New Laws of the Indies

…King Charles signed the so-called New Laws (Leyes Nuevas). According to those laws, the encomienda was not to be considered a hereditary grant; instead, the owners had to set free their Indian serfs after the span of a single generation. To ensure enforcement of the laws, Las Casas was named…

…the issuance of the “New Laws” that went some way toward ending hereditary Spanish grants of land and Indians, thus limiting the Spaniards’ use of natives for labour. His little book took on a life of its own abroad, being translated into several European languages and used by Spain’s…

…feudalism, promulgated in 1542 the New Laws, which threatened the existence of the encomiendas that were so important to the conquerors. When Viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela arrived in Peru in 1544 to enforce the New Laws, the conquerors, led by Gonzalo Pizarro, revolted and executed the viceroy. Pizarro maintained control…

…to the strongest legislation, the New Laws of 1542). But in combination with other factors (of which indigenous population loss and the presence in the central areas of many non-encomenderos were the most essential), in the course of the 16th century the encomienda lost its labour monopoly and had its…

The Leyes Nuevas (“New Laws of the Indies”) of 1542 were based largely on the arguments of Las Casas. While in the Spanish colonies these laws were breached more than observed, they provided at least some protection for the Indians, and there was nothing like them…