A large estate where work of any kind is done, as agriculture, manufacturing, mining, or raising of animals; a cultivated farm, with a good house, in distinction from a farming establishment with rude huts for herdsmen, etc
the main house on a ranch or large estate a large estate in Spanish-speaking countries
a large farm in Spanish-speaking countries (facienda, from facere ). also called estancia (Argentina and Uruguay) or fazenda (Brazil) In Latin America, a large landed estate. The hacienda originated in the colonial period and survived into the 20th century. Labourers, ordinarily Indians, were theoretically free wage earners on haciendas, but in practice their employers, who controlled the local governments, were able to bind them to the land, primarily by keeping them in a state of perpetual indebtedness. By the 19th century, as much as half of Mexico's rural population was entangled in the peonage system. Many haciendas were broken up by the Mexican Revolution