Lecture 33: Spanish Colonial Policy Toward the Indians
Introduction
The Spanish conquest of the Indian did not end with the battles, the ravages of disease, or
the end of the gold or fur supply. The invaders stayed, and some of them, such as the Spanish,
were not content to let the Indians remain on their own land following their traditional ways. The
Spaniards expected to be rewarded for their part in the conquest, and they abhorred manual labor
in the tradition of the Spanish hidalgo. Nevertheless, a conflict existed between the Spaniards’
desire for Indian slaves and the riches they could bring and their responsibility to bring
Christianity to the Indians, resulting in the creation of the Requirement, a statement that was to
be read to Indians requiring them to accept the pope and the Spanish crown or face death or
slavery. Since most of the Indians did not hear or understand the Requirement, even the
opposition of Queen Isabella and Bartolome de Las Casas, an influential Dominican friar, did not
prevent widespread slave raiding.
Indians who were not forced into slavery during “just wars” were made part of the
encomienda system. Although they were technically “free,” they were required to pay tribute to
the crown in the form of labor or goods. Conquistadores were sometimes granted thousands of
encomienda Indians to use as laborers, but abuse of the system led to the repartimiento system, a
method of distribution that assigned the now limited number of Indian laborers to ranches, farms,
and mines for a designated period of time. The crown’s dislike for the repartimiento and the
desire of Indians to escape repartimiento by signing a contract brought about a “free” labor or
privately arranged system that replaced repartimiento. When the number of Indian laborers
dwindled even further, Spaniards began to seize Indian lands, a new source of wealth, forming
the highly romanticized Spanish haciendas. Without property the Indians fell into debt to their
employers, becoming tied as peons on the expanding haciendas.
I.
The Spanish Debate over the Nature and Treatment of the Indian
A.
In their attempts to subjugate the Indians, Spaniards faced a basic conflict between
their Christian ideology and the harsh reality of the conquest.
1.
Most, if not all, Spaniards came to the Americas seeking personal wealth
or prestige. At first exploitation of the Indians was the most obvious
means of obtaining such wealth. At the same time Christianity and legal
formalities were integral parts of Spanish life. Therefore, many Spaniards,
the crown in particular, felt compelled to insure that the conquest followed
legal forms and Christian precepts of justice.
2.
Spain’s title to the Indies was based upon the donation of Pope Alexander
VI, which required Spain to undertake the conversion of the Indians. A
conflict arose between those who saw Indian conversion as secondary to
developing New World resources and those who saw it as primary with
development secondary.
B.
Most Spaniards grappled with the question of the nature of the Indians,
specifically with their capacity to live like Spaniards and receive the Christian
faith. The Christian doctrine of one creation implied the basic equality of all men,
but many Spaniards sought to prove that some men, such as the Indians, were
inferior and destined to serve their superiors.
C.
In 1513 Spain introduced the Requiremento as a first attempt to resolve the
question of how to wage war and conquer the Indians while seeking their
conversion to Christianity (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 38-39).
1.
The Requiremento, usually read in Spanish and at a distance where the
Indians could not hear, called upon the Indians to accept the authority of
the pope and crown and to allow the preaching of Christianity.
2.
The Spaniards used the Requirement to absolve them of guilt and place
responsibility for the consequent war of conquest on the Indians who had,
without understanding or hearing the reading, rejected the faith.
D.
Bartolome de Las Casas, a Dominican friar, became the most outspoken critic of
Spanish policies in America. In spite of the reforms that resulted from his work,
Europeans later cited his writings to point out the savagery of the Spanish
conquests and colonial governments (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 40-43;
Hanke, pp. 39-105).
1.
In the first half of the sixteenth century, Las Casas became a powerful
voice in favor of the peaceful conversion of the Indians. He consistently
argued for their humanity and equality and against the use of compulsion
and violence to obtain Indian labor or compliance. Although he never
obtained the full agreement of the crown, he and others were a powerful
force in moderating Spanish policy.
2.
At the prompting of Las Casas and his companions in the crusade for
justice, Spain tried four experiments to determine that Indians’ capacity to
live peacefully like Spaniards under Spanish institutions of government
and religion. The Spaniards, including Las Casas, failed to recognize that
imposing a Spanish lifestyle on the Indians was as damaging as violence.
a.
The first experiments were conducted in Hispaniola and Cuba
between 1517 and 1535. “Free” villages of Indians were
established outside the encomienda system to test the Indians’
ability to live like Christian Spaniards. The villages eventually
failed, largely because of rapacious officials and absurd restrictions
on the Indians’ “freedom.”
b.
Las Casas’s second experiment involved establishing Spanish
farming colonies that were not dependent on Indian support in
order to provide the Indians with examples of a lifestyle they could
peacefully share. Las Casas’s attempt to found such a colony in
Venezuela in 1520 failed due to the opposition and greed of his
colonists, the actions of Spanish slave raiders, and attacks from
Indians.
c.
