HIST 8B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Encomienda, Repartimiento, Spanish Empire
Lecture 4 History 8B
Labor&Tribute
● Encomienda- royal grant of use of land and native labor
○ globalized adaptation of feudalism
○ provided to individuals that fought during conquista and received higher social
standing
○ danger for Crown: lords would eventually utilize encomienda to become
independent from King
■ pressures conquistadores for them not to get too much power
■ encomienda would not be perpetual: King’s attempt to preserve power
● Laws of 1542: civil wars in Peru when laws introduced
○ Bureaucracy overlooked the laws, encomienda persisted
○ Owners of encomienda not required to pay; gave servants time to cultivate their
own crops
● 16th Century: massive depopulation of indigenous people
○ no more laborers
○ repartimiento introduced (less workers)
● Repartimiento (mita in Peru)- right to rotate laborers for work on encomiendas, mines,
public works
○ mines, farms, textile factories, cultivating articles/foodstuffs
○ system supplants the encomienda
○ eventually becomes economical, Spaniards began to privatize land: haciendas
● Haciendas become dominant land tenure of the empire
○ Spaniard landowners possess large haciendas
● Labor systems forms of exploitation and how social relations worked
● Slavery- most prevalent in mines and sugar plantations
○ development of sugar haciendas
○ large populations of slaves
○ articles channeled to the international trade
○ beginnings of capitalism
● Wage labor: in haciendas and obrajes
● Renaissance era in Europe: slavery less utilized locally, slavery more important in Trans
Atlantic trade
● Tribute payments (taxes) to Crown
○ introduction of capitalist economy creates new social class
● Development of alliance between Indigenous nobility and Spanish encomenderos
○ cacique works against the interest of their population to make business with
Spanish encomenderos; others would advocate for their people
Critics of the Empire
● The Great Debates: whether or not the indigenous people were subjects of the emperor
with rights or deserved to be enslaved
● Dominicans mainly fought to defend the natives
○ if the indigenous were human not
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● Las Casas “A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies”
○ introduction of debate of human rights
○ the conquistadores are supposed to represent you but they are representing hell
and evil
○ not committing Catholic acts
○ asked for natives rights
● La Republica de los Indios: indigenous people need protection from the conquistadores
and have their separate laws, legislation, and courts
○ only when conflicts involved Spaniards would they need to go to Spanish court
○ recognized and acknowledged the existence of the indigenous communities
○ allowed indigenous communities to survive
● Catholicism and Westward expansion contradiction
● 1542: New Laws limit the power of the encomenderos
○ encomienda is limited to 2 generations
○ law is disregarded or amended in several places to benefit the encomenderos
● Republica de Indios: after Mexican Independence, abolished
○ “the need to assimilate indigenous people into society”
○ lost rights, became impoverished
Church and State
● Conservatism: church and state have to be a single organism; Catholic Church and King
are the single authority
○ keeping status quo
○ everyone must be Catholic to lead civilized life
● Patronato Real: Crown has the prerogative of making major appointments of Church
Officials
● Important during the beginning of the empire to unite all the people
● Colonial Empire: predicated on the obligation of converting the Indians to the Catholic
Faith
● Ecclesiastical hierarchy- secular and regular Church
● Friars of Orders- Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Jesuits
○ sent to Mexico to convert
○ “real Catholic priests to set example”
○ Friars were granted large powers to convert the people
○ Criticized by the secular church (Regular priests) and encomenderos (friars
protected natives from encomendero abuse)
● Failed enterprise: contradictions, shallow conversions
● Parishes and churches, missions
○ Episcopal Inquisitions until 1569
● Holy Office of the Inquisition: 1569, Mexico City and Liam
● Church becomes ally of nobility to subordinate the Indian people
● Building right over the temples of the indigenous people
Colonial Catholicism
● Christianity in Latin America had a lot of indigenous people influence
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Document Summary
Encomienda- royal grant of use of land and native labor. Provided to individuals that fought during conquista and received higher social standing. Danger for crown: lords would eventually utilize encomienda to become independent from king. Pressures conquistadores for them not to get too much power. Encomienda would not be perpetual: king"s attempt to preserve power. Laws of 1542: civil wars in peru when laws introduced. Owners of encomienda not required to pay; gave servants time to cultivate their own crops. 16th century: massive depopulation of indigenous people. No more laborers repartimiento introduced (less workers) Repartimiento (mita in peru)- right to rotate laborers for work on encomiendas, mines, public works. Eventually becomes economical, spaniards began to privatize land: haciendas introduction of capitalist economy creates new social class. Development of alliance between indigenous nobility and spanish encomenderos. Cacique works against the interest of their population to make business with. Spanish encomenderos; others would advocate for their people.
