All Topics  
Repartimiento

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Repartimiento
 
 
  Topics Repartimiento Topic Home

The Repartimiento de Labor was a colonial forced labor
Unfree labour

Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations, especially in modern history or Early Modern period history, in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence , or other extreme hardship to themselves, or to members of their families....
 system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 and the Philippines
Spanish East Indies

Spanish East Indies , was a term used to describe Spain territories in Asia-Pacific which lasted over three centuries . It encompassed the Philippine Islands , and its dependencies including the Mariana Islands and the Caroline Islands, and for a period of time, parts of Formosa , Sabah, and parts of the Moluccas....
. In concept it was similar to other tribute
Tribute

A tribute is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance....
-labor systems, such as the mita
Mita (Inca)

Mita was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e....
 of the Inca Empire
Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cuzco in modern-day Peru....
 or the corvée
Corvée

Corv?e is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way, such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option....
 of Ancien Régime France
Ancien Régime in France

The Ancien R?gime, a French language term rendered in English language as ?Old Rule,? ?Old Kingdom,? or simply ?Old Regime,? refers primarily to the aristocracy, sociology and politics system established in France from the 15th century to the 18th century under the Valois Dynasty and House of Bourbon dynasties....
: the natives were forced to do low-paid or unpaid labor for a certain number of weeks or months each year on Spanish-owned farms, mines, workshops (obrajes), and public projects. Like the encomienda
Encomienda

The encomienda system is a trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The etymology of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust"......
 system that preceded it, the repartimiento was not slavery
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
, in that the worker is not owned outright—being free in various respects other than in the dispensation of his or her labor—and the work was intermittent.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Repartimiento'
Start a new discussion about 'Repartimiento'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Repartimiento de Labor was a colonial forced labor
Unfree labour

Unfree labour is a generic or collective term for those work relations, especially in modern history or Early Modern period history, in which people are employed against their will by the threat of destitution, detention, violence , or other extreme hardship to themselves, or to members of their families....
 system imposed upon the indigenous population of Spanish America
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 and the Philippines
Spanish East Indies

Spanish East Indies , was a term used to describe Spain territories in Asia-Pacific which lasted over three centuries . It encompassed the Philippine Islands , and its dependencies including the Mariana Islands and the Caroline Islands, and for a period of time, parts of Formosa , Sabah, and parts of the Moluccas....
. In concept it was similar to other tribute
Tribute

A tribute is wealth one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance....
-labor systems, such as the mita
Mita (Inca)

Mita was mandatory public service in the society of the Inca. It was effectively a form of tribute to the Inca government, in the form of labor, i.e....
 of the Inca Empire
Inca Empire

The Inca Empire was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cuzco in modern-day Peru....
 or the corvée
Corvée

Corv?e is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way, such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option....
 of Ancien Régime France
Ancien Régime in France

The Ancien R?gime, a French language term rendered in English language as ?Old Rule,? ?Old Kingdom,? or simply ?Old Regime,? refers primarily to the aristocracy, sociology and politics system established in France from the 15th century to the 18th century under the Valois Dynasty and House of Bourbon dynasties....
: the natives were forced to do low-paid or unpaid labor for a certain number of weeks or months each year on Spanish-owned farms, mines, workshops (obrajes), and public projects. Like the encomienda
Encomienda

The encomienda system is a trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The etymology of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust"......
 system that preceded it, the repartimiento was not slavery
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
, in that the worker is not owned outright—being free in various respects other than in the dispensation of his or her labor—and the work was intermittent. It however, created slavery
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
-like conditions in certain areas, most notoriously in silver mines of 16th century Peru
Viceroyalty of Peru

Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish Empire South America, governed from the capital of Lima....
. In the first decades of the colonization of the Caribbean the word was used for the insititution that became the encomienda
Encomienda

The encomienda system is a trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The etymology of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust"......
, which can cause confusion.

The repartimiento, for the most part, replaced the encomienda of throughout the Viceroyalty of New Spain by the beginning of the 17th century. In Peru encomiendas lasted longer, and the Quechua word mita frequently was used for repartimiento. There were instances when both systems (repartimiento and encomienda) coexisted.

In practice, a conquistador
Conquistador

Conquistador is the name given to the Spaniards soldiers, leaders, List of explorers, and adventurers involved in the conquest of the Americas following the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492....
, or later a Spanish settler or offiical, would be given and supervised a number of indigenous workers, who would labor in farms or mines, or in the case of the Philippines might also be assigned to the ship yards constructing the Manila galleon
Manila Galleon

The Manila galleons or Manila-Acapulco galleons were Spain trading ships that Sailing once or twice per year across the Pacific Ocean between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco, New Spain....
s. The one in charge of doing the reparto ("distribution") of workers was the Alcalde Mayor (local magistrate) of the city. Native communities that were close to Spanish populations were required to provide a percentage of their people (2-4 %) to work in agriculture, construction of houses, streets, etc. The diminution of the number of natives in the Americas due to European diseases (smallpox
Smallpox

Smallpox is an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning spotted, or varus, meaning "pimple"....
, influenza
Influenza

Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease that affects birds and mammals caused by RNA viruses of the biological family Orthomyxoviridae ....
, measles
Measles

Measles is a infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses....
 and typhus
Typhus

Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters. The causative organism is Rickettsia prowazekii, transmitted by the human body louse ....
) to which the native populations had no resistance, as well as to desertion from the work fields, led to the substitution of the encomienda system and the creation of privately-owned farms and hacienda
Hacienda

Hacienda is a Spanish language word for an estate, usually, but not always, a vast ranch. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even factories....
s. Many native people escaped the encomienda and repartamiento by leaving their communities. Some looked for wage labor
Wage labour

Wage labour is the socioeconomics relationship between a worker and an employer in which the worker sells their Manual labour under a contract , and the employer buys it, often in a labour market.It is the effort that people devote to a task for which they are paid The products of labour become the employer's property....
; others signed contracts (asientos) for six months to a year, during which time the worker was required to be paid a salary (something the Spanish Crown did not enforce or support), and provided living quarters as well as religious services. There were many cases in which both wage and repartimiento laborers worked side-by-side on farms, mines, obrajes or haciendas.

See also

  • Cargo system
    Cargo system

    The cargo system is a collection of secular and religious positions held by men or households in rural Indigenous peoples of Mexico communities throughout central and southern Mexico and Central America....
  • Encomienda
    Encomienda

    The encomienda system is a trusteeship labor system that was employed by the Spanish crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The etymology of encomienda and encomendero lies in the Spanish verb encomendar, "to entrust"......
  • Reductions
  • Jesuit Reductions
    Jesuit Reductions

    The Jesuit Reductions were a particular version of the general Roman Catholic Church strategy used in the 17th and 18th centuries of building Indian Reductionss in order to be able to Christianization the Indigenous peoples of the Americas of The Americas more efficiently....