\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOn October 12, 1492, land was first sighted, upon arriving at the island of\u00a0Guanahan\u00ed.<\/p>\n
Discovered\u00a0<\/i>Territories<\/i>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Guanahan\u00ed, island in the Bahamas archipelago, whose currentname is Watling.\u00a0 It was named\u00a0the island of San Salvador.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Rum Cay, belonging to the Bahamas, named SantaMar\u00edade la Concepci\u00f3n on October 14.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Long Cay, belonging to the Bahamas, was named La Fernandina.<\/li>\n
- Crooked Cay, another island in the Bahamas archipelago,was baptized withthe name La\u00a0Isabela.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Cuba, namedJuana, October 28.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Haiti orBabeque(today the island of Santo Domingo, shared by the Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti).\u00a0 Columbus named it La Espa\u00f1ola\u00a0or La Hispaniola, which means \u201cLittle Spain\u201d, December 5, 1492.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Conquest and Colonization<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe First Spanish Settlement in the New W<\/i>orld<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0Because La\u00a0Santa\u00a0Mar\u00eda\u00a0had run aground on the coasts of Haiti, it was impossible for the entire crew to return to Spain with the ship that remained, as La\u00a0Pinta\u00a0and its captain, Mart\u00edn Alonso\u00a0Pinz\u00f3n, had separated from the group a month earlier to search for the island the natives called\u00a0Babeque.\u00a0 The admiral decided to leave a small group of men in a military fort constructed with the remains of the destroyed ship.\u00a0 This installation was located in what is today known as Punta\u00a0Picolet\u00a0in the far northeast of the island.\u00a0 It was named \u201cLa\u00a0Navidad\u201d or \u201cChristmas\u201d, after the day on which the shipwreck occurred, December 25.\u00a0 Diego de Arana, Pedro Guti\u00e9rrez and Rodrigo Escobedo stayed\u00a0in command of the fort and its 39 men.\u00a0 The Europeans also had the support of Chief\u00a0Guacanagarix, who had been very friendly toward the foreigners since their landing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst Sign of R<\/i>esistance<\/i>.\u00a0 Bordering the island to the east after encountering Mart\u00edn Alonso\u00a0Pinz\u00f3n\u00a0and Columbus, the ships La\u00a0Pinta\u00a0and La Ni\u00f1a arrived together in the Bah\u00eda de\u00a0Saman\u00e1, where they saw natives aiming with bows and arrows for the first time.\u00a0 Thus, they named the area \u201cGulf of Arrows\u201d.\u00a0 The inhabitants of the area were\u00a0Ciguayo\u00a0and\u00a0Macori.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst Armed C<\/i>onflict<\/i>.\u00a0Chief\u00a0Canoabo\u00a0and his people destroyed the fort \u201cLa\u00a0Navidad\u201d and killed all of the men in reprisal for the abuses that some committed against the natives and their women.\u00a0 According to the story of Chief\u00a0Guacanagarix\u00a0to Columbus when he disembarked in Hispaniola on his second voyage, members of the fort crew had pulled some\u00a0Tainos\u00a0from their homes and abused their spouses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFirst Spanish Town in America.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>First M<\/i>ass.<\/i>\u00a0 Upon arriving to Hispaniola in his second voyage, and in spite of the destruction of the fort, Columbus decided to build a small Spanish-style villa on the island.\u00a0 The villa was named La\u00a0Isabela\u00a0and was located\u00a0at the mouth of the\u00a0Bajabonico\u00a0River.\u00a0 It was quickly constructed and January 6, 1494, Father Boil held the first mass on the continent.<\/p>\n
