Notes on Spanish Exploration and Colonization

Encomienda System

Columbus made two more trips to the Americas, trying to establish a permanent colony and extract wealth. He implemented the Encomienda system, a labor system that was employed mainly by the Spanish during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Under the Encomienda system, the Spanish crown granted a person a specified number of natives for whom they were to take responsibility. The receiver of the grant was to protect the natives from warring tribes and to instruct them in the Spanish language and in the Catholic faith: in return, they could extract labor for these individuals which turned into slavery.