---
title: Encomienda
author: Mark Cartwright
source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/
format: machine-readable-alternate
license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
updated: 1970-01-01
---
# Encomienda
_Authored by [Mark Cartwright](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/markzcartwright/)_
The *encomienda* was a system where Spanish adventurers and settlers were granted the legal right to extract forced labour from indigenous tribal chiefs in the Americas colonies of the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/). In return, the Europeans were expected to give military protection to the labourers and offer them the opportunity to be converted to [Christianity](https://www.worldhistory.org/christianity/) by funding a parish priest.
The *encomienda* system permitted the Spanish Crown to convert its invading army of conquistadors into colonial settlers, but the system's flaws – maltreatment and significant population reductions from diseases – meant that it was eventually replaced by a system of low-paid labour and large estate management.
### Feudal Origins
The Spanish Empire maintained two key objectives in conquered territories: extract material wealth and convert the indigenous peoples to Christianity. Under the category of resources the Spanish saw fit to exploit came the labour of any local peoples in the area. *Encomienda* was a feudal term which derived from the verb *encomendar*, meaning "to entrust". In medieval Spain, *encomienda* referred to the relationship between a landowner and those who worked the land. In a reciprocal relationship, the former received labour while the latter received protection. This concept was applied to land taken back from the Moors during the [Reconquista](https://www.worldhistory.org/Reconquista/) and the [colonization](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/colonization/) of the Canary Islands. *Encomienda* was then extended to the Americas colonies from 1502 (first in Hispaniola) as a way to justify what amounted to little more than slavery. In 1503 the policy received royal approval, and it spread from the Caribbean to Mexico and Central America, and then to South America as the conquistadors ("conquerors") used it as a means to extract resources and as a reward for their followers.
In a rather dubious justification for exploitation, a favoured European (*encomendero*) could benefit from free labour for any purpose whatsoever in return for offering local people a certain level of physical protection and an opportunity to be exposed to the Christian [religion](https://www.worldhistory.org/religion/) and so enjoy the ultimate salvation of their souls.
[  Map of the Spanish Colonial Empire Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/14411/map-of-the-spanish-colonial-empire/ "Map of the Spanish Colonial Empire")The *encomienda* was not then slavery of American Indians, which the pope had prohibited in 1537 (although they did not so favour Black Africans). The European attitude might have eased a few consciences on their side, but, naturally, the indigenous peoples did not often see the relationship in these terms, and thousands suffered what was, in practical reality, slavery in all but name. Further, "there is ample evidence that *encomenderos* largely ignored their religious responsibilities" (Alan Covey, 372).
There was no connection with land as part of the *encomienda* as there had been in medieval Spain, instead, in the colonies, *encomienda* was purely a legal arrangement, and the right could even be held by municipalities. An *encomienda* was initially given by leaders of [conquistador](https://www.worldhistory.org/Conquistador/) expeditions and then either the viceroy or the *[audiencia](https://www.worldhistory.org/Audiencia/)* (judicial panel) present in the nearest large town. The size of the population tied to a particular *encomienda* varied; most involved around 2,000 family units, but some could be much larger, such as that assigned to [Hernán Cortés](https://www.worldhistory.org/Hernan_Cortes/) in Mexico, which encompassed well over 23,000 family units. Certainly, even a smaller *encomienda* permitted a settler to have a house built, feed his family, and maintain a small entourage of personal followers (*paniaguados*) for his own protection against rebel native peoples – raids on Spanish settlements where the inhabitants and animals were all slaughtered were not uncommon. The indigenous peoples roped into the labour were given protection from other European settlers and adventurers. Regarding the wider community, the holder of the *encomienda* was expected to send his armed followers to help defend the local settlement if required and to pay for a parish priest.
An *encomienda* was usually granted for life but was not hereditary, despite calls for it to be so by holders of the right and some religious orders. It was believed that if settler families had an extended relationship with their labourers, they would treat them better. The call for hereditary *encomiendas* was rejected by the Crown as it wished to keep its options open and maintain its overall control of the colonies. Consequently, in the majority of cases, the *encomienda* of a deceased holder reverted to the Crown with a small provision made to a surviving widow and any children.
[  Spanish Torture of American Peoples Joos van Winghe & Theodor de Bry (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16041/spanish-torture-of-american-peoples/ "Spanish Torture of American Peoples")### Labour v. Souls
Initially, the right of *encomienda* was given to an *[adelantado](https://www.worldhistory.org/Adelantado/)*, that is a conquistador who had been awarded the license to explore and [conquer](https://www.worldhistory.org/warfare/) new territories on behalf of the Spanish Crown. The *adelantado* could keep 80% of any wealth he acquired in the process (the Crown got the remaining 20%), and this included a right to use local labour. The *encomienda* was then extended to settlers so that, in effect, an invading army was transformed into a quasi-militia urban population that earned wealth from land worked by indigenous peoples in the surrounding area.
