The Conquistadores of the island of Hispaniola were none other than Christopher Columbus and his crew, financed by the royal courts of Castille and Aragon. They were aboard three small ships, and sailed out of sight of land for about a month before arriving in the Caribbean. The Taino Indians were the first group that encountered the Europeans as they explored the New World, and Hispaniola was the first foothold for the Spanish colonization and remained the most important base of operations in the New World for thirty years. The Taino were therefore the first to taste the savage penchant for cruelty and disease brought by the Spanish Conquistadores.
After months at sea, the Spanish were dependent on the good will of the Taino caciques (Taino word for “chief” or “headman”) for their food and thus had to fit into the indigenous social structure, at least until they could sustain themselves through regular supplies from Spain. Accordingly, they studied the Taino society in great detail. While on later islands the Taino had some forewarning as to what might be expected of their European visitors (and thus also the Europeans had been primed as to what to expect from the Taino), Hispaniola represents a historically unique first encounter of two entirely alien cultures. Brutality against the Taino is well documented by Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas in his most famous work, Brevisima relacion de la destruccion de las Indias.
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990
After months at sea, the Spanish were dependent on the good will of the Taino caciques (Taino word for “chief” or “headman”) for their food and thus had to fit into the indigenous social structure, at least until they could sustain themselves through regular supplies from Spain. Accordingly, they studied the Taino society in great detail. While on later islands the Taino had some forewarning as to what might be expected of their European visitors (and thus also the Europeans had been primed as to what to expect from the Taino), Hispaniola represents a historically unique first encounter of two entirely alien cultures. Brutality against the Taino is well documented by Dominican friar Bartolome de las Casas in his most famous work, Brevisima relacion de la destruccion de las Indias.
References:
Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus
Author: Wilson, Samuel Meredith 1957-
Published: Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1990
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