Trading\u00a0<\/i>P<\/i>ost\u00a0<\/i>R<\/i>egime<\/i>.\u00a0 It was the first economic plan implanted by the Spanish.\u00a0 Based on the Portuguese experience on the western coast of Africa, it consisted of the exploitation of unsalaried work by Spaniards, the subjugation of the native peoples, their sale as slaves in Spain and the payment of tribute in gold powder or cotton.\u00a0 The exploitation of natural resources and the indigenous work force could only carried out for the profit of the Crown or Columbus, not for individuals.\u00a0 This situation only caused ill will among the Spaniards, who soon rebelled.\u00a0 In addition, the majority of\u00a0Tainos\u00a0could not endure the voyage to Spain, dying of sadness in transit or arriving to the metropolis in critical condition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRold\u00e1n<\/i>\u00a0Rebellion<\/i>.\u00a0 Uncomfortable with the trading post system as Columbus and his brothers governed it, and due to the precariousness of life in Hispaniola and the difficulty of returning to Spain, various groups of Spaniards attempted to rise up in arms against the administration of the incipient colony.\u00a0 The first attempt at insurrection in 1494, led by Bernal\u00a0D\u00edaz\u00a0de Pisa, was put down by Columbus.\u00a0 But the second was successful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFrancisco\u00a0Rold\u00e1n, Mayor of La\u00a0Isabela\u00a0and long-time servant of the Admiral, started the\u00a0rebellion, winning growing support from the colonists, as he defended the right to search for gold for personal profit, to use indigenous labor, and to take native women as wives as well as the freedom to return to Spain.\u00a0 He also demanded the abolition of the tribute required of the natives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 1498, all of the Spanish towns and forts located in Hispaniola, except the towns of La Vega and La\u00a0Isabela, had joined\u00a0Rold\u00e1n.\u00a0 Christopher Columbus had no choice but to concede, signing the\u00a0Capitulaciones\u00a0de\u00a0Azua\u00a0in 1499.\u00a0 This document named Francisco\u00a0Rold\u00e1n\u00a0as Mayor of the city of Santo Domingo (already founded) for perpetuity, gave amnesty to all the rebels, allowed them the right to return to Spain, to wed\u00a0Taino\u00a0women and to use the native work force in search of gold for personal profit.\u00a0 He also conceded the payment of their back salaries, though they had not worked in the past two years, and gave them lands for their\u00a0Taino\u00a0slaves to work.\u00a0 This was the origin of the\u00a0encomienda<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Destitution<\/i>\u00a0of Christopher Columbus.<\/i>\u00a0 The\u00a0way\u00a0Columbus dealt with the\u00a0Rold\u00e1n\u00a0uprising displeased the Spanish Crown, as the people that occupied the lowest social strata in Spain came to command the colonizing enterprise and acquired a higher economic position, allowing for a possible social ascent.\u00a0 They decided to strip Christopher Columbus of his position as governor of the island and send Francisco Bobadilla to succeed him, who arrived in August 1500.\u00a0 He immediately ordered the imprisonment of Columbus and his brothers, sending them back to Spain in shackles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEncomienda<\/i>\u00a0System<\/i>.\u00a0 Bobadilla could not\u00a0defeat\u00a0Rold\u00e1n; on the contrary, he had to almost completely accept the\u00a0Capitulaciones<\/i>\u00a0de\u00a0<\/i>Azua<\/i>, and reduced from a third to an eleventh the taxes that the Spanish were required to pay to the Crown for the right to search for gold for personal profit.\u00a0 The next governor,\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s\u00a0de\u00a0Ovando, arrived in 1502 to subdue the\u00a0Rold\u00e1n\u00a0supporters and sent\u00a0Roldan\u00a0and his closest conspirators back to Spain (they died in a shipwreck upon leaving the island).\u00a0 Still, he had to support the distribution of land and\u00a0Tainos, and favored his men when distributing possessions.\u00a0 The\u00a0encomienda\u00a0system was formally established by a Royal Provision issued on December 20, 1503, which\u00a0eventually became the foundation of the economic structure of conquered Hispaniola and America in the first decades of the colonization.\u00a0 In this mechanism, land and natives were assigned for life to the Spanish colonists, who forced them to work intensively in the mines for the extraction of gold and in agricultural labor, instead of evangelizing them and \u201censuring their well-being\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt first considered by the Crown to be \u201cfree vassals\u201d required to pay tribute to the Kings (1501), the indigenous people lived\u00a0completely enslaves, under the guise of evangelization and civilization, to support Spain\u2019s imperial need to\u00a0find gold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nReduction of the\u00a0<\/i>Taino<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>P<\/i>opulation.