![\"Retro-architecture](\"https:\/\/soulofamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/PuntaCana-Huguey_Basilica.jpg\")
Retro-architecture Basilica in the historic town of Huguey<\/strong>; credit MRDU08<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n Taino Indians are estimated to have arrived on the island around 1000 AD. Christopher Columbus arrived here on 5 December 1492 during his first voyage to the New World. The friendly Taino (meaning “the good”) Indians who greeted him called the island “Quisqueya.” Christopher Columbus renamed the island “Hispaniola”, which persists today. Historians estimate the population to have been 600,000 at the time. <\/p>\n Columbus and crew of Spaniards grew fond of Hispaniola, as he describing the island in romantic terms in his Captain’s journal. Columbus’ admiration for Hispaniola coupled with his crew’s discovery of gold deposits in the island’s rivers led to the establishment of European settlements. Throughout history, a gold strike changes power relationships between different groups of people. So European settlers quickly arrived to found La Isabela in 1493 and used their guns to put Taino Indians into slavery mining it. Italian navigator Christopher Columbus claimed the island for Spain in 1492. <\/p>\n Disease and torture imported by the Europeans eventully wiped out the poor Tainos. As the colony grew, some business-minded Europeans established cash crop plantations to feed markets in Europe. In need of new laborers to replace the Taino Indians, Europeans imported African slaves to work their plantations. <\/p>\n By 1515, the easy to locate gold deposits of Hispaniola were significantly exhausted. Then Cortez discovered silver deposits in Mexico. Upon hearing of the next lucky strike, most Spanish residents of Santo Domingo left for Mexico, leaving only a few thousand settlers behind. Because of the predominance of livestock, initially introduced by Columbus, these settlers sustained themselves by providing food and leather to Spanish ships passing Hispaniola.<\/p>\n In the late 1600s, France took control of the western half of Hispaniola. Thousands of Africans were soon brought to work the land of what was renamed Haiti. France’s control of Hispaniola, however, was short-lived. African military general Toussaint L’Ouverture, who was one time enslaved, led large groups of other enslaved Blacks in a war against the French and captured control of most of the island. For decades following L’Ouverture’s liberation of the Africans, Haiti fought against France and Spain. <\/p>\nPunta Cana History<\/h2>\n