Hispaniola
The early history of Spain’s first
American colony, Hispaniola, was marked
principally by the genocide of the indige-
nous population. This phenomenon was
repeated elsewhere in the Caribbean,
including Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Estimates for the number of Native
Americans living in the Caribbean before
Columbus are uncertain; there may have
been hundreds of thousands, perhaps mil-
lions. However many Native Americans
there were, they were virtually extermi-
nated. Of the few who survived, most
intermarried with Europeans and
Africans, losing their pre-Columbian way
of life, although a small community of
Carib still live on a reservation on
Dominica.
Why did this genocide occur? It was
not that Columbus or his sovereigns were
entirely lacking in good intentions.
Columbus at times urged his men to treat
the Native Americans well. In 1495
Queen Isabella forbade Columbus to send
American Indians to Europe for sale as
slaves, and in 1501 she instructed
Hispaniola’s governor that the Native
peoples should be “well treated as our
subjects and our vassals.” Some missionar-
ies of conscience went to Hispaniola, mostnotably Bartolomé de Las Casas
(1474–1566), who in 1502 went to
Hispaniola, serving as advisor to the colo-
nial governor. In 1512 Las Casas became
the first person in the Americas to be
ordained a priest, and he later became an
outspoken advocate for Native Americans.
Yet none of these good intentions were
enough to stop the wholesale slaughter.
Seeking an explanation for Spanish
extermination of Native Americans,
some historians have pointed to the
Spanish experience of the Reconquest.
The centuries-long effort to wrest land
away from the Moors on the Iberian
Peninsula, seizing and subjugating their
domains, had made the Spanish warriors
battle-hardened and contemptuous of
non-Spanish people. They were thus
prepared to conquer and rule ruthlessly
and absolutely. Spanish nobility consid-
ered treasure won in warfare to be hon-
orable, while manual labor was beneath
the dignity of a gentleman. As the later
conquistador Hernán Cortés is said to
have put it, “I came to get gold, not to till
the soil like a peasant.” Columbus tried
at first to control the excesses of the men
who accompanied him on his voyages,
wanting to treat the Native Americans as
fellow Christians, but as a foreigner he
had little sway over them. He also had a28 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
“[The] Spaniards still do
nothing save tear the natives
to shreds, murder them and
inflict untold misery,
suffering and distress,
tormenting, harrying and
persecuting them mercilessly.”
— Bartolomé de Las Casas,
Spanish missionary
Havana in the 17th century(Library of Congress)