<P> The encomienda system was the subject of controversy in Spain and its territories almost from its start . In 1510, an Hispaniola encomendero named Valenzuela murdered a group of Native American leaders who had agreed to meet for peace talks in full confidence . The Taíno Cacique Enriquillo rebelled against the Spaniards between 1519 and 1533 . In 1538, Emperor Charles V, realizing the seriousness of the Taíno revolt, changed the laws governing the treatment of Indians laboring in the encomiendas . Conceding to Las Casas's viewpoint, the peace treaty between the Taínos and the audiencia was eventually disrupted in four to five years . The crown also made two failed attempts to end the abuses of the encomienda system, through the Law of Burgos (1512--13) and the New Law of the Indies (1542). Furthermore, these laws were indeed beneficial to the authorities . </P> <P> The priest of Hispaniola and former encomendero Bartolomé de las Casas underwent a profound conversion after seeing the abuse of the native people . He dedicated his life to writing and lobbying to abolish the encomienda system, which he thought systematically enslaved the native people of the New World . Las Casas participated in an important debate, where he pushed for the enactment of the New Laws and an end to the encomienda system . The Laws of Burgos and the New Laws of the Indies failed in the face of colonial opposition and, in fact, the New Laws were postponed in the Viceroyalty of Peru . When Blasco Núñez Vela, the first viceroy of Peru, tried to enforce the New Laws, which provided for the gradual abolition of the encomienda, many of the encomenderos were unwilling to comply with them and revolted against him . </P> <P> When the news of this situation and of the abuse of the institution reached Spain, the New Laws were passed to regulate and gradually abolish the system in America, as well as to reiterate the prohibition of enslaving Native Americans . By the time the new laws were passed, 1543, the Spanish crown had acknowledged their inability to control and properly ensure compliance of traditional laws overseas, so they granted to Native Americans specific protections not even Spaniards had, such as the prohibition of enslaving them even in the case of crime or war . This extra protections were an attempt to avoid the proliferation of irregular claims to slavery . </P> <P> Nevertheless, the encomienda system was generally replaced by the crown - managed repartimiento system throughout Spanish America after mid-century . Like the encomienda, the new repartimento did not include the attribution of land to anyone, rather only the allotment of native workers . But they were directly allotted to the crown, who, through a local crown official, would assign them to work for settlers for a set period of time, usually several weeks . The repartimiento was an attempt "to reduce the abuses of forced labour". As the number of natives declined and mining activities were replaced by agricultural activities in the seventeenth century, the hacienda, or large landed estates in which laborers were directly employed by the hacienda owners (hacendados), arose because land ownership became more profitable than acquisition of forced labor . </P>

What was the purpose of the encomienda system