New Laws

Following denunciations and calls for reform from individuals, such as the Dominican friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, these laws were intended to prevent the exploitation and mistreatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas by the encomenderos, by limiting their power and dominion over groups of natives.

Pizarro wanted to maintain a political structure built upon the Incan model the Spanish found in place.

Although the New Laws were only partly successful, due to the opposition of colonists, they did result in the liberation of thousands of indigenous workers, who had been held in a state of semi-slavery.

The new laws included the prohibition of enslavement of the Indians and provided for gradual abolition of the encomienda system in America by forbidding it to be inherited by descendants.

The prohibition against enslaving Indians "in any case, not even crime or war",[citation needed] was a right that did not apply to native Castilians themselves.

The introduction and corruption of the encomienda system is now considered to have been an alternative for outright slavery and a Castilian institution that did not work properly in America.

Given the limited size of the Crown's army, this system allowed nobles or warlords to trade protection for the labor of persons under their purview.

When the New Laws were passed, every European man holding an encomienda in Peru learned that his grant of labor could be confiscated if he was guilty of having taken part in the civil disturbances of Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro.

In Peru, Gonzalo Pizarro led a revolt of protesting encomenderos, who took to arms to "maintain their rights by force" for control of Indian lands and labor.

The Supreme Court of Peru invited Pizarro to take control of the government after his forces reached Lima from Bolivia.

Charles I and the court became alarmed, and were convinced that the immediate abolition of the encomienda system would bring economic ruin to the colonies.

To deal with the revolt, Charles I sent Pedro de la Gasca to the colony; a bishop and diplomat, he did not command an army but was given full powers to rule and negotiate a settlement with Pizarro and his followers.

New Spain's first viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, prudently refrained from enforcing the parts of the New Laws most objectionable to the encomenderos.