Hacienda

hacienda

 also called estancia (Argentina and Uruguay) or fazenda (Brazil)

In Latin America, a large landed estate. The hacienda originated in the colonial period and survived into the 20th century. Labourers, ordinarily Indians, were theoretically free wage earners on haciendas, but in practice their employers, who controlled the local governments, were able to bind them to the land, primarily by keeping them in a state of perpetual indebtedness. By the 19th century, as much as half of Mexico's rural population was entangled in the peonage system. Many haciendas were broken up by the Mexican Revolution.

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hacienda in Spain or Spanish-speaking countries

the main house on such a ranch or plantation

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hacienda

1. A large estate in North and South American areas once under Spanish influence.

2. The main house on such an estate or ranch.

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Hacienda 

a large estate in a number of Latin American countries (called estancia in Argentina, Chile, and several other countries). Haciendas arose with the seizure of the lands of the native population by Spanish colonizers. By the late 16th and early 17th centuries, haciendas had in reality turned into hereditary estates of a feudal type to which the Indians were bound. Although nominally considered personally free, the Indians were obliged to work for the landowners and, in effect, were wholly dependent upon them. Even at the present time the hacienda is the predominant type of large-scale ownership of land in most Latin American countries.

REFERENCE

Al’perovich, M. S. “O kharaktere i formakh ekspluatatsii indeitsev v amerikanskikh koloniiakh Ispanii (XVI-XVIII veka).” Novaia i noveishaia istoriia, 1957, no. 2.