desamortización

disentailment (of church/state property)

noun deh-sah-mor-tee-sah-SYON Rare

Usage Note

Desamortización is a key term in 19th-century Spanish history, referring to the legal process by which property held in mortmain (perpetually tied to the Church or nobility) was seized by the state and sold at public auction. The most famous was the Desamortización de Mendizábal (1836), which transferred vast amounts of Church land. The term has little use outside this specific historical and legal context.

Examples

"La desamortización cambió la propiedad de la tierra en España."

Natural Translation

The disentailment changed land ownership in Spain.

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