There were intense debates in Spain throughout the 16th century as to which of the often conflicting aims of material gain and religious conversion should be regarded as the most important. The 1512 Laws of Burgos set out how indigenous peoples should be treated and the responsibilities of settlers as Christians. Then the [Council of the Indies](https://www.worldhistory.org/Council_of_the_Indies/) in Spain, which supervised all aspects of the colonies, issued directives that local people should not be exploited to the point of starvation and [death](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Death/). The issue was discussed in a meeting of the Council in 1540, where the members were urged by President Loaísa to consider the following six questions:
1. How should those who had treated Indians badly be punished?
2. How could Indians best be instructed in Christianity?
3. How could it be guaranteed that Indians would be well treated?
4. Was it necessary for a Christian to take into account the welfare of slaves?
5. What should be done to ensure that governors and other officials carry out the government's orders to be just?
6. How could the administration of justice be properly organised? (Thomas, 474-5)
From the Spanish Crown's point of view, the arrangement of *encomienda* created an inherent conflict of interest. Monarchs were expected, as defenders of the faith and beneficiaries of the goodwill of the popes, to promote the Christianization and '[civilization](https://www.worldhistory.org/civilization/)' of conquered peoples. This naturally meant that killing them with labour was hardly conducive to religious education and conversion. On the other hand, to maximise the extraction of wealth from the colonies, labour was desperately needed for such large state projects as mining precious metals and harvesting crops grown on an industrial scale.
[  Bartolomé de las Casas Unknown Artist (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16043/bartolome-de-las-casas/ "Bartolomé de las Casas")The third group in this triangle of control was the Europeans who had been granted the right of *encomienda*. Thousands of miles from the monarchy and the Council of Indies, many conquistadors saw no need for niceties as they ruthlessly exploited both local resources and people for their own personal gain. There were protestations by indigenous community leaders and certain members of the Spanish religious orders like the Dominican friar [Bartolomé de las Casas](https://www.worldhistory.org/Bartolome_de_las_Casas/) (1484-1566), who wrote a graphic description of just what was going on in the New World in his *A Very Brief Recital of the Destruction of the Indies* of 1522. On the ground, these voices could do little to prevent *encomienda* becoming, in many cases, a system of extreme forced labour indistinguishable from slavery with the exception that the labourers could not be sold. Further, indigenous American peoples were very often completely unsuited to the alien concept of labouring for another in regular working [hours](https://www.worldhistory.org/Horae/), and the increased contact with Europeans only led to even more devastation of the American population by European diseases. The population of Hispaniola was perhaps around 200,000 before European contact, but by 1522, it had been reduced to 90,000; that of New Spain had been around 22 million in 1500 but was reduced to just 3 million by 1550. Either by hard labour or disease, the fate of the local peoples was grim.
### Protest & Change
The situation became so serious for the stability of internal affairs and European-Indian relations that there was even a move to abolish the *encomienda* in 1542. A set of New Laws attempted to reduce the application of the *encomienda* but made little headway against the powerful and avaricious forces of monarchy, conquistadors, and settlers who were making a fortune out of the system. In 1573, a more substantial attempt at limiting exploitation was made by [Philip II](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Philip_II/) of Spain (r. 1556-1598). The monarch outlawed any use of the *encomienda* system in any new territories. This hardly helped indigenous peoples already suffering under the system, but it at least indicated a realisation that the system was flawed and could not continue indefinitely. The Americas colonies of Spain were now becoming an area no longer of [conquest](https://www.worldhistory.org/warfare/) but pacification.
[  Philip II of Spain by Moro Antonio Moro (Public Domain) ](https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12308/philip-ii-of-spain-by-moro/ "Philip II of Spain by Moro")As the colonisation process evolved and the collaboration of indigenous and mixed-race citizens became essential, so the *encomienda* system slowly came to an end by the first years of the 18th century (but continued until the 1780s in some pockets of the empire, notably Chile and the Yucatán peninsula). One of the problems with the *encomienda* system was that there were not enough licenses to meet demand, and in wilder areas, the indigenous peoples, unsurprisingly, proved reluctant to volunteer for such a system. The level of productivity the system could provide given the reduction in labourers due to diseases over time and the unsuitability of native crops for urban markets now feeding Europeans meant that new ways had to be found to ensure agricultural production met the demands of colonial settlements.
