The conquest of the Aztec empire had required an enormous effort and a tremendous sacrifice by Cortes's army, and after their victory, the soldiers had demanded what they have come for: prestige and wealth.

The spoils from the city largely had been lost; Cortes has to resort to some other strategy to provide for his men.

The conquistador has already surveyed all Aztec records related to tributes and tributary towns, and on the basis of this information, he decides to distribute grants of people and land among his men.

This practice has already been tried in the Caribbean, and Cortes himself had received encomiendas, grants of land and people, in Hispaniola in 1509 and in Cuba in 1511.

Granting encomiendas become an institutions throughout New Spain to ensure subordination of the conquered pop-ulations and the use of their labor by the Spanish colonizers, as well as a means to reward Spanish subjects for services rendered to the crown.