The Encomienda System In Colonial America

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1. The encomienda system was a set of laws that were used to grant lands and establish a labor supply in Spanish colonies. As the American Indians became a more common labor force, the Spanish created this encomienda system to protect the natives with the use of conquistadors; this would enable the Spanish to control land and labor. 2. Mercantilism was an economic theory that means colonies exist to benefit their founding countries Britain wanted the colonies to benefit Britain only. Britain’s policies stated that the colonies should sell raw goods to Britain only and the colonists should buy goods from Britain only. This affected the colony by unallowing them to manufacture many kinds of goods. This meant that colonies could not sell their raw materials to other countries, even if another country could more for the goods. 3. As the Spanish began to conquer the Americas and settle colonies of their own, they came into contact with American Indians known as the Pueblos. They inhabited the region near the province of Santé Fe de Nuevo México and struggled constantly against the Spanish whom invaded the indigenous peoples’ lands. Hundreds of Indians were enslaved or killed, and as the tensions between the groups increased, the Pueblo Indians fought back. In 1680, the Indians…show more content…
English settlement efforts began in the late 1500s to gain great wealth like Spain and trade with the Native Americans for furs and trade with the colonials for raw material, and to limit the rights of the colonies to trade with other countries. Thus, the only area left for England to colonize was the mid-Atlantic coast. In 1606, the Company sent three ships to America. Over one hundred settlers reached the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 and settled at a site they called Jamestown, choosing an area that was easy to defend from the Spanish. However, the land that they settled on was controlled by the Powhatan American Indians. This is where the original thirteen colonies were

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