What is "latifundium"

n. A great landed estate with absentee ownership and labor often in a state of partial servitude.

A latifundium is a very extensive parcel of privately owned land. The latifundia (Latin: lātus, "spacious" + fundus, "farm, estate") of Roman history were great landed estates specializing in agriculture destined for export: grain, olive oil, or wine. They were characteristic of Magna Graecia and Sicily, Egypt, the Greater Maghreb and Hispania Baetica. The latifundia were the closest approximation to industrialized agriculture in Antiquity, and their economics depended upon slavery.

During the modern colonial period, the European monarchies often rewarded services with extensive land grants in their empires. The forced recruitment of local laborers allowed by colonial law made these land grants particularly lucrative for their owners. These grants, fazendas (in Portuguese) or haciendas (in Spanish), were also borrowed as loanwords, Portuguese latifúndios and Spanish latifundios or simply fundos.

Agrarian reforms aimed at ending the dominance of the latifundia system are still a popular goal of several national governments around the world.