Encomienda
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The encomienda was a 16th-century Spanish labour system that rewarded Spain's conquistadors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors would provide the labourers wi
Francisco Hernández Girón was a Spanish encomendero in the Viceroyalty of Peru who protested the New Laws in 1553. These laws, passed in 1542 but repealed in 1545, gave certain rights to Indigenous peoples and protected them against abuses. Drawing by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala.
Hernán Cortés, conqueror of the Aztecs and premier encomendero of New Spain
The Codex Kingsborough: also known as the Codex Tepetlaoztoc, is a 16th-century Mesoamerican pictorial manuscript which was part of a lawsuit against the Spanish encomenderos for mistreatment
Hernán Cortés
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Hernán Cortés, 1st Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish conquistador, military commander, explorer, captain general, and writer who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire
Encomienda
…received grants. In his study of the encomenderos of early colonial Mexico, Robert Himmerich y Valencia divides conquerors into those who were part of Hernán Cortés' original expedition, calling them "first conquerors", and those who were members of the later Narváez expedition, calling them "conquerors". The latter…
Weiditz's depiction of Cortés in 1529
Copy of a portrait of Cortés dated to the year 1525
Cortés scuttling his own fleet off the coast of Veracruz in order to eliminate the possibility of retreat