[Developing]
1. During the Spanish Colony: Encomienda System
2. Under American Colony.
3. Under Japanese Imperialist.
4. Modern day slavery.
SPAIN's ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM
What is the encomienda system?
Why is the encomienda system so important?
The encomienda system allowed for a vast accumulation of wealth by the conquistadors and the Spanish crown. They benefited from the discovery of gold and silver in the New World, and the mining of those metals by their laborers. The system resulted in the widespread abuse of indigenous peoples, as well as the theft of their land. Since a person of mixed Native and Spanish ancestry could not be entered into the encomienda system, some of the indigenous started to intermarry with Europeans so as to save their families from a life of forced labor. This practice, along with the forced conversions to Catholicism, resulted in the dilution of tribal identity and culture throughout the Americas.
The encomienda system was also the first racially-based system of slavery in the New World, and can be seen as a precursor to the African slave trade that eventually replaced it. Read more
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