Question

What circumstances made the Spanish adopt the encomienda?

What subsequent changes caused the shift to the repartimiento and wage labor?

Answer 1

Encomienda system was a labor system instituted by the Spanish crown in the American colonies. In this system, a Spanish encomendeto was granted a number of native laborers who would pay tributes to him in exchange for his protection.

In the early 16th century, the Spanish crown set up the encomienda system in the Americas to divide up the American Indian labor force in order to aid the development of their mining economy. Under this syste, a Spanish conquistador, or another prorminent male Spaniard (known as an encomendero), was granted the labor of a certain number of Native Americans living in the area. The encomendero provided the laborers protection from warring tribes, and teachings in the Catholic faith. The native laborer paid tributes to the encomendero in the form of gold or ther metals, or agricultural products.

The system was intended to be a way to enter into a peaceable and mutually beneficial relationship with the indigenous peoples of America;however, the system quickly developed into essentially a system of slavery. Native Americans were treated cruelly and forced into hard labor.

The crown attempted to fix the system by passing various laws throughout the centry, but the encomenderous refused to comply with these new measures. Eventually, the economiento system,but it was not abloshed until the late 18th century.

Important years to note for the encomienda system:

• 1503: The first encomiendas are granted to Spanish conquistadors in the Americas.
• 1512-13 : Spain passes the Laws of Burgos in an attempt to end the abuses of the system.
• 1542 : Spain passes the New Law of the Indies, another failed attempt to end the abuse of Native Americans under the encomienda system.

The Encomienda system allowed for a vast accumulation of wealth by the conquistadors and the Spanish crown. They benefited from the discovery of gold and silver in the New World, and the mining of those metals by their laborers. The system resulted in the widespread abuse of indegenous peoples, as well as the theft of their land. Since a person of mixed Native and Spanish ancestry could not be entered into the encomienda system, some of the indegenous started to intermarry with Europeans so as to save their families from a life of forced labor. This practice, along with the forced conversations to Catholism, resulted in the dilution of tribal identity and culture throughout the Americas.

The encomienda system was also the first racially-based system of slavery in theNew World, and can be seen as a precursor to the Africa slave trade that eventually replaced it.

Repartimiento (Spanish : "partition", "distributor") also called mita, or cuatequil, in colonial Spanish America, a system by which the crown allowed certain colonists to recruit indegenous peoples for forced labour. The repartimiento system, frequently called the mita in Peru and the cuatequil ( a spanish language corruption of Nahuatl coatequitl or cohuatequitl) in New Spain (Mexico), was in operation asearly as 1499 and was given definite form about 1575. About 5 percent of the indigenous peoples in agiven district might be subject to labour in mines and baour 10 percent more for seasonal agricultural work. A colonist who wanted repartimiento had to aplly to the Viceroy or the audiencia (provincial appeal court), stating that the supplemental labour required on his plantation or ranch or in his mine would provide the country with essential food and goods.

Legally, the work period was not to exceed two weeks (five in the mines), three or four times annually, and wages were to be paid.Those requirements were practically ignored,however, and, because the froced labourers were often brutally treated, the Spanish government modified the system in 1601 and 1609. Under the new arrangement, 25 percent of the indidenous peoples in agiven district were required to work for the Spaniards, but they were free to choose their own employer and term of service. The former system was permitted to continue in the mines untill the owners could purchase enough enslaved African people to replace the indigenous workers. The new system remained legally in force down to the end of the colonial period. In practice, however, impressment of indigenous peoples under the earlier system continued in spite of additional royal prohibitive legislation in the 17th and 18 centuries.

Encomienda granted the first Spanish settlers tracts of land and the right to extract labor from the Native inhabitants. The Repartimiento system replaced this system after it was documented by Bartolome' de Las Casas, and mandated the banning of outright Indian slavery and that the Indian labourers be paid wages.