"They
made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one; they
promised to take our land, and they did.” --Chief Red Cloud
Lecture 18: The Encomienda
Ecomienda
comes from the Spanish verb, “encomendar”, to entrust. Its history began during the time of the
Reconquista or the 781 year period of reconquest by Christian Iberian kingdoms
over the Muslim kingdoms. During this
time frame Adelantados, a Spanish nobility title, were given the right to
collect tribute from Muslims or others who lived in the area they had conquered
and resettled.
When
Christopher Columbus was recalled back to Spain by the crown to answer charges
of fraud and corruption, he was stripped of all titles including governor of
Hispaniola. King Ferdinad and Queen
Isabella appointed Fray Nicolas de Ovanda as the new royal governor and he
establishes the first formalized encomienda system in Hispaniola.
The
Spanish crown granted a citizen of the colony a specific amount of local
inhabitants to perform manual labor.
These grantees were usually individuals who had participated in a
successful conquest. To make it more effectively the Spanish allowed the
indigenous leaders to remain in power as long as they mobilized their
communities to provide the required tribute of labor. The labor ranged from
farming, working in gold and silver mines to personal servants.. The conquerors who received these grants of
labor were to in turn be responsible for their chargers. The encomenderos were to teach the natives the
Spanish language, instruct them in the Catholic faith and protect them from their
traditional enemies. The encomienda did not include a land grant because in
theory the land belonged to the Spanish crown but in practice the encomenderos
gained control of the local land and failed to fulfill their obligations.
In
reality the encominda was no different than slavery. A major reform called the New Laws in 1542
restricted the endomenderos for holding onto their charges for two
generations. However many by passed this
stipulation because Spanish authorities simple could not enforce it. When the crown attempted to implement the
policy in Peru in 1535, the Spanish citizens revolted and killed the
viceroy. In Mexico the viceroy wisely
decided not to carry out the New Laws citing the potential for rebellion. He
said “I obey crown authority but do not comply with this order.
In
all of this it is incredible that the native population was theoretical not
viewed as slaves but as “free vassals of the crown.” Even though Queen Isabella of Castile had
forbidden Indian slavery many natives were forced to death by their hard labor
and subjected to extreme punishment if resisted.
The
encomienda was strongly based on the encomendado’s tribal identity. Mixed race or mesitizo individuals, for
example could not by law by subjected to the encomienda. This moved many to deliberately seek to
dilute their tribal identity and that of their descendants as a way to escape
from the service, by seeking intermarriage with people from different
ethnicities, especially Spaniards or Creoles.
In this way the encomienda somewhat weakened Amerindians’ tribal
identification and ethnicity, which in turn diminished the pool of available
encomedados.
The
encomienda system slowly gave way to a new system called “repartimiento.” This system did not grant land only the
allotment of native workers. This time
the natives were allotted to the crown who were managed by a local crown
appointed official. He would assign them
to work for settlers for set period of time usually of several weeks. It was an attempt to stop the abuse of forced
labor.
The
encomienda system did eventually come to a legal end in 1720, when the
crown made a new attempt at eradicating the institution. The encomenderos
were then required to pay remaining encomienda laborers for their work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encomienda
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