Disposal of community assets and rural colonisation in Requena in the 18th century

During the eighteenth century took place in the municipality of Requena a process of land settlement because of the establishment of families over a territory that until then had been almost uninhabited. This settlement and colonization were made at the expense of the communal properties (dehesas and montes blancos) managed by the town Council (Consejo de Requena). The leaders of the town Council not only sold off the land and permitted the usurpation of communal properties, but were an interested party in the process, since they kept most of these communal lands. At the same time, the distribution, disposal and acquisition of the communal lands by lots of settlers meant the development of theses fertile land and the birth of many of the villages that now make up the rural landscape of Requena. In less than a century, the town ran out of more than 60,000 hectares, of which about 20,000 were converted into crops by settlers, whose number increased from just 80 in 1667 to 161 in 1731 and 752 in 1831.