Can someone elaborate on the Mita, Hacienda, and Encomienda systems? Thank you.
The Mita system was a system that embedded forced labor in the Incan Empire. The Encomienda system is the social hierarchy of spanish people that consisted of peninsulares (at the top), creoles ( elite indigenous born spaniards), mestizos ( born of spanish-Indian parents) mullatos ( lowest of the middle class) and finally the labor class. The hacienda system was just where the encomienda system took place in and which estate.
m’ita - coerced labor system used by the Incas which was then exploited by the Spanish. Involved contributing labor to the government annually.
encomienda - roughly based on the m’ita, used to coerce labor from native peoples in South and Central America in the silver mines (generally) of the Spanish. Associate this with Potosi + silver.
hacienda - refers to the cash crop plantation systems/land estates of the Spanish as opposed to the mines. Eventually leads to creoles getting a whole lot of money and leads to pushback with land reform efforts in the 19th century.
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What you’re describing is the casta system, a social hierarchy in the Spanish Empire.
