Mexico

“Indians” in the 16th Century

As the Spanish conquerors began to explore and settle in what was then called “New Spain” during the 16th century, many of the Indigenous Peoples they encountered fell under their influence and power. The main objective of the conquerors was to encroach upon the lands, exploit labor, and gain tribute, as prescribed in the Crown encomiendas, or trusteeship, they had been granted over the Indigenous Peoples. In return for this right, the encomenderos were required to indoctrinate and protect the Indigenous Peoples, while also maintaining military control on behalf of the Crown.

This system facilitated the enslavement of Indigenous Peoples at the same time that it also fostered the demise of the population. In the first decades after the conquest, the indigenous population decreased significantly due to genocide, diseases and epidemics, forced labor and abuse, and famines. This [Page 899]prompted the Crown to abolish the encomienda and replace it with the repartimiento system, by which the conquerors could organize and use for a period of time the labor of Indigenous Peoples in agriculture, mining, construction, public works, and shipbuilding.

The Spanish conquerors moved and concentrated Indigenous Peoples in reducciones de indios, that is, Indian reductions or towns, to facilitate their control, exploitation, and evangelization. The ownership system in these reductions was communal, and the land and resources could not be transferred to others. While the idea of collective ownership of the land was an integral part of indigenous society before the conquest, the Indian community that developed from this system became heavily constrained by legislation, a situation that has remained, albeit with different conditions, until today.

The “Indian” identity, thus, became an administrative category under which the vast cultural diversity that existed among Indigenous Peoples was reduced and subsumed. However, this administrative category gave Indians an institutionalized position that Blacks did not have. Nevertheless, the Indian communities, especially their lands, have been the object of continuous attacks throughout Mexico's history.

In 1542, the slavery of Indigenous Peoples was outlawed in the Spanish colonies, but their exploitation and abuse did not diminish. The mistreatment and population demise of Indigenous Peoples became an object of controversy between Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in the Valladolid Debate (1550–1551). Las Casas argued that Indians were free humans and that Africans should replace their labor; Sepúlveda, instead, claimed that Indians were natural slaves and their conquest a “just war.”

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