De encomenderos y hacendados: un acercamiento a la ordenación del territorio a través del paisaje cultural de las haciendas cafeteras en Viotá, Cundinamarca

Abstract

In the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia, from the period before the Spanish conquest some forms of land management and exploitation had been established. Over the years the most important of these would be the encomienda, a model of land administration and exploitation that, at least in the municipality of Viotá, was perpetuated with the creation of haciendas. Over time the encomiendas became haciendas and encomenderos hacendados. These haciendas settled in the territory as a form of consolidation of the same throughout the nineteenth century, constituting at the same time as a rural and productive cultural landscape, since they were dedicated exclusively to the coffee cultivation. The coffee plantations became one of the basic pillars that led to the strengthening of economic activities in the region, migration of population to their lands and of course the management of the municipality as such.