Forced Labor Systems of Peru

There has been forced labor in Peru since the beginning of the Inca conquests. What made this system somewhat unique in the New World is that the system did not call for permanent enslavement of people. Often people would work a certain amount of time a year and then go back home. When the Spanish conquered the Inca Empire instead of completely changing the way things were, they simply adopted and modified the Mit’a system. After the conquest of the Inca’s the Spanish also instituted a system called Encomienda. Though not technically slavery both were brutally oppressive systems under the Spanish.
It is important to understand the fundamental difference between these two systems. The Encomienda system was where conquistadors were given rights over the native people they conquered. While technically the native people owned their land still, Spanish were given charge of them. Part of the reason for this was that the Spanish could protect the Native people they were charged with from other warring tribes. A big part of this was also to teach the Native people the Spanish language and educate them in Christianity with the goal on converting them. Since the Spanish who were given the land grants did not own the land, it was expected that the people of the land pay tribute to the Spanish.
Men between the age of fifteen and fifty were required to donate time to the improvement of the Inca Empire. This often would be in the form of agriculture or infrastructure maintenance. It is also important to point out that generally the mit’a service could be preformed near home. The only exception was 4 months each person’s life would have to be spent in the mines. Though there were exceptions, typically a person would work all but 2 months doing Mit’a work. The only people exempt entirely were royalty and the clergy.
During the Inca rule the agricultural lands were divided into four separate categories, field of Temple, Caracas, The emperor and fields of the