<\/i>\u00a0 The brutal treatment of the indigenous people (considered as property;\u00a0as a\u00a0fair compensation for working in the\u00a0<\/i>conquista<\/i>) caused a decrease in their health and life expectancy, which reached alarming levels in the case of Hispaniola, as its population rapidly decreased.\u00a0 The\u00a0Tainos\u00a0began to commit suicide en masse and to have abortions, as these methods constituted the only escape from exploitation.\u00a0 From 400,000 that lived on the island at the time of the 1492 arrival of Columbus, by 1508, there were only 60,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTo this situation also contributed\u00a0the enraged violence that\u00a0Friar\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s\u00a0de\u00a0Ovando\u00a0unleashed against the indigenous communities that resisted slavery.\u00a0 He beheaded, burned and hung entire towns, no matter the age or gender of the victims.\u00a0 It was slavery or death.\u00a0 In the\u00a0Jaragua\u00a0killings, he attacked through\u00a0trickery, after being received\u00a0and attended as a distinguished visitor by Chief\u00a0Anacaona.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe decrease in the native work force obliged\u00a0the colonists to import indigenous\u00a0from the\u00a0Lucaya\u00a0islands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Advent Sermo<\/i>n<\/i>.\u00a0 Facing the brutality\u00a0of the treatment of the indigenous people, a voice of protest emerged from the Dominican friars, led by Pedro de C\u00f3rdoba, Bernardo de Santo Domingo and Antonio de\u00a0Montesinos.\u00a0 In an event without historical precedent, these priests of the conquering empire voiced their alarm for the suffering inflicted on the conquered.\u00a0 This protest generated a debate on the right\u00a0to conquer, just or unjust war and the condition of man that resounded on a global scale and came to be one of the foundations for what we know today as public international law and human rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn Santo Domingo, the fourth Sunday of Advent, Friar Antonio de\u00a0Montesinos\u00a0delivered the following words from the pulpit (\u201cEgo\u00a0vox\u00a0clamanti\u00a0in\u00a0deserto\u201d):\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIn order to make your sins known to you I have mounted this pulpit, I who am the voice of Christ crying in the wilderness of this island; and therefore it behooves you to listen to me, not with indifference but with all your heart and senses; for this voice will be the strangest, the harshest and hardest, the most terrifying that you ever heard or expected to hear\u2026.\u00a0This voice declares that you are in mortal sin, and live and die therein by reason of the cruelty and tyranny that you practice on these innocent people. Tell me by what right or justice do you hold these Indians in such cruel and horrible slavery? By what right do you wage such detestable wars on these people who lived mildly and peacefully in their own lands, where you have consumed infinite numbers of them with unheard of murders and desolations? Why do you so greatly oppress and fatigue them, not giving them enough to eat or caring for them when they fall ill from excessive labors, so that they die or rather are slain by you, so that you may extract and\u00a0acquire gold every day? And what care do you take that they receive religious instruction and come to know their God and creator, or that they be baptized, hear mass, or observe holidays and Sundays? Are they not men? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not bound to love them as you love yourselves? How can you lie in such profound and lethargic slumber? Be sure that in your present state you can no more be saved than the Moors or Turks who do not have and do not want the faith of Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Burgos Laws<\/i>.\u00a0 The campaign in defense of the indigenous people engendered a series of discussions organized by the Spanish Crown in the cities of Burgos and Valladolid.\u00a0 In these sessions,\u00a0attended by\u00a0scholars and theologians, the analysis revolved around the human condition of the Indian: whether\u00a0he was an inferior being that lacked a soul and therefore deserved the treatment\u00a0given him by his master; or\u00a0he had a soul, which demanded treatment that facilitated his freedom and evangelization.\u00a0 After almost a year of debates, in December 1512, the Burgos laws were approved, which recognized the \u201crational\u201d character of the native peoples and stated the following:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Right to proper nutrition<\/li>\n
