In a previous blog post, I discussed Tenochtitlán, the Aztecs' engineering marvel that remained largely unknown to the world until the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century. Cortés and his Spanish forces overthrew the Aztecs in just over two years, marking a pivotal moment for the future of the Americas. Numerous books and articles cover this topic, and after reading several, I kept coming back to, "what happened next?" It's difficult for me to believe the Spanish had a comprehensive large-scale plan, given their limited knowledge of the people they had conquered and the vastness of the Aztec empire. Was the conquest much like the proverbial "dog catching the car," unsure of what to do next? From my viewpoint, much of what the Spanish did was likely unplanned and experimental. Conquest and plundering in the name of religion had long been common in Europe, and this was no exception; however, this was an unfamiliar and uncharted land. The Spanish had to rely on past methods to advance in this new territory, unaware of its vastness. They didn't realize how far the land extended-- thousands of miles to the north and south--nor the amount of resources needed to control such an expanse. How would they achieve this? One answer would be through a system known as "encomiendas."

Before we get into some of the details of the encomiendas, remember that the Spanish Crown funded many of these exploratory expeditions for two primary reasons: to help spread Christianity throughout the world, and to hopefully fill the coffers of the Spanish treasury, although one could argue about which was more important at the time. In turn, the Spanish conquistadores took part in these expeditions and risked their lives in an effort to create wealth for themselves, although it was fair to say that helping to spread Christianity was part of the job description as well. By toppling the Aztecs, Cortés and his men were able to realize the riches of gold, silver, precious stones and other valuable commodities for themselves, and at the same time had the ability to sustain themselves with all of the agriculture and commerce that already existed at Tenochtitlán. The Spanish Crown would get its Royal Fifth* and the conquistadores would split the rest, probably unevenly as Cortés was sure to take the bulk; however, all parties would be satisfied.

Once the conquest was complete, the Crown encountered its next problem: how to expand its claim in the New World. Two-hundred men in an army would not be sufficient to stake its claim, much less expand it. Here is what they would require at a high level:

1. It needed more conquistadores and Spanish citizens to not only inhabit the land but also to be able to sustain themselves.

2. At the same time, it needed to ensure that any wealth that was generated in the New World, especially in gold and silver mining, was subject to royal taxation in an effort to help fill the Treasury coffers. There could be no wealth creation without the monarchy taking its cut!

3. Finally, it needed to make sure that it did not cede any power to the new colonists and that it maintained control of its citizens and of its new vassals, the native Indians.

   
   

   • How would the Crown get Spanish citizens to emigrate to the New World? They would let the word spread of the newly found riches in the New World and allow human nature to take its course. In fact, once people began to find out about this, they left Spain and other parts of southern Europe for the New World.  I suppose one could argue this was the first real gold rush! It is estimated that there were approximately 250,000 Spanish citizens that emigrated to Nueva España from 1520-1600.** While this may not sound like a lot of people today, keep in mind that world populations were much smaller 500 years ago. By several different estimates, this was approximately 3-4% of the total Spanish population.

   • Furthermore, from the Crown's perspective, they now had access to "free" labor and needed a way to help current and future Spaniards generate additional wealth in mining, agriculture and any other business that required people as the main input to the cost of doing business. They needed a way to utilize these human resources in a manner that allowed the Spaniards to create wealth for themselves and for the Crown, and to maintain a certain degree of control over their own citizens--this would prove to be a significant challenge from several thousand miles away.

   • Finally, the Spanish Crown needed to have a plan for converting the "heathens" to Christianity.

     
     

One Solution......The Encomienda.

What were Encomiendas?

Encomiendas were essentially grants issued by the Spanish Crown to certain individuals granting them the right to control the local native Indians through forced labor within a certain geographic area. To you and me, this sounds a lot like slavery but in the eyes of the Crown, there were three major differences between this system of forced labor and slavery:

1) The native Indians could not be bought, sold or traded with anyone else because they were not "owned" by the Spaniards

2) The native Indians could not be relocated outside of their existing vicinity

3) They could not be traded with other encomenderos and were not transferable to future generations. In return, native Indians would be housed, fed and protected by the encomenderos.

One can argue whether this was or was not slavery but these were the justifications used by the Spanish Crown at that time.

Who were the Encomenderos?

Encomenderos were the individual recipients of the encomiendas. They were typically the highest ranking military officers--or their surviving wives, conquistadores who had proven their worth on the battlefield against the native Indians, and some Spanish elites who had made the voyage to the New World and had the resources to help fund expansion. It is estimated that at peak, there were anywhere from 750-1000 encomiendas all over the Americas from Peru to Nueva España. Most were granted in the first 100 years following the conquest and the number gradually declined until they were ended in 1720.

Why Is This Information Important for Tracing My Ancestry?

For those of you tracing your history through colonial Mexico, and specifically Nueva Viscaya (which covered most of today's Chihuahua and parts of Durango and Nuevo Leon), this is another resource to help you understand your past. Keep in mind that populations were still relatively small in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the southern parts of Nueva Viscaya, where the climate was much more extreme and water was more scarce, therefore making settlement less attractive. When silver was discovered around Parral in 1631, it began the inflows of people into what is now southern Chihuahua, many of whom would eventually settle here and start families for generations. Many of these families and their descendants would eventually go on to migrate northward over the next couple of centuries, landing in places like Juárez, Ciudad Chihuahua, and Ojinaga. I can assure you that if you are of Mexican and Spanish descent, and some of your family traces through the state of Chihuahua, there is a high probability that one or more of the people in the following list of encomenderos are some of your ancestors. They are the earliest encomenderos to this area and they initiated a lineage in this part of Mexico that continues today. I have attached one page of a seven-page document below listing the 28 individuals that were granted encomiendas in the year 1657 in and around the area of San Jose del Parral and San Bartolome in southern Chihuahua. The entire document can be found here.

I have also inserted a table below listing the 28 individual encomenderos. If you need additional information or would like to discuss this or other documents, please contact me via my website at: texmexgenealogy.com

*a historical tax levied on precious metals and other commodities, primarily in Spanish colonial territories, where the monarch reserved 20% of all such resources.

**Average number of emigrants is an estimate; many records are more extreme on either end mainly due to incomplete or missing record information for the "pasajeros" to the Indies.