Las tierras comunales indígenas en el escenario agrario del siglo XIX venezolano. El caso de Mérida

Abstract

The article describes the long process of events experienced in indigenous communal lands in Venezuela. This period covers its origins in the 16th century, along with the anti-corporative Bourbons policy, until its extinction or suppression due to institutionalization of individual ownership in the nineteenth century, specifically in Venezuelan Merida. The analysis comprises the factors involved in its progressive deterioration. These factors led to the application of the legislation and promoted its elimination, to finish a phase of the dilemma individual versus community that characterized the nineteenth century agrarian policy.