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Difficulty: EasySpanish Encomienda and Labor Systems

"And the care they took was to send the men to the mines to dig for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to send the women into the fields of the big ranches to till and cultivate the land... And they used them not as beasts, but as the dirt under their feet, and this was the cause of the death of so many millions."

— Bartolomé de las Casas, Spanish Dominican friar, *A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies*, 1552

Which of the following was the primary purpose of the Spanish encomienda system described in the excerpt?

  1. To secure coerced Indigenous labor for agriculture and mining to generate wealth for Spanish colonistsAnswer
  2. B
    To grant outright ownership of vast tracts of North American land directly to individual Spanish settlers
  3. C
    To establish a system of voluntary contract labor where workers earned freedom after a fixed period of years
  4. D
    To unite culturally identical Native American tribes into a single centralized empire under Spanish rule

Answer

To secure coerced Indigenous labor for agriculture and mining to generate wealth for Spanish colonists
The correct answer is correct because the primary economic goal of the encomienda system was to extract labor and wealth (such as gold and crops) from Indigenous populations to benefit Spanish colonizers and the Spanish Crown.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus text.
The author, Bartolomé de las Casas, details the exploitation of Indigenous men in gold mines and women on agricultural ranches.
This establishes that the system was oriented around extracting labor for economic output (gold and crops).
2
Identify the historical system described.
The system described is the Spanish encomienda system, where the Spanish Crown granted colonists authority over defined Indigenous communities.
This connects the document's description of forced labor with its proper historical designation.
3
Select the option that matches the core economic purpose.
The option stating the purpose was to secure coerced Indigenous labor for agriculture and mining aligns with Las Casas's description of mining and farming under harsh conditions.
This correctly identifies the function of the encomienda as a coerced labor system.

Key Concept

Spanish Encomienda and Labor Systems
Estimated Time:45s
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Spanish Encomienda and Labor Systems

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