Question

The encomienda system provided Spanish colonies in the Americas with:

The freedom to make political decisions independent of input from Spain
O The technological knowledge to manufacture goods locally
A cheap and abundant source of labor for plantation agriculture
The military opportunity to defend themselves from attack by rival European powers.

Answer 1

The encomienda system provided Spanish colonies in the Americas with a cheap and abundant source of labor for plantation agriculture.

Step-by-step explanation:

The encomienda system provided Spanish colonies in the Americas with a cheap and abundant source of labor for plantation agriculture. Under the encomienda system, Spanish colonizers were granted the right to use indigenous people as forced labor in exchange for protecting and converting them to Christianity. This system greatly benefited the Spanish colonies by providing them with the labor necessary to sustain large-scale agricultural production and extract valuable resources, such as sugar and silver. It also contributed to the economic and demographic exploitation of the indigenous populations. However, the encomienda system did not provide the Spanish colonies with the freedom to make political decisions independent of input from Spain, technological knowledge to manufacture goods locally, or military opportunity to defend themselves from attack by rival European powers.

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