The New Laws and the debate over the encomienda
- Date
- 20 November 1542
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Spanish America
- Era
- Early Modern
- Significance
Spanish colonisation rested heavily on the encomienda, a grant entitling a colonist to extract labour and tribute from indigenous communities in return for nominal protection and religious instruction, a system that in practice often amounted to brutal coerced labour.
Reformers led by the Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas, whose writings exposed colonial abuses, pressed the crown to act. On 20 November 1542 Emperor Charles V promulgated the New Laws of the Indies, banning indigenous enslavement, restricting the encomienda and ordering existing grants to revert to the crown on the holder's death. The laws provoked fierce resistance from colonists, including a revolt in Peru, and key provisions were soon weakened. Yet they marked one of the first attempts by a colonial power to legislate the rights of conquered peoples and framed an enduring debate, sharpened at the Valladolid disputation of 1550–1551, over the humanity and treatment of indigenous Americans.
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Empires active in 20 November 1542
- Songhai Empire1464 CE – 1591 CE
- Ming Dynasty1368 CE – 1644 CE
- Ottoman Empire1299 CE – 1922 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' WarOctober 1648
- The English Reformation: Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy1534
- The Peace of Augsburg25 September 1555
- Akbar's religious tolerance and administrative reforms1564 (jizya abolished); 1582 (Din-i Ilahi)
- Suleiman the Magnificent and the codification of Ottoman law1520–1566 (reign of Suleiman)
- Selim I conquers the Mamluk Sultanate and the holy citiesJanuary 1517
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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