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Do not fill this in! ====Spanish rule (1492–1625)==== {{Main|Columbian Viceroyalty|New Spain|Captaincy General of Santo Domingo}} [[File:Columbus landing on Hispaniola adj.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|[[Artist's impression]] of [[Christopher Columbus]] landing on [[Hispaniola]], engraving by [[Theodor de Bry]]]] Navigator [[Christopher Columbus]] landed in Haiti on 6 December 1492, in an area that he named ''[[Môle-Saint-Nicolas]]'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590|title=Columbus the Discoverer |editor=Ober, Frederick Albion |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590/page/n119 96] |year=1906 |publisher=Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London |access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> and claimed the island for the [[Crown of Castile]]. Nineteen days later, his ship the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'' ran aground near the present site of [[Cap-Haïtien]]. Columbus left 39 men on the island, who founded the settlement of [[La Navidad]] on 25 December 1492.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> Relations with the native peoples, initially good, broke down and the settlers were later killed by the Taíno.<ref name="Bradt10">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 10.</ref> The sailors carried endemic Eurasian [[infectious disease]]s, causing [[epidemic]]s that killed a large number of native people.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|title=What Became of the Taíno?|journal=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|date=October 2011|access-date=16 October 2013|archive-date=7 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207130050/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Koplow |first= David A. |title=Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge|url=https://archive.org/details/smallpoxfighttoe00kopl|url-access=registration |year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24220-3}}</ref> The first recorded [[smallpox]] epidemic in the Americas erupted on Hispaniola in 1507.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm |title=History of Smallpox – Smallpox Through the Ages |publisher=Texas Department of State Health Services |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-date=24 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924141608/https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Their numbers were further reduced by the harshness of the ''{{lang|es|[[encomienda]]}}'' system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in gold mines and plantations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Graves |first= Kerry A. |title=Haiti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8b047XP92i4C&pg=PA22|date=2002|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0-7368-1078-4|page=22}}</ref><ref name="Bradt10"/> The Spanish passed the [[Laws of Burgos]] (1512–1513), which forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their [[Proselytism|conversion]] to Catholicism,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html |title=Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513 |publisher=Faculty.smu.edu |access-date=24 July 2013 |archive-date=6 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606074822/http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/bakewell/texts/burgoslaws.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and gave legal framework to ''{{lang|es|encomiendas}}.'' The natives were brought to these sites to work in specific plantations or industries.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186567/encomienda |title=Encomienda (Spanish policy) |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=24 July 2013}}</ref> As the Spanish re-focused their colonization efforts on the greater riches of mainland Central and South America, Hispaniola became reduced largely to a trading and refueling post. As a result [[Piracy in the Caribbean|piracy]] became widespread, encouraged by European powers hostile to Spain such as France (based on [[Tortuga (Haiti)|Île de la Tortue]]) and England.<ref name="Bradt10"/> The Spanish largely abandoned the western third of the island, focusing their colonization effort on the eastern two-thirds.<ref>Knight, Franklin, ''The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism'', 3rd edn, p. 54, New York, Oxford University Press 1990.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> The western part of the island was thus gradually settled by French [[buccaneer]]s; among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing [[tobacco]] and recruited many French colonial families from [[Martinique]] and [[Guadeloupe]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ducoin, Jacques.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/849870919|title=Bertrand d'Ogeron, 1613–1676 : fondateur de la colonie de Saint-Domingue et gouverneur des flibustiers|year=2013|isbn=978-2-84833-294-9|location=Brest|oclc=849870919}}</ref> In 1697 [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Imperial Spain|Spain]] settled their hostilities on the island by way of the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them.<ref name="Bradt11">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 11.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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