In 1537 Las Casas undertook his most successful experiment, the
peaceful conversion of the Indians in Verapaz (“Land of Peace”) in
Guatemala. The Indians’ massacre of the friars twenty years later
only partially undermined the impact of the experiment ‘s
considerable success.
The final experiment involved the crown’s attempt to abolish the
encomienda system with the New Laws of 1542. Las Casas’s
influence was evident in these laws, but protests from the colonists
led to the revocation of the strongest provisions.
In 1550 and 1551 Las Casas engaged in a famous debate with Juan Gines
de Sepulveda over the nature of the Indians and whether further wars and
conquests should be stopped.
a.
Sepulveda based his argument on the Aristotelian theory that some
men were by nature inferior and therefore could be compelled to
serve their superiors and accept their authority.
b.
Las Casas argued that the papal donation only gave Spain the right
to bring Christianity to the Indians, not the right to use violence or
coercion.
The crown paid heed to Lascasian theories by ordering moderation and
restricting the use of force in further Spanish occupation of Indian lands.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, other Europeans used Las
Casas’s writings as propaganda in their disputes with Spain. Conveniently
ignoring their own countries’ abuses of the Indians and the fact that no
other European country engaged in as extensive a debate over the
treatment of the Indians as Spain, these Europeans created an image of
Spain and Spaniards as unusually violent and cruel. The result was the
Black Legend.
d.
3.
4.
5.
II.
Labor and Tribute in the Sixteenth Century
A.
The Introduction of Slavery and Encomienda (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 4852)
1.
From first contact Spaniards sought to exploit native labor. Only a few
invaders came at first, and most of these abhorred manual labor in the
Spanish hidalgo tradition. The settlers, following the precedent of slavers
in Africa, turned to the Indians to satisfy the labor shortage.
2.
Despite the efforts of Columbus and others to enslave the natives, Queen
Isabella took the position that the Indians were “free” subjects of the
crown. Her position, however, did not prevent the taking of Indian slaves
in the Indies.
a.
Slavery was countenanced as punishment for “crimes.” Such
crimes included cannibalism, the refusal to accept Spanish and
papal authority, and rebellion. Thus, any Indians who resisted the
invasion could be subject to a “just war” and to enslavement.
b.
In practice, the labor systems introduced as alternatives to slavery
made few distinctions between Indians, slave or free. Free Indians
were frequently subjected to the same abuses and demands as
slaves.
3.
The main alternative to slavery was the encomienda, first introduced by
Columbus and formalized by the crown during the early conquest of the
West Indies.
a.
Although the Indians were technically free, the crown held that, as
subjects, they owed tribute.
b.
4.
B.
Encomenderos (those who received an encomienda grant) were
entrusted with a certain number of Indians, usually a town or a
number of towns. The encomenderos had the right to exact tribute
in labor or commodities in return for Christianizing the Indians and
providing military service to the crown.
c.
Although encomienda Indians could not be bought and sold, they
were subject to encomendero force. Resistance or escape could
lead to outright slavery.
The encomienda came into greatest use after the conquest of Mexico. It
provided a means of controlling the large sedentary populations of
Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru.
a.
Cortes alone received a grant of some 100,000 Indians, while
others in Mexico and elsewhere were also rewarded with sizable
encomiendas, depending upon their role in the conquest. The size
of the encomiendas was later limited.
b.
In effect, the Indian masses of these areas transferred their
submission and tribute from their native rulers to other slightly
more exploitative rulers.
Royal Regulation of the Encomienda: From the earliest years of the conquest,
some Indians labored for and paid tribute directly to the crown. During the
sixteenth century, the crown gradually reduced the power and privileges of
encomenderos, centralizing authority and tribute in the hands of the throne
(Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 53-67).
1.
The Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513, were the first attempt to regulate
encomienda abuses. They declared that Indians should not be mistreated,
that encomenderos should Christianize the Indians, that encomienda
Indians could not be enslaved, and that encomiendas should be limited in
size. They had little impact on the encomenderos.
2.
In 1520 Charles I ordered the end of encomiendas, but pressures from
newly conquered Mexico forced him to rescind the order.
3.
In 1542 the crown reacted to the growing power of the colonial aristocracy
and to pressure from Las Casas and others by promulgating the New Laws.
Opposition from the encomenderos forced the repeal of the laws in 15451546.
a.
The New Laws forbade the granting of new encomiendas, the
holding of encomlendas by ecclesiastics and royal officers, and the
inheritance of encomiendas.
b.
A storm of protest and rebellion in America forced the crown to
repeal the provision against inheritance and to temper the other
regulations.
4.
Following the failure of the New Laws, the monarchy gradually increased
its regulation of the encomienda.
a.
In 1549 the crown separated control of Indian labor from control
over Indian tribute. By the end of the sixteenth century,
encomiendas in the heavily populated areas included tribute only.
b.
C.
III.
More gradually the crown limited the inheritance of encomiendas.
Most Indians were eventually freed although some encotniendas
lasted for generations.
Repartimiento: After 1550 SpanIards sought more efficient methods of exploiting
Indian labor. The general end of encomienda labor and the reduction in the labor
supply due to epidemics led to government rationing of labor (Gibson, Spain in
America, pp. 143-47).
