Question

Why did the Spanish government establish the encomienda system in the Spanish colonies?

to grant land to American Indians
to divide land equally
to defend the American Indians
to set up a labor supply

Answer 1

To set a labor supply

Answer 2

• to set up a labor supply

Step-by-step explanation:

The word encomienda originates from the Spanish word encomendar, signifying "to entrust." The encomienda system had been utilized in medieval Spain amid the reconquest and had made due in some structure from that point onward.

In the Americas, the first encomiendas were passed out by Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean. Spanish conquistadors, pilgrims, ministers or frontier authorities were given a repartimiento, or allow of land. These grounds were regularly very tremendous.

The land incorporated any local urban areas, towns, networks or families that lived there. The locals should give tribute, as gold or silver, harvests, and foodstuffs, creatures, for example, pigs or llamas or whatever else the land delivered. The locals could likewise be made to work for a specific measure of time, say on a sugarcane estate or in a mine.

Consequently, the proprietor, or encomendero, was in charge of the prosperity of his subjects and was to make sure that they were converted and educated about Christianity.