encomienda

[en-koh-mee-en-duh, -kom-ee-, eng-kaw-myen-dah]

noun

plural

encomiendas 

1. the system, instituted in 1503, under which a Spanish soldier or colonist was granted a tract of land or a village together with its Indian inhabitants.

2. the land or village together with its inhabitants.

Word History and Origins

Origin of encomienda¹

1800–10; < Spanish: charge, commission, recommendation. See en- ¹, commend

Example Sentences

The missions were relatively autonomous from Spanish rulers — intentionally so to protect the Guarani from the abuses of the encomienda leaders who wanted them as a source of labor.

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Argentina’s brutal encomienda system literally worked indigenous laborers to death.

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The encomienda, a system common within the Spanish empire that forced indigenous people to work for Europeans and their descendants, did not penetrate big parts of the territory that eventually became Paraguay.

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Formerly the king rewarded soldiers with them, and now the islanders, who were formerly assigned under those encomiendas, have become our enemies.

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All of the large islands, except Paragua and the Moro country, were, in that day, under encomiendas, their inhabitants paying tributes and for the most part professing the Catholic faith.

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