Encomiendas
The conquest of the Aztec empire in South America required an enormous effort and a tremendous sacrifice by Cortés's army. After their victory, the soldiers demanded
what they had come for: prestige and wealth. The wealth from the city had been lost; Cortés had to resort to some other strategy to pay his men. The conquistador had already surveyed
all Aztec records and on the basis of this information, he decided to distribute grants of people and land among his men. This practice had already been tried in the Caribbean,
and Cortés himself had received encomiendas , which were to be grants of land and people. Granting encomiendas became an institution throughout New Spain to ensure
dominance of the conquered populations and the use of their labor by the Spanish colonizers, as well as a means to reward Spanish subjects for services rendered to the king/queen.
The encomienda was a Spanish institution of Roman origin, and in the New World the Spanish government established a series of rights and obligations Between the encomendero (Spanish person receiving the grant) and the people under his
care.
The Native Americans were required to provide tribute and free labor to the encomendero , who was responsible for providing for their welfare, their learning of the Spanish way of life
so that they could move into Spanish culture, and their Christianization.
The larger the grant, the more amount of tribute (money or goods that had to be paid by the Native Americans) and labor available, and thus the greater the potential wealth and
prestige of the assignment.
Although disease and hardship killed the Native American population, increasing numbers of Spaniards arrived with great expectations of new wealth.
Because the king of Spain was far away, many of the rules set down for these Encomiendas were stretched to satisfy the needs of the encomendero.
These Native Americans were to be taught the Christian faith. Back in Spain it was
reported that these people were savages running through the forest without clothes and the conquistadors did not understand their worshiping of various “Gods”.
The Native Americans did not have the stamina to work long hours in fields raising the cash crops for the land owners. Because of the disease brought by the Spanish the
Native Americans soon had to be replaced.
Source: Library of Congress
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