Taíno
The Taíno, the Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, and their encounter with Spanish colonisation from 1492 to the mid-16th century.
Category: Peoples
- October 12, 1492Columbus's fleet sights land at Guanahani in the Bahamas
A lookout on the Pinta sights land in the early hours of 12 October 1492. The island, Guanahani to its Lucayan Taíno people and renamed San Salvador by Columbus, is in the Bahamas; which modern island it was remains debated.
- 1495Columbus sends hundreds of enslaved Taíno to Spain
In 1495 Columbus's men round up over 1,000 Taíno and ship about 500 to Spain to be sold; many die on the voyage, and the numbers vary by source. Queen Isabella soon orders an inquiry into whether they may be enslaved.
- c. 1495Spanish colonists impose a gold tribute on the Taíno of Hispaniola
After Vega Real, Columbus's government makes Taíno adults pay a regular tribute in gold, or in cotton or food where there is no gold. Villages that fail to pay are punished, and many Taíno flee or die.
- March 1495Spanish forces defeat the Taíno at the Battle of Vega Real on Hispaniola
Columbus's brother Bartholomew and Spanish troops with dogs and cavalry defeat a large Taíno force on Hispaniola in March 1495 (24 March in most sources), ending organised Taíno resistance on the island.
- c. 1501Spain permits the shipment of enslaved Africans to Hispaniola
Around 1501 the Spanish crown allows Christianised, Spanish-speaking enslaved Africans to be taken to Hispaniola. Ovando soon asks for the shipments to stop, but demand grows as Taíno numbers fall. Sources give 1501 or 1503.
- 1502Bartolomé de las Casas sails to Hispaniola with Nicolás de Ovando
Las Casas travels with his father in Ovando's 1502 fleet to Hispaniola, where he receives land and enslaved Taíno labourers under the encomienda system he would later condemn. One source gives 1499.
- 1502Nicolás de Ovando arrives as governor of Hispaniola and sets up the encomienda
Ovando sails with about 30 ships and arrives at Santo Domingo in 1502. He introduces the encomienda, in which Taíno are assigned to Spanish colonists as forced labour in return for instruction in Christianity.
- 1511Diego Velázquez begins the Spanish conquest of Cuba
Governor Diego Velázquez leads Spanish forces from Hispaniola into Cuba in 1511 against the Taíno, led by the cacique Hatuey. Cuba becomes a base for later expeditions to Mexico.
- December 21, 1511Antonio de Montesinos denounces the treatment of the Taíno in a sermon at Santo Domingo
On 21 December 1511 the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos tells the colonists of Hispaniola that their abuse of the Taíno is a sin. Bartolomé de las Casas hears it, and it leads to the Laws of Burgos.
- December 1512The Laws of Burgos regulate the treatment of Indigenous people in the Spanish colonies
In response to Montesinos's sermon, Ferdinand II issues the Laws of Burgos in December 1512, the first Spanish code for the Americas. They limit labour and require conversion but do not end encomienda or slave raids.
- 1513Las Casas serves as chaplain in Velázquez's conquest of Cuba
In 1513 Las Casas accompanies Diego Velázquez and Pánfilo de Narváez's forces in Cuba as chaplain and receives an encomienda near Cienfuegos. He later describes the massacres he saw there.
- c. 1514Las Casas gives up his encomienda and begins to speak out
While preparing a Pentecost sermon in 1514, Las Casas decides the encomienda is unjust and gives up his enslaved labourers. Some accounts date the formal act to 1515.
- c. 1516Las Casas presents the Memorial de Remedios and is named Protector of the Indians
In 1516, in Spain, Las Casas submits a reform plan and is made 'Protector of the Indians' in a Hieronymite commission. His plan proposed importing enslaved Africans; he later called that proposal a grave error.
- c. 1518Smallpox spreads through the Taíno population of Hispaniola
The first recorded smallpox epidemic reaches Hispaniola in late 1518 or 1519 and kills a large share of surviving Taíno. Estimates of their numbers vary widely, and forced labour and violence had already reduced them.
- 1519 – 1533Enriquillo's Taíno revolt in the Bahoruco mountains of Hispaniola
The cacique Enriquillo rebels against Spanish colonists in 1519 and holds out in the Bahoruco mountains for years. A peace agreement is reached in 1533, after Charles V's envoy offers his people freedom to settle where they choose.
- 1520 – 1521Las Casas's attempt at a peaceful settlement at Cumaná, Venezuela, fails
Las Casas gets a royal concession in 1520 to found farming settlements without conquest on the Venezuelan coast. The colony is destroyed by local people in his absence in 1521, and Las Casas withdraws to a Dominican house.
- 1527 – c. 1561Las Casas writes his Historia de las Indias
Las Casas works on his history of the first decades of Spanish colonisation in the Caribbean from 1527 and finishes it around 1559-1561. He restricts its publication for forty years, and it is not printed until 1875.
- 1537Pope Paul III declares in Sublimis Deus that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are rational beings
In 1537 Paul III issues Sublimis Deus, saying the Indians are fully human, may not be enslaved and should be converted peacefully. Las Casas's writing and Dominican allies helped bring it about.
- 1542Charles V issues the New Laws limiting the encomienda
In 1542, after criticism by Las Casas and others, Charles V issues the New Laws to limit encomienda holders' authority over Indigenous people. They are poorly enforced and provoke revolt among colonists in Peru.
- 1544Las Casas is consecrated bishop of Chiapas
Las Casas is made bishop of Chiapas in southern Mexico in 1544, after helping shape the New Laws of 1542. His refusal to absolve encomenderos who held enslaved people leads to conflict with colonists.
- 1552Las Casas's Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias is printed in Seville
Las Casas's short account of Spanish violence against Indigenous peoples, written about 1542, is printed in Seville in 1552. It is widely read and translated, and used in later arguments about Spanish colonisation.
- January 1, 1804Dessalines declares the independence of Haiti at Gonaïves
On 1 January 1804 Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims Saint-Domingue independent under the old Taíno name Haiti. It is the first state founded by a successful slave revolt and the second independent republic in the Americas.