Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. . [9] The encomienda established a system similar to a feudal relationship, in which military protection was traded for certain tributes or by specific work. In return, the encomendero was responsible for the well-being of the enslaved people and was to see to it that they were converted and educated about Christianity. 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. In the Americas, the first encomiendas were handed out by Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. 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 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]. 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. ." Explain why the encomienda system was eventually abolished. ." Encomenderos brutalized their laborers. Spanish Casta System Overview & Purpose | What was the Casta System? Foner, Laura, and Eugene D. Genovese, eds. . Identify the key characteristics of the repartimiento system. 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. Some have argued that the hacienda developed directly from the encomienda. Tindall, George Brown & David E. Shi (1984). -Natives were required to perform a fixed amount of labor. Spain's American Colonies and the Encomienda System. It legally allowed the Spaniards to work the Indigenous people literally to death in the fields and mines. . The Spanish Crown conceived of encomienda as being relatively protective of indigenous people but did not succeed in making it so. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military protection and education. The encomienda system was the subject of controversy in Spain and its territories almost from its start. o In return, the encomendero had to protect the natives, ensure their conversion to Christianity, and . It was the first major organizational law instituted on the continent, which was affected by war, widespread disease epidemics caused by Eurasian diseases, and resulting turmoil. Some of the encomenderos managed to secure title-deeds to certain lands: unlike the encomiendas, these could be passed down from one generation to the next. Get unlimited access to over 88,000 lessons. Bartolom de Las Casas, who arrived in the New World in 1502, averred that greed was the reason Christians "murdered on such a vast scale", killing "anyone and everyone who has shown the slightest sign of resistance", and subjecting "all males to the harshest and most iniquitous and brutal slavery that man has ever devised for oppressing his fellow-men, treating them, in fact, worse than animals". [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%. They invested revenues generated by their encomienda laborers in stock-raising enterprises. The connection between the encomienda and the hacienda, or large landed estate, has been the subject of debate. Those families that held land would eventually become oligarchies that controlled the Indigenous people. However, Las Casas gave up his slaves and his encomienda, becoming the first priest ordained in the Americas. Spanish conquistadors, settlers, priests, or colonial officials were given a repartimiento, or grant of land. He lobbied the King to abolish encomienda. The system was created in the Middle Ages and was pivotal to allow for the repopulation and protection of frontier land during the reconquista. Slaves escaping to Florida from the colony of Georgia were freed by Carlos II's proclamation November 7, 1693 if . Missionaries there had . Priests were supposed to live on the encomienda lands, instructing the Indigenous people in Catholicism, and often these men became defenders of the people they taught, but just as often they committed abuses of their own, living with Native women or demanding tribute of their own. Royal officials sent decrees ordering the fair treatment of the natives. Jessica has taught junior high history and college seminar courses. 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. An encomienda was a royal grant to collect tribute in the form of goods or labor. As councilmen they set prices for basic goods and services as well as the standards of morality and sanitation for the Spanish community. 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. Rold and his company had risen in revolt against the Crown's . In 1550, the crown abolished the encomienda system, which had allowed the Spanish to seize Native Americans' lands and force their labor. The spanish monarchy abolished the encomienda system because? Bogot: Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispnica, 1995. All rights reserved. The King rescinded the most unpopular of the New Laws, fearing the loss of Peru. A royal supplement had to be paid to support the Philippine colony, which was a drain on Spanish finances. Some were experienced soldiers, but many were not. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. This control and their prestige as first founders and conquerors quickly enriched the majority of encomenderos. 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]. In Mexico, viceroy Antonio de Mendoza decided against implementing the reform, citing local circumstances and the potential for a similar conqueror rebellion. Dominican priests played an important role in the movement to abolish it . Some women and some indigenous elites were also encomenderos. Later, some receiving encomiendas in New Spain (Mexico) were not conquerors themselves but were sufficiently well connected that they received grants. The system was abolished throughout the Spanish colonies in 1791. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda, "Encomienda 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 reality, tribute and labor demands went well beyond established limits. Missionary and historian When did the encomienda system start and end? The first record of Lopez granting encomendero status was in 1572, though earlier grants are possible. [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. The encomienda system in Spanish America differed from the Peninsular institution. 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. crown. They also were empowered to grant lands further afield. The encomienda system was ended legally in 1720, when the crown attempted to abolish the institution. [11] Two of Moctezuma's daughters, Isabel Moctezuma and her younger sister, Leonor Moctezuma, were granted extensive encomiendas in perpetuity by Hernn Corts. In reality, indigenous people were forced to provide labor. 3 vols. [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. Monasticism Overview, History & Orders | What is Christian Monasticism? Indigenous leaders were charged with mobilising the assessed tribute and labour. Why The Serfs Abolished Russia 138 Words | 1 Pages. Johnson, Lyman L. "Manumission in Colonial Buenos Aires, 1776-1810. The encomienda system had been used in feudal Spain during the reconquest and had survived in some form ever since. It was usually the land that had belonged to the Moorish leader of the conquered territory. It was essentially enslavement, given but a thin (and illusory) veneer of respectability for the Catholic education that it implied. In this way, the crown could more easily direct the use of indigenous labor to activities deemed worthwhile, like mining. It was gradually replaced, in part by repartimiento. Some even became silent partners with merchants involved in lucrative import and export activities. A few years later, the second rebellion under Francisco Hernndez Girn took place and was also put down. The priest of Hispaniola and former encomendero Bartolom de las Casas underwent a profound conversion after seeing the abuse of the native people. