The heart of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust". The encomienda was … See more

The first grantees of the encomienda system, called encomenderos, were usually conquerors who received these grants of labour by virtue of participation in a successful conquest. Later, some receiving encomiend… See more

In 1501 Isabella I of Castile declared Native Americans as subjects to the Crown, and so, as Castilians and legal equals to Spanish Castilians. This implied that enslaving them was illegal except under very specifi… See more

The encomienda system was the subject of controversy in Spain and its territories almost from its start. In 1510, an Hispaniola encomendero named Valenzuela murdered a group of Native American leaders who had agree… See more

The encomienda system was generally replaced by the crown-managed repartimiento system throughout Spanish America after mid-sixteenth century. Like the encomienda, the new repartimiento did not include … See more

Raphael Lemkin (coiner of the term genocide) considered Spain's abuses of the native population of the Americas to constitute cultural and even outright genocide, including the abuses of the encomiend… See more

• Polo y servicio, a similar forced labor system in Spanish-controlled colonial Philippines
• Cargo system
• Encomiendas in Peru… See more