encomienda

In colonial Spanish America, the granting of Indian people as slaves to individual conquistadors (settlers) by the Spanish crown.

The system was based on the assignment of Moorish villages to members of the military orders in medieval Castile, but was revived in the colonies from 1503, with the idea that native labour was exchanged for protection. Abuses led reformers such as Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566) to call for its abolition. It declined slowly after 1550, being replaced by repartimiento, another system of forced labour.