Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Columbus Brothers
In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain with 90 men in the
Pinta,
the
Niña
and
the
Santa María,
bound for Asia. He sailed west rather than east, expecting to circumnavig-
ate the globe, instead discovering the New World for the Old. After stops at the small Ba-
hamian island of Guanahaní and present-day Cuba (which Columbus initially mistook for
Japan), a mountainous landscape appeared before the explorers. Columbus named it 'La
Isla Española' or 'the Spanish Island,' which was later corrupted to 'Hispaniola.' He made
landfall at Môle St-Nicholas in modern Haiti on December 7, and days later ran the
Santa
María
onto a reef. Here on Christmas Day he established Villa La Navidad, the first settle-
ment of any kind made by Europeans in the New World.
Columbus was greeted with great warmth by the Taínos, who impressed him further with
their gifts of gold jewelry. Capturing a handful of Taínos to impress his royal patrons, he
sailed back to Spain to be showered with glory. He returned within a year, leading 17 ships
of soldiers and colonists.
La Navidad had been razed by the Taínos in reprisal for the kidnappings by the settlers,
so Columbus sailed east and established La Isabela, named for Spain's queen, on the north
coast of the DR; the first church in the Americas was erected here. However, La Isabela
was plagued with disease, and within five years the capital of the new colony was moved to
Santo Domingo, where it has remained.
Columbus' early administration was a disaster and appointing his brother Bartholomé
proved no better. Their haphazard rule soon had the colonists up in arms, and a replacement
sent from Spain returned the brothers home in chains. The colony would now be run with
military harshness.
The Taínos were the ones to bear the brunt of this. They were already stricken by
European illnesses that sent their numbers crashing, but on top of this Spain introduced
en-
comienda,
forced labor requiring the natives to dig up quotas of gold. The Spanish broke
up Taíno villages, killed their chiefs and put the entire population to work. Within three
decades of their first meeting with Europeans, the Taínos were reduced to a shadow of their
previous numbers.
