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The ideal life of an encomendero was a "casa poblada" (populated house), a Spanish concept which "implied a large house, a Spanish wife if possible, a table where many guests were maintained, African slaves, a staff of Spanish and Indian [Indigenous people] servant-employees" plus "a stable of horses, fine clothing, ownership of agricultural land and herds of livestock, and holding office on ...
The encomienda system was generally replaced by the crown-managed repartimiento system throughout Spanish America after mid-sixteenth century. [8] Like the encomienda, the new repartimiento did not include the attribution of land to anyone, rather only the allotment of native workers. But they were directly allotted to the Crown, who, through a ...
This system rewarded the Spanish conquerors with forced labor from the native peoples. A system of serfdom, the pre-colonial alipin system, already existed before the islands were colonized by the Spanish Empire in 1565, but it differed in that groups of native people were not obliged to render forced labor to superiors.
The Jesuits, especially in the southeastern part of South America, followed a widespread Spanish practice of creating settlements called "reductions" to concentrate the widespread native populations in order to better rule, Christianize, exploit their labor, and protect the native populace. [10]
After passage of the 1542 New Laws, also known as the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians, the Spanish greatly restricted the power of the encomienda system, allowed abuse by holders of the labor grants (encomenderos), and officially abolished the enslavement of the native population.
The labor system of Encomienda was also abolished in 1550. [3] However these laws did not end the practice of slavery or forced labor immediately and a new system began to be used repartimiento and mita in Peru. Eventually this system too was abolished due to abuses. [3]
The encomienda system brought many indigenous Taíno to work in the fields and mines in exchange for Spanish protection, [14] education, and a seasonal salary [15] under the pretense of searching for gold and other materials. [16]
The introduction and corruption of the encomienda system is now considered to have been an alternative for outright slavery and a Castilian institution that did not work properly in America. The encomienda was a system that interchanged a person's work for military protection by a higher authority. It had been part of the Castilian legal system ...