- Right to access hammocks to sleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Work leave for pregnant women<\/li>\n
- Exoneration from heavy loads for men.<\/li>\n
- Prohibition of jailing.<\/li>\n
- Prohibition of physical punishment.<\/li>\n
- Free baptism.<\/li>\n
- Obligatory Christian teaching.<\/li>\n
- Obligatory construction of their boh\u00edos next to houses of Spaniards.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Prohibition of bigamy.<\/li>\n
- Encomienda limit\u00a0of 40 to 150 Indians per master.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In addition, the position of Indian distributor was created, directly responsible to the Crown, in order to solve the conflicts caused by the distributions\u00a0made by\u00a0the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Col\u00f3n.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThese laws composed the first code of law for the Spanish in the Indies.\u00a0 They were first applied in Hispaniola and later extended to Puerto Rico and Jamaica.\u00a0 But the rights and guarantees conceded to the natives were never implemented and their extermination continued at full speed.\u00a0 Around 1514, in the first Spanish colony in America, only 25,500\u00a0Tainos\u00a0remained; in 1517, the figure fell to 11,000; and between December 1518 and January 1519, a smallpox epidemic reduced it to 3,000.<\/p>\n
The Sugar Industry<\/b><\/h2>\n
Decrease in the Spanish P<\/i>opulation<\/i>.\u00a0 From the end of the first decade of the 16th century, the scarcity and concentration of the indigenous work force in the few families of the colonial aristocracy continued to push the bulk of Spaniards to\u00a0immigrate\u00a0to other territories that offered greater possibilities for wealth.\u00a0 This situation intensified due to the new discoveries and conquests in continental America.\u00a0 It is calculated that in 1516, the total number of colonists on the island was less than 4,000.\u00a0 In 1528, the greater part of the population was concentrated in Santo Domingo and five towns had disappeared.\u00a0 Not even the growth in sugar production could slow\u00a0down\u00a0the emigration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDecline of\u00a0<\/i>G<\/i>old<\/i>.\u00a0 So great was the greed of the\u00a0conquistador<\/i>e<\/i>s\u00a0<\/i>and colonists that launched the gold extraction in Hispaniola that already in 1515, its quantity was significantly diminished.\u00a0 The decrease of the work force also contributed to the decline in gold activity.\u00a0 In 1519, the mines of the colonists hardly produced 2,000 gold pesos.\u00a0 In order to maintain colonial life on the island, it was decided to structure the economy on another\u00a0product to\u00a0export: sugar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe First M<\/i>ills<\/i>.\u00a0 Though sugar cane was brought from the Canaries on the second voyage of Christopher Columbus (1493), it was not until 1503, under the\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s\u00a0de\u00a0Ovando\u00a0government, that a resident of La Vega named Pedro de\u00a0Atienzo\u00a0produced homemade molasses.\u00a0 In 1506, another resident of La Vega named\u00a0Aguil\u00f3n,\u00a0began to process sugar.\u00a0 Miguel de\u00a0Ballester, mayor of the town, constructed a small mill for sugar processing in 1514.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe sugar production for exportation only began around 1510, when Gonzalo de\u00a0Vellosa, motivated by the rise in the price of the product on the European market, constructed a refinery (powered by hydraulic energy) in the south of the island.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe definitive change in the productive orientation of the island came about in 1516, with the government of an order of priests known as the \u201cPadres\u00a0Jer\u00f3nimos\u201d, who promoted the sugar industry by distributing lands, loans,\u00a0and technical, operative and legal\u00a0services.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/historia-rep-dominicana.jpg\")
<\/a>First migration wave:\u00a0siboneyes, peoples with a shell culture that lived on the shores of rivers, swamps, inlets and bays.\u00a0 They did not have pottery or agriculture.\u00a0 They occupied some parts of the island.\u00a0\u00a0