catastrophic decline in their numbers due to disease, overwork, starvation, and flight caused the crown and Council of the Indies to reconsider the encomienda. Slaves could be sold, and their families would break. Christopher Minster, Ph.D., is a professor at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. In this way, the crown could more easily direct the use of indigenous labor to activities deemed worthwhile, like mining. Encomienda system: A labor system in which the Spanish crown authorized Spaniards, known as encomenderos, to enslave native people to farm and mine in the Americas. Where was the Encomienda system used? The encomenderos were then required to pay remaining encomienda laborers for their work. 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"Negro Slave Control and Resistance in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1650.". 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. Slaves are property. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. 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 fact that the settlers rebelled, fought and died to fight the New Laws only shows how deeply they had sunk into greed and cruelty. The origins of the institution in the Americas dates back to 1497 when Christopher Columbus assigned native communities to Francisco Rold and his men. Hernan Cortes, who conquered the Aztec Empire and ruled much of what is now Mexico, came from a family of noble rank but little wealth. [8], Philip II enacted a law on 11 June 1594 to establish the encomienda in the Philippines, where he made grants to the local nobles (principala). Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain (Mexico) were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military protection and education. Lima: IEP, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2000. The encomienda system was one of the many horrors inflicted on the Indigenous people of the New World during the conquest and colonial eras. 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. They invested revenues generated by their encomienda laborers in stock-raising enterprises. Minster, Christopher. On the other hand, the crown had made it quite clear that the Indigenous people were not enslaved but Spanish subjects with certain rights, which were being flagrant, systematically, and horrifically violated. An alternative to encomienda was repartimiento (partition). (February 23, 2023). The encomienda system did not grant people land, but it indirectly aided in the settlers' acquisition of land. Identify the key characteristics of the repartimiento system. Those families that held land would eventually become oligarchies that controlled the Indigenous people. Spoils of war were crucial during the Crusades and the Reconquista (reconquest) in Iberia (see below). The position of encomendero was generally granted for two or three generations (sixty or ninety years), not in perpetuity. In his study of the encomenderos of early colonial Mexico, Robert Himmerich y Valencia divides conquerors into those who were part of Hernn Corts' original expedition, calling them "first conquerors", and those who were members of the later Narvez expedition, calling them "conquerors". The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Kindle Locations 338-341). 3 (August 1971): 431-446. "Nicols de Ovando" in. Las Casas participated in an important debate, where he pushed for the enactment of the New Laws and an end to the encomienda system. The encomienda was not officially abolished until the late 18th century. Reasonable tribute could be collected, but any additional work was to be paid for. Under this system, leaders of the indigenous community paid tribute to colonists with food, cloth, minerals, or by providing laborers. Image retrieved from alamy.com highlighting the treatment of Amerindians by the Spaniards. The first grantees of the encomienda system, called encomenderos, were usually conquerors who received these grants of labour by virtue of participation in a successful conquest. Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . ." Why The Serfs Abolished Russia 138 Words | 1 Pages. Heuman, Gad, and Trevor Graeme Burnard, eds. In Mexico, the system was abolished in 1917 after the Mexican revolution of 1911. After Spain conquered Mexico and Peru in the mid-1500s, the system was established on the mainland as well. Although there were never enough such grants to reward all those who felt they deserved one, the encomienda proved a useful institution, from the crown's point of view, in the first two or three decades after the discovery and conquest of the New World kingdoms of Mexico and Peru. He has an MA in economics from the University of California. It proved disastrous to the native populations. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you They found him unyielding in his zeal to implement the laws, so they beheaded him, setting off a civil war that was not totally quelled until 1549. 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. It also allowed the establishment of encomiendas, since the encomienda bond was a right reserved to full subjects to the crown. After Bartolom 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. The encomienda system, a version of the European feudal trusteeship labor institution, reduced the Spanish-conquered American indigenous populations to a corve (forced labor) class subject to the Conquistadors. . 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. Conquerors took land, goods, and labor from conquered people. 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. [15] Initially, the encomienda system was devised to meet the needs of the early agricultural economies in the Caribbean. -Natives remained legally free. Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History. The Crown saw their Indigenous colonial subjects as having rights. The encomienda was first established in Spain following the Christian conquest of Moorish territories (known to Christians as the Reconquista), and it was applied on a much larger scale during the Spanish colonization of the Americas and the Spanish Philippines. Furthermore, anyone who abused Indigenous people or who had participated in the conquistador civil wars could lose their encomiendas. Wages were paid, with most of the wages owed to the Crown. These were codified in the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and again in the New Laws of 1542. An encomienda in Peru was a reward offered to each of the men under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro who began the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. Eventually, the encomienda system was replaced by the repartimiento system, but it was not abolished until the late 18th century. He did graduate study in linguistics at Indiana University, European and Latin American area studies at the U.S State Department. When was the encomienda system abolished in Mexico? 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. He participated in slave raids and kept slaves. How did the encomienda system work? The son of a merchant who would accompany Christopher Columbus on his second voyage and, PUEBLO REVOLT. Tindall, George Brown & David E. Shi (1984). The encomienda system had been used in feudal Spain during the reconquest and had survived in some form ever since. characteristics of the repartimiento system -Natives were paid wages. In the Antilles the institution was firmly established under Governor Nicols de Ovbando. He would have been familiar with Reconquista tribute practices. Except in peripheral areas of the Spanish New World Empire, like Paraguay, the encomienda had become by the start of the seventeenth century little more than a prestigious claim to a government pension, divorced of any direct control over the Indians. In 1550, Spain abolished the encomienda system and replaced it with a new repartimiento system. Under the encomienda system, prominent Spaniards were entrusted with Native Peruvian communities. 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. Surez Romero. A few years later, the second rebellion under Francisco Hernndez Girn took place and was also put down. In many areas it had been abandoned for other forms of labor. Encomenderos brutalized their laborers. The encomienda system was one of the many horrors inflicted on the Indigenous people of the New World during the conquest and colonial eras. 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 priest of Hispaniola and former encomendero Bartolom de las Casas underwent a profound conversion after seeing the abuse of the native people. It does not, however, amount to a policy of ethnocide through genocide. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. That grant of labor accompanied a grant of land use. Maria Jaramillo, the daughter of Marina and conqueror Juan Jaramillo, received income from her deceased father's encomiendas. The latter were incorporated into Cortes' contingent. It was especially prevalent among military orders that were entrusted with the protection of frontier areas. [28] In the rest of Chile it was abolished in 1789, and in the whole Spanish empire in 1791. ." 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 encomenderos did not own the land on which the natives lived. In most Spanish colonies, encomienda ended within a few decades of its introduction. Recipients of land were required to Christianize Muslim and Jewish residents. 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. ThoughtCo. Spanish Casta System Overview & Purpose | What was the Casta System? Spaniards were awarded the lands occupied by the Native Americans whom they had conquered. 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. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Rodrguez Baquero, Luis Enrique. [8] As the number of natives declined and mining activities were replaced by agricultural activities in the seventeenth century, the hacienda, or large landed estates in which labourers were directly employed by the hacienda owners (hacendados), arose because land ownership became more profitable than acquisition of forced labour. 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. 16 chapters | However, during this time gold was scarce.[9]. 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. 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. The word encomienda comes from the Spanish word encomendar, meaning "to entrust." The Spanish monarchs abolished the encomienda system when they realized how cruel and abusive it was. The owners of the encomiendas were not supposed to ever visit the encomienda lands: this was supposed to cut down on abuses. In the Pacific, Spain competed with English, Dutch, Malay, Chinese and Muslim interests. The encomienda system came close to slavery. Pizarro's Conquest & the Inca Civil War | Who Conquered the Inca Empire? This implied that enslaving them was illegal except under very specific conditions. "Encomienda 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. The impact of encomienda is difficult to separate from the general impact of Spanish colonization. These extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery. The goal of encomienda was, at least initially, to generate portable wealth. Gibbings, Julie. Johnson, Lyman L. "Manumission in Colonial Buenos Aires, 1776-1810. The system was abolished throughout the Spanish colonies in 1791. Spanish colonists wanted indigenous people alive to provide labor. ." An error occurred trying to load this video. 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.