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Dominican Republic > History of the Dominican Republic

History

Taino Indians

For at least 5,000 years before Columbus discovered America for the Europeans, the island which now we know as Haiti, was inhabited by Indians. They called themselves Taino that meant "good' or "noble" in their language. Probably, Taino Indians were descendants of the Arawakan Indian tribes of Amazonia.

By the end of the 15th century the Tainos were organized into five tribes, and had a kind of central government. As Columbus wrote in his journal, the Tainos were peaceful and hospitable, and never fighted among themselves. Recent estimates indicate that there probably were as many as 200,000 Tainos on the island at that time.

Hispaniola

In 1492 Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean on his caravels Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina. First he came to the islands in the Bahamas, then Cuba, and finally landed on this island. The journal of Christopher Columbus is full of descriptions indicating how beautiful was the island with high forested mountains and large river valleys. They reminded Columbus the Castille landscapes, and he gave the discovered island the name Hispaniola.

But Spaniards found on Hispaniola not only beautiful nature and hospitable locals, they also found out there were gold deposits in the rivers. Many of the Indians they met, especially the chiefs, had gold ornaments and jewellery. Columbus rushed back to Spain to announce the success of his expedition.

Just before their departure, during the night of Christmas Eve 1492, Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, ran afoul on a reef and was wrecked a few mile east of present-day Cap Haitien. With the help of the Indians all the valueables were salvaged, the ship was lost. So Christopher Columbus had to found a settlement he named Navidad, and left a group of 39 Spaniards, while departed to Spain.

Some months later a tribal chief Caonabo attacked the settlement. When Columbus returned to the island with a large expedition, he found that the settlement was empty and had been burned to the ground.

First Towns of Hispaniola

The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1493 at Isabella, on the north coast of the island not far east of Puerto Plata. Bartholomew Columbus was appointed governor, while his brother Christopher continued his explorations in the Caribbean region, and after the discovery of gold in the Ozama river valley in the south, founded the city of Santo Domingo in 1496.