Taino and Kalinago

Duran, Diego. The History of the Indies of New Spain. 1581, trans. Doris Hayden. University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.

Before Spain invaded Puerto Rico, the native population known as the Taino inhabited it. At the beginning of the 1500’s, the Taino were conquered by the Spanish and, after a

Restall’s ultimate goal in writing this book is to provide readers and scholars alike with a more realistic viewpoint and history of the Spanish conquest. He wishes to dispel the many myths that accompany the epic tale so as to provide a better understanding of who the natives were and, more importantly to Restall, who the Spanish were. He does an excellent job of questioning the who, what, and where of the personalities and motives of the men involved in conquest. These questions are heartily answered in a well-written and easy to read history book.

Columbus’s big plan for Hispaniola since the beginning was to take advantage of the natives and take their land, and the gold he believed was located there. He built the first fort in the Western Hemisphere, and left some of his men to find and store gold there. Columbus had to ask for a little more help from their majesties, he convinced them by saying he would take them “as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask” (Zinn,6 ) Columbus’s plans affected the natives, in many ways; first of all they were going to lose their land, and also they were going to be taken captive for slave labor.

“Compare and contrast the early colonial empires of Portugal, Spain, and England in terms of motives, economic foundations, and relations with Africans and Native Americans. What factors explain the similarities and differences in the two ventures?”

The full measure of Columbus's failure as a colonizer was not yet apparent when he returned to Castile in 1496. Yet by the end of six or seven years of his governorship, with his own, the monarchs', and the settlers' objectives all still unachieved, and Hispaniola suffering an apparently interminable series of rebellions not only by the Indians but by the colonists too, Columbus was to be superseded and disgraced, and shipped home to Spain in chains.1 Overall, Fernandez-Armesto depicted Columbus as an annoyingly eccentric person incapable of succeeding. Although, he discovered the Americas, he failed to be a leader to his crew and the natives. Instead, he was on the lookout for ways of manipulating the motives for profit.

1. What was the view of Las Casas in relation to Spanish treatment of the indigenous people of the Indies?

The approaches Britain and Spain had towards colonization were reflected in their treatment of Native Americans. Ultimately, both countries were primarily interested in the expansion of their empires, the enrichment of their economies and their own political power, and their treatment of the natives is indicative of these aims. As Spain’s only purpose for colonization was to conquer land for their empire, the

In document C, Christopher Columbus describes a land that he has discovered an island called Hispana to Spanish Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella in 1494. The land is vast filled with trees, plains, animals, honey and varieties of metal. These lands made it very suitable for farming, planting, and building houses. Columbus also says “This Hispana, moreover, abounds in different kinds of spices, in gold, and in metals.” Columbus is describing to the Monarchs that there are vast amounts of material in the New World that the Spaniards would find useful to them. When King Charles V creates The New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians, this makes the Indians seem more protected and comfortable with Spain. This leads to being generous towards the Spanish and giving them the goods that they need. On the other hand, while the Iberians get what they want in the trading with the Indians, they can give them items that don't have much value for them, but to the Indians they seem valuable (Document D). The strong Spanish military also helped the expansion of trading and goods in the New World such places like Mexico (Document G). The Iberians could also decide to take these goods by force. In document I, an Indian portrays an image of a European kicking an Indian in the neck with a chest on her back. This displays the the

The first instance of colonialism forced upon the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic was the “discovery” by Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492. Ernesto Sagas and Orlando Inoa presented the interaction in their book The Dominican People: A Documentary History. The confrontation between these two diametrically opposed cultures proved to be “far from equal; the Amerindians’ Stone Age culture was no match for European military technology. The initial encounter took place on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, part of which is now the Dominican Republic” (Inoa pg. 1). This was the first step in a trek through five and a half centuries of Dominican Republic history, and unfortunately much of it was filled with

Since my endeavors have achieved achievement, I realize that it will please to you: these I have resolved to relate, so you might be made familiar with everything done and found in this our voyage. On the thirty-third day after I withdrew from Cadiz, I went to the Indian ocean, where I discovered numerous islands occupied by men without number, of all which I took ownership for our luckiest ruler, with broadcasting envoys and flying benchmarks, nobody questioning. To the first of these I gave the name of the favored Savior, on whose guide depending I had achieved this and additionally alternate islands. Yet, the Indians call it Guanahany. I likewise called every one of the others by another name. For I requested one island to be called Santa Maria of the Conception, another Fernandina, another Isabella, another Juana, thus on with the rest.

The Black Legend and White Legend: Relationship Between the Spanish and Indians in the New World

When Columbus first arrived he found the island populated by thousands of Taino Indians who made the mistake of showing Columbus gold nuggets in the river. This was all Spain needed to finance its crown. Differences between the Spaniards and the Taints began around two years later when Diego Salcedo was killed by the Indians. The Taino Indians revolt against the Spaniards was met with no success and many left the island or fled into the mountains where they began new lives.

The “new world” that Columbus boasted of to the Spanish monarchs in 1500 was neither an expanse of empty space nor a replica of European culture, tools, textiles, and religion, but a combination of Native, European, and African people living in complex relation to one another. »full text

Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1997