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda. Proctor III, Frank T. "Gender and Manumission of Slaves in New Spain,". 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. 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 native inhabitants, who were encomendado (meaning "commended" or "entrusted") to the Spaniards, were expected to pay tribute to the Spaniards and to work for them in the fields or mines. Native people were being brutalized and oppressed under this system. (ECONOMIC) Encomienda o Upon King Philip II's order in 1558, lands in Cebu were distributed to the Spaniards as encomienda. The prime motivation for this system was to bring Christianity to the 'heathens', as the natives were called by the colonial settlers. In other words, although the encomiendas were phased out eventually by the crown, the lot of the Indigenous people did not improve. Madrid: Historia 16, 1987, folios 547[561]-559[573]. Charles V felt it prudent to suspend or repeal the most hated aspects of the New Laws. How did the encomienda system work? 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. Encomiendo did not break up families. It started in 1833 and ended in 1920 in America. Adoption of an encomienda system of labor and tribute in Spanish colonies was expected under any circumstances. Spaniards were awarded the lands occupied by the Native Americans whom they had conquered. In the early colonial period of the New World, land had little economic value without the labor to exploit it. Encomenderos were required to provide protection and religious and cultural education to indigenous people under their control, a requirement often neglected. "[17] The encomienda system was ended legally in 1720, when the crown attempted to abolish the institution. 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. Important years to note for the encomienda system: 1503: The first encomiendas are granted to Spanish conquistadors in the Americas. 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 was essential to the Spanish crown's sustaining its control over North, Central and South America in the first decades after the colonization. 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. Seville, Spain: Diputacion Provincial de Sevilla, 1992. The encomienda system was intended to be transitional. In Mexico, for instance, it was not until the constitutional reform after the Mexican Revolution that the encomienda system was abolished. 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. Encomiendas devolved from their original Iberian form into a form of "communal" slavery. ThoughtCo. However, during this time gold was scarce.[9]. Encyclopedia.com. Omissions? The Indigenous people could also be made to work for a certain amount of time, say on a sugarcane plantation or in a mine. 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). It refers to a system that was used by Spain in the New World to reward the conquistadors (conquerors). 23 Feb. 2023 . Las Casas was an early encomendero in Hispaniola. It was viewed as a vulgar act and below Western humanitarian . 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. [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 same title was granted to colonial leaders. Slaves have few legal protections. They were granted the right to compel indigenous people to work their land and to pay tribute. [28] In the rest of Chile it was abolished in 1789, and in the whole Spanish empire in 1791. [24] The Laws of Burgos and the New Laws of the Indies failed in the face of colonial opposition and, in fact, the New Laws were postponed in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Power passed to royal officials, miners, landowners, and eventually merchants. 3 (1969): 411-429. The impact of encomienda is difficult to separate from the general impact of Spanish colonization. In Peru and New Spain, local conditions were more favorable, and they lasted considerably longer. 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 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. Pizarro defeated Viceroy Nez, who was killed in battle, and basically ruled Peru for two years before another royalist army defeated him; Pizarro was captured and executed. Encyclopedia.com. Mendicants: Overview, History & Orders | Who were the Mendicants? 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. This lucidly shows that the encomienda system was dichotomous to slavery. Encomienda spread with the spread of Spanish colonies and became a common feature of their economies. After Spain conquered Mexico and Peru in the mid-1500s, the system was established on the mainland as well. Far more often, other scholars contend, haciendas developed independently of encomiendas. C. H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (1947). During the spread of Spanish colonies, Spain had few serious rivals in the Americas. The encomiendas became very corrupt and harsh. Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History, Francisco de Toledo (1515-1584), the fifth Spanish viceroy of Peru, established his reputation in that office as one of the most talented and energet, Antonio de Mendoza (1490-1552) was a Spanish viceroy in Mexico and Peru who inaugurated the system of viceregal administration, which lasted nearly 3, Tribute These problems appeared quickly. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. [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). 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 . 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. Deaths, disease, and accusations of ethnocide or genocide, Skepticism toward accusations of genocide, Noble, David Cook. Christianization was also a feature of encomienda in Spanish colonies. Ovando instituted encomienda soon after his arrival in Hispaniola. 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"Negro Slave Control and Resistance in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1650.". In certain areas, this quasi-feudal system persisted. 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. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Spanish colonists wanted indigenous people alive to provide labor. (February 23, 2023). 16 chapters | Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. It also allowed the establishment of encomiendas, since the encomienda bond was a right reserved to full subjects to the crown. Retrieved February 23, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/encomienda. Where was the Encomienda system used? 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. 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. The other major form of coerced labor in their colonies, the encomienda system, was also abolished, .