Source by
Noble David Cook
The Taino, also known as the Arawaks, migrated from the Caribbean
coast of South America, moving northward along the island chain
of the lesser
Antilles to the greater Antilles, around 1200 CE. They were agriculturalists whose basic food crops—corn, manioc, and beans—were supplemented
by hunting and fishing. By the time the Europeans first encountered
the Taino in 1492, they dominated the islands of Hispaniola, Puerto
Rico, most
of Cuba, and the Bahamas, but they were coming under pressure from
the more warlike Caribs of South America as they too moved northward
through
the lesser Antilles.
The first expedition of Christopher Columbus brought an initial
wave of Old World peoples to the Caribbean. Columbus was impressed by the beauty,
peaceful nature, and agricultural techniques of the Taino, and
often wrote about the richness and productivity of the land.
Chieftains, assisted by
elders, ruled the land, and groups were linked loosely by confederations.
Columbus frequently boasted of large populations that seemed well
off and, surprisingly for the Europeans, to have no money.
The Taino were more than
willing to exchange their small gold objects or cotton for broken
mirrors, knives, or copper bells.
Modern scholars do not know for certain the total population of
the Taino when the Europeans arrived, and there is heated
debate about these numbers.
Nonetheless, it can be said that the population was substantial,
with villages containing up to five thousand people, and that
almost immediately such
numbers began to decline. Within half a century after 1492 the
Aboriginal population of many of the islands was approaching
extinction. According
to Miguel de Pasamonte, the Taino of Hispaniola numbered 60,000
in 1508. According to Diego Columbus, there were 33,523 in 1510;
four years later
the population was reported to be 26,334. The total fell to about
18,000 in 1518 and 1519, and only 2,000 Tainos remained on the
island in 1542.
What were the causes of this demographic
collapse? Those making
a case for genocide cite the vivid descriptions of Dominican
friar Bartolomé de
las Casas who arrived in the islands in 1502, a decade after Columbus's
first voyage. In his Brevissima Relación and other writings,
he characterizes the Spanish settlers, gold seekers, and warlike
conquerors
as villains. He, too, had shared in the exploitation of the Taino
until his conversion, thanks to a compelling sermon by friar Antonio
de Montesinos on Whitsunday of 1512. It influenced him to give up his Indians and
dedicate his life to their protection. As an eyewitness, he reported
the Spanish
to be rapacious, burning captives to secure the source of treasure,
and forcing them to travel long distances to work in mines or on
settler's
estates. They raped the native women and took pleasure in maiming
and brutalizing Amerindians with war dogs and instruments of torture.
His compelling descriptions
were supported by the writings of others, such as the Italian traveler
Girolamo Benzoni. These accounts, reinforced by the gory illustrations
of Theodore de Bry later in the century, led to the Black
Legend,
which depicted the Spanish as the scourge of whomever they
encountered. But the
account of Las Casas was intentionally and
successfully exaggerated in order to secure legal protections for Native-American peoples
from the
Spanish Crown.
In fact, several factors coincided
and led to the destruction of Taino society. It is impossible to
deny the role of the
shock of
violent conquest.
Columbus's first expedition of three small ships engaged
in reconnaissance and trade; within months a large-scale expedition
of 17 vessels
and 1,500 men—and a handful of women— followed.
Some of the men had fought in the wars in Italy and the recent
conquest of the
kingdom of Granada.
They brought warhorses, war dogs, and ample military equipment.
The group had been influenced by Columbus's pronouncements
on the wealth
of the islands,
the ease of communication with the Natives, the seemingly
friendly nature of the Taino women, and the backward technology
of the military.
Continue—Indians
