How did the encomienda system function in the Spanish colonies?

The encomienda granted Spanish colonists the right to demand labor or tribute from Indigenous communities, while colonists were officially responsible for their protection and conversion to Christianity. In practice, this often became forced labor resembling slavery, though Indigenous people were not legally treated as property to be bought and sold or separated from their communities in the same way as enslaved people. So the best choice is “It was a slavery system that did not allow the enslaved to be sold off the land.”

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