In order to understand why the Crown preferred the encomienda over alternatives we need to date back and clearly understand the system and the differences from other force labors such as slavery. Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador who overthrew the Aztec empire and won Mexico for the Crown of Spain (1519-1521). After the victory, the soldiers demanded what they had come for: prestige and wealth. Cortes needed a way to provide for his men. As the Spaniards conquered the New World they resorted to form a native organization called the encomienda. The encomienda refers to a system that was used by Spain to reward the conquistadors. After the Spanish conquered Mexico and Peru in the mid- 1500s, the system was established in the mainland …show more content…
Crowns rule. Inheritance restrictions, trading and relocation and the inability of selling, trading or renting Indians had a positive and negative effect on the crown. It had a negative effect because those were the cause of the reduction of the crowns revenue. Maybe the reason for why the Crown chose encomiendas was because of the positive outcomes. Even though inheritance restrictions were one of the ways that reduced the crowns revenue it at the same time strengthened the crowns rule. The crowns preference of the encomienda was due to the property rights granted to encomenderos reduced threats to security. The use of inheritance restriction, trading and relocation increased the crowns security. There were several ways in which the inheritance restrictions strengthened the Crown’s rule. Inheritance restrictions decreased the chances of a family to obtain wealth over time, it made it doable to confiscate the encomiendas, and it enhanced the Crowns bargaining position with encomendero. According to Yeager, there is no direct evidence where the Crown imposed inheritance restrictions for security and if there were to be it would be a challenge since the Crown did not publicly acknowledge. With given evidence that the inheritance restrictions empowered the Crowns rule by making it doable to confiscate encomiendas legally, it can be proven that the crown exercised this option in a manner that essentially increased its security, then we have strong evidence that the crown favored the encomienda to slavery because of security benefits it offered (Yeager, 847). The system was established in the mainland in the mid-1500. Trading restrictions benefited the Crown; avoided Indian slavery while allowing Spain to earn rents from the native labor force (Yeager,