The Spanish crown grants large tracts of land, initially under the terms of the encomienda system, whereby the grantee is invested with the right to collect tribute from the native inhabitants of a designated area.

The manifest abuse of the native population that results from the encomienda system contributes to its replacement in the mid-sixteenth century by the repartimiento system.

Under repartimiento, representatives of the crown are empowered to regulate the work allotment and treatment of native laborers.

Although more humane in theory, it is a system that is extremely vulnerable to abuse.

The colony's distance from the mother country, the ease with which royal officials can be corrupted, and the prevailing disregard among the elite—made up of peninsulares, born in Spain, and criollos born in the New World of Spanish parentage—for the plight of the natives militates against any substantive improvement in living conditions for the indigenous population.