The word encomienda is derived from the
Spanish word
encomendar, which means to
entrust. In 1503
Queen Isabella brought the encomienda to the
New World in reaction to the alarming reports of the decline in
Indian numbers. She felt there would be fewer deaths if the Indians weren't being hunted by
slave traders or overworked in mines, but instead were working
voluntarily.
The encomienda granted
conquistadors the royal share of Indian
labor and production in exchange for being responsible for the
well being of their charges. Colonists had the right to control the labor of and collect the tribute from an Indian community as a reward for service to the Spanish Crown. Unlike the Spanish
peninsular version of the encomienda, the grant in the New World did not give the grantee (encomendero)
legal right to own land. It also did not give them legal
jurisdiction over the natives although many assumed that right.
It was supposed to be a temporary
stewardship of the Indians but the colonists turned it into something the
Jesuits felt was a new form of Indian
slavery.
In return for this system the encomendero promised to settle down and found a family in the
villa, to protect the Indians and to arrange for their conversion to
Roman Catholic faith.
Obando,
Cortés and
Pizarro granted the first encomiendas in the
Antilles,
Mexico and
Peru respectively.
Accompanying the encomienda was the
mita (pronounced mee-tah) system, a rotating draft of Indian labor that colonists adopted from a local
Auechuan culture for
crop rotation. The encomiendas in Peru depended on this system, as their Indians worked in the silver mines under harsh conditions. 13,300 Indians were divided into 3 mitas, making 4,433 Indians actively working the mines during 4 month periods. The harshest conditions are described at
Potosí in
Bolivia, where Indians would enter the mine on Monday, having been given only one ration, and stay there until Saturday evening without ever coming out of the mines inbetween. Their wives would ascend the mountain every day to bring them food, because at 15,000 feet little to no food resources grew.
In the 16th century, encomiendas ranged in size from as many as 23,000 heads of household (Cortés' encomienda) to a few hundred in some areas of
Central America. The number of grants for encomiendas was always seen by the colonists as too few. To counter the colonists, who were out of control, the Crown issued the
New Laws in 1542, a portion of which abolished encomiendas at the death of the current holder.
References:
Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 1999
Rosenberg, Kincaid, Logan. Americas: An Anthology. 1992