Question

How did the Encomienda System work?

Answer 1

Answer:

The labor system in the early Spanish colonies was based on what is called the encomienda system. An encomendero from Spain was given a certain number of native laborers to help him establish his household and work the land. The native laborers would pay tributes to encomendero and in return he would have to see to their wellbeing and protection.

Explanation:

The first to receive an allotment of native workers under the encomienda system were the Spanish conquerors who came with the Conquest. It was seen as their reward for helping the Spanish Crown to pacify the region and for bringing it under the sovereignty of Spain.  As the colonies developed this system was later also transferred to those who were generally well connected or wealthy and could gain the influence to be assigned an encomienda as well. In Peru for example, the encomenderos could make the natives also work for a certain amount of time in the mines, which was a particularly brutal system for extracting the wealth from the colonies in the form of precious metals and sending it back to Spain.