- published: 04 May 2012
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Hacienda (UK /ˌhæsiˈɛndə/ or US /ˌhɑːsiˈɛndə/; Spanish: [aˈθjenda] or American Spanish: [aˈsjenda]) is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities. The hacienda system of Argentina, parts of Brazil, Chile, Mexico and New Granada was a system of large land-holdings that were an end in themselves as the marks of status (in Portuguese, the cognate term fazenda applies to the similar system in Brazil). The hacienda aimed for self-sufficiency in everything but luxuries meant for display, which were destined for the handful of people in the circle of the patrón.
Haciendas originated in land grants, mostly made to conquistadors. It is in Mexico that the hacienda system can be considered to have its origin in 1529,[citation needed] when the Spanish crown granted to Hernán Cortés the title of Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca, which entailed a tract of land that included all of the present state of Morelos. Significantly, Cortés was also granted an encomienda, which included all the Native Americans then living on the land and power of life and death over every soul on his domains.