1.
The term repartimiento means distribution or allotment. Technically it
meant the distribution of labor without the element of “entrusting”
included in the encomienda. After 1550 the government distributed labor
upon request to Spaniards.
2.
Under repartimiento ,ranchers, farmers, miners, and other colonists made
application to local political officials for a certain number of Indians for
specific tasks and a designated period time. Wages were specified, and
laborers were selected in rotation from the able-bodied Indian males of
each community. The term mita was used in Peru.
3.
The bribery of officials and coercion of or extralegal arrangements with
Indian laborers caused widespread abuse of repartimiento. The mining
repartimiento was considered particularly burdensome; Indians discovered
a number of ways of escaping it and other distributions.
4.
In 1632 the viceroy of New Spain ordered an end to repartimiento in all
areas except mining. The colonial elite did not resist this order since other
arrangements with the declining number of Indian laborers had largely
made the repartimiento obsolete. However, some labor requirements,
frequently stated in more specific terms, remained in force.
Indian Labor and Land in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
A.
The Shift to “Free” Labor (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 144-47)
1.
During the last years of the sixteenth century and the first years of the
seventeenth century, Indian population decline was evident everywhere.
For Spanish employers this meant a shrunken labor pool and increased
competition with each other for the remaining Indian workers.
2.
The crown had long hoped for the eventual end of repartimiento, regarding
it as the last vestige of enforced Indian labor. During the late sixteenth
century, the crown increased restrictions on the repartimiento and
encouraged free contract labor for humanitarian reasons.
3.
By the early seventeenth century, Indians had found ways to escape the
repartimiento system and its mining work. A number of Indians remained
outside repartimiento and were sometimes available for contract labor.
a.
In Mexico the servile mayeque class of the Aztecs continued to
serve the Indian upper class until close to 1600, thereby remaining
outside the encomienda and repartitniento systems.
b.
In Peru the yana were attached as serfs to particular properties
where they remained until the eighteenth century.
c.
Contract labor began in Mexico in the obrajes (“woolen cloth
workshops”), which were primarily staffed by convict labor but
4.
B.
C.
also employed Indians who made private contract arrangements.
The Indians underwent the same incarceration as convicts.
The typical Spanish employer of the early seventeenth century was making
private arrangements for technically free Indian labor.
Loss of Indian Land: By the early seventeenth century, Indian lands had gradually
been transferred to Spaniards, producing the great haciendas that characterized
Spanish life throughout the colonial period (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 15157).
1.
At first Spaniards relied on Indian labor to produce wealth, avoiding the
almost impossible task of removing large populations from their land.
2.
The catastrophic depopulation of the sixteenth century both undermined
the profits of encomienda and freed large areas from Indian occupation.
Spaniards turned increasingly to land as a symbol of wealth and prestige.
3.
A variety of legal and illegal methods were used in the seventeenth century
to obtain those lands still in Indian hands. Superseding and legalizing all
of these methods were the receipt of a royal land grant. Crown officials
were subject to bribes, and defective hacienda titles could be legalized
through payment of fees.
a.
Land might be purchased from the weakened Indians who were
readily liable to fraud or coercion.
b.
Indian land could be simply usurped. This was particularly frequent
where land had been originally rented from Indian communities or
where encomienda or political privileges facilitated Spanish
control.
c.
Forced concentration and resettlement of Indians in new
communities known as congregaciones freed large areas from
Indian control.
d.
Indians were frequently required to show proper title to land lest it
be condemned and seized.
e.
Spanish cattle and sheep gradually replaced Indians on depopulated
lands, causing erosion that destroyed Indians’ agricultural lands,
further reducing Indian populations.
4.
By the mid-seventeenth century, hacendados (owners of haciendas) were
the wealthiest and most powerful persons in Spanish America. The
Indians, losing their last vestige of independence, had become laborers in
the Spanish power structure.
Peonage: The primary successor to repartimiento was debt labor or peonage on the
hacienda (Gibson, Spain in America, pp. 155-58).
1.
Through peonage the Spanish employer used indebtedness as his primary
method of controlling Indian labor.
a.
Spaniards advanced needy or impoverished Indians small sums that
could only be repaid through work.
b.
New wages were advanced before the original loans could be
repaid; the accumulation of debt tied the Indian and his family to
never-ending labor on the hacienda.
2.
3.
4.
As haciendas expanded they incorporated and absorbed entire Indian
communities, creating a large body of laborers completely subject to the
will and authority of the hacendado.
The Spanish crown made many unsuccessful attempts to control peonage
by limiting the terms and degrees of indebtedness of Indian workers and
by declaring their freedom from attachment to a particular estate. This
legislation had little impact; peonage and the hacienda are the
characteristic institutions of Spanish-Indian relations.
In many ways hacienda exploitation of the Indian was preferable to the
encomienda or repartimiento. It provided more security and stability for
individual and community life than the earlier Spanish institutions, but, at
the same time, it kept Indians in a servile and frequently brutalized state.
Bibliography
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