Encomienda, in colonial Spanish America, was a legal system by which the Spanish crown attempted to define the status of the Indian population in its American colonies. It was based upon the practice of exacting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista (“Reconquest”) of Muslim Spain.
In the encomienda system, Colonists had the right granted by the Spanish government to its American colonists to demand labor or tribute from Native Americans. Use the terms Viceroy, creole, peninsulare, mestizo, and mulatto to describe colonial society.