The *encomienda* was replaced by the *[repartimiento](https://www.worldhistory.org/Repartimiento/)* system, which also involved forced labour, but at least this time the workers received a wage, albeit a low one. Known as *mita* in the Viceroy of Peru, this system obliged indigenous leaders to send a fixed number of male labourers to work for the colonial administration (just as the Aztecs and [Incas](https://www.worldhistory.org/Inca_Civilization/) had done in their own empires). The team usually worked for a number of weeks before being replaced by another group from the same community. The scheme permitted the continued operation of mines and state-run [agriculture](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Agriculture/) and the construction of infrastructures such as roads, bridges, and public buildings. The low wages were a poor compensation for being uprooted from one's family and community, but it was a step forward in comparison to the *encomienda* system. A second alternative to *encomienda* was the use of slaves shipped to the Americas from [Africa](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/africa/). Both slaves and low-wage labour allowed European settlers or settlers of European descent to evolve a new system of managing land and resources, which involved establishing vast estates or *haciendas* where agriculture (wheat, sugar, olives, and vines), stock-raising (imported cattle and sheep), and mining ([gold](https://www.worldhistory.org/gold/) and [silver](https://www.worldhistory.org/Silver/)) were conducted on an ever-larger scale.
#### Editorial Review
This human-authored definition has been reviewed by our editorial team before publication to ensure accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards in accordance with our [editorial policy](https://www.worldhistory.org/static/editorial-policy/).
## Bibliography
- [Alan Covey, R. *Inca Apocalypse.* Oxford University Press, 2020.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/B08762WJKS/)
- [Carballo, David M. *Collision of Worlds.* Oxford University Press, 2020.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0190864354/)
- [Cervantes, Fernando. *Conquistadores.* Allen Lane, 2020.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0241242142/)
- [Hugh Thomas. *Golden Age.* Penguin Books, 2022.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0141034491/)
- [Olson, James S. *Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402-1975.* Greenwood, 1991.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/0313264139/)
- [Parry, J.H. (John Horace). *The Spanish Seaborne Empire .* Alfred A Knopf, 1966.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/B0000CMUSM/)
- [von Habsburg, Max & Fordham, Michael & Smith, David. *Spain in the Age of Discovery.* Cambridge University Press, 2015.](https://www.worldhistory.org/books/110758728X/)
## About the Author
Mark is WHE’s Publishing Director and has an MA in Political Philosophy (University of York). He is a full-time researcher, writer, historian and editor. Special interests include art, architecture and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share.
## Timeline
- **1502 CE**: The [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) system is first applied to the Americas on the island of Hispaniola.
- **1503 CE**: The use of the system of [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) in the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/) receives approval from the Spanish monarchy.
- **1512 CE**: The Laws of Burgos set out how indigenous peoples should be treated within the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/).
- **1522 CE**: [Bartolomé de Las Casas](https://www.worldhistory.org/Bartolome_de_las_Casas/) writes a graphic description of the Spanish colonial [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) system in his "A Very Brief Recital of the Destruction of the Indies".
- **1542 CE**: The New Laws unsuccessfully attempt to reduce the application of the [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) system in the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/).
- **1573 CE**: [Philip II](https://www.worldhistory.org/disambiguation/Philip_II/) of Spain prohibits the application of the [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) system in any new territories of the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/).
- **c. 1700 CE**: The [encomienda](https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/) system goes into decline in most parts of the Spanish [Empire](https://www.worldhistory.org/empire/).
## Questions & Answers
### What was the encomienda system?
The encomienda system was a form of forced and unpaid labour used by Spanish authorities and settlers in the colonies of the Spanish Empire. In return, the labourers were given military protection and the opportunity to be converted to Christianity.
### What was the purpose of the encomienda system?
The purpose of the encomienda system in the Spanish Empire was to provide an incentive for conquistadors to conquer new territories and to provide free labour to extract wealth from the colonies. For the Catholic Church, the system permitted indigenous peoples to be exposed to Christianity.
### Was the encomienda system slavery?
The encomienda system in Spanish colonial America was a system of forced and unpaid labour but was not slavery since the labourers could not be bought and sold to a third party. In practical terms, though, there was little difference.
## Cite This Work
### APA
Cartwright, M. (2022, June 15). Encomienda. *World History Encyclopedia*.
### Chicago
Cartwright, Mark. "Encomienda." *World History Encyclopedia*, June 15, 2022. .
### MLA
Cartwright, Mark. "Encomienda." *World History Encyclopedia*, 15 Jun 2022, .
## License & Copyright
Submitted by [Mark Cartwright](https://www.worldhistory.org/user/markzcartwright/ "User Page: Mark Cartwright"), published on 15 June 2022. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en). This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.