Encomiendas in Peru
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An encomienda in Peru was a reward offered to each of the men under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro who began the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. In the early colonial period of the New World, land had little economic value without labor to exploit it. The grant of an encomienda bestowed an encomendero, the right to collect tribute from a community of indigenous people. The word encomienda means "trust", indicating that the indigenous people were entrusted to the care and attention of an encomendero. In reality, the encomienda system is often compared to slavery. Theoretically, the encomendero grantee did not own the people or the land occupied by his subjects, but only the right to tribute, usually in the form of labor, that he could extract from them.[1][2][3]
Grants of encomiendas were later extended to both soldiers and non-soldiers who provided valuable services to the conquest and settlement of Peru. The governor of Peru, initially Pizarro and later the viceroy, granted encomiendas to individuals. The grant of an encomienda to an individual was intended to be inheritable only to a second generation. The encomendero was responsible for paying a tax to the King of Spain; to protect and provide religious education to the indigenous people, henceforth called "Andeans," under his control; to provide military services as needed; and to maintain a residence near the area in which his subjects lived.[4][5]
Encomiendas varied in size and wealth, with the Pizarros and other military leaders receiving much larger and richer grants than the rank and file among their soldiers. However, even the most humble members of the conquering army acquired wealth and social status far beyond what they could have hoped for in Spain or in other Spanish colonies. Part of the wealth came immediately from the soldiers' share of the treasure captured from the Incas and part came more slowly from the labor of the people living in the encomiendas that those soldiers controlled.[6] Most of the wealth derived from encomiendas was from agriculture or mining, although manufacturing, especially of textiles, was a source of income of some encomiendas.[7]
The encomienda "was the key institution of early Spanish colonialism"[8] and the principal means of exploiting the labor of the Andeans by the Spanish conquerors. The grant of an encomienda enabled the recipient to enjoy a "lordly rank and life-style" and encomenderos, often of humble origins, dominated local governments and were economically important.[9] The number of encomiendas in Peru peaked around 1570. In most of Latin America, the encomienda system gave way to repartimiento in the late 16th century; in Peru, encomiendas persisted until the 18th century. In 1721, the creation of new encomiendas was prohibited by the Spanish Crown. The encomiendas were gradually replaced by large, landed estates called haciendas in which, unlike the encomienda, the hacendado or patron was the legal owner of the land.[10]