Definition of landowner - What is it, Meaning and Concept

Landowner is a term formed by two Latin words: terra ( "land" ) and tenens ( “who has” ).The concept, therefore, refers to the person who owns land .Its use is usually linked to who counts with large agricultural extensions.For example: "The president stressed that large landowners are not exempt from the fulfillment of obligations" , "John Milboard Paternusis is a landowner with more than 20,000 hectares of land.fields in the south of the country ”, “ I would like to know how he went from pawn to landowner in just three years ”.

The notion of landowner arose in the countries of monarchical tradition.The landowners were noble with family fortunes that came from the Middle Ages .Starting from the French Revolution , the gathering of large tracts of land in few hands tended to change and the distribution of land was promoted.

The historical and geographical context determines the concept of landowner.In Argentina , historians argue that landowners formed a bourgeoisie With great political power from the first years of national independence, determining the development of the country.Despite the historical and social changes, it is a group still very influential in political life.

In the case of Colombia, for example, in the middle of the century, society was differentiated based on different social groups.Thus, in addition to the aforementioned landowners, there were merchants, slaves, artisans and indigenous people.

In Andalusia, in Spain, we can still say that, at present, there are still landowners who identify themselves as being in possession of a multitude of lands, mainly due to the fact that they have inherited them from their ancestors.In the historical studies carried out on the evolution of those, it has been clarified that, for example, in the decade of the 70s there were three large groups of landowners: • Those who thanks to agreements and alliances also entered fully into the banking and banking sector.industry • Those who remained only within the agricultural and livestock sector but gave a boost to their farms by modernizing them • Those who remained the same as they were, who did not take any change measures and who came across a decrease in their profits.

In the aforementioned Spanish autonomous community as well as in another, such as Extremadura, it is common for landowners to also be known as senoritos, precisely the abuses they committed in past decades with their workers, for the power they accumulated or for the money they had, becomes one of the most important books of the writer Miguel Delibes: "The innocent saints", which was published in 1981 and tells the life of a family of peasants working at the orders of the owners of a farmhouse , which subject them to all kinds of exploitations and vexations.

In Cuba , on the other hand, the landowners had economic and political power until the socialist revolution.their lands were carried out with wage-earning Indians and mestizos, but also with slave labor.

In general, landowners oppose social changes as they constitute a privileged class and, therefore, any modification in the status quo is contrary to their interests.