Hispaniola
The template for everything after, tested on one island
See it on the timeline →In depth
Hispaniola is the Caribbean island now holding Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and it was the site of the first lasting European colony in the Americas. The encomienda system was designed here and then exported across Spanish America. Bartolomé de las Casas's accounts from the island provoked the first European debate on the legitimacy of the conquest and led to the Valladolid debate of 1550 — where the formal question was whether the Indigenous peoples of the Americas had souls and rights. That the debate happened is worth registering; that it changed practice very little, equally so.
For children
The first Spanish colony in the Americas was set up on the island that is today Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Taíno people living there were forced to labour in gold mines, and within fifty years almost the entire population was gone — from disease, hunger and violence.
Sources
- Las Casas, Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (1552)
- Crosby, The Columbian Exchange (1972)
Connects to
Report a correction
Found something that does not hold? Tell us — sources help, but are not required.
Report a correctionPart of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org ·