|
|
Many of the other principal towns and cities of Hispaniola were founded between 1495 and1505, the majority of them at the sites of well populated Taíno cacicazgos or along the routes to mines that the Spaniards wanted to guard: Concepción de la Vega, La Esperanza, Santiago, Buenaventura (in or near today’s San Cristóbal), Santa María de la Vera Paz (probably today’s Port au Prince), Bonao, San Juan de la Maguana, Azua de Compostela, Puerto Real (near today’s Cap Haitien), Santa Cruz de la Icayagua, Salvaleón de Higüey, and Puerto Plata, among others.
Peter
Martyr D’Anghiera, a tutor at the Royal Spanish Court and one of the colonial 
chroniclers,
wrote that Santo Domingo was “the mother” of all the new lands.
For more than 50 years, Hispaniola was the provisioning ground, proving
ground and staging ground for all of the New World’s exploration, exploitation
and colonization by Spaniards. Bartolomé
de las Casas lived here, both before and after he became a Dominican monk and
Royal Protector of the Indians. Amerigo
de Vespucci stopped here on his exploratory voyages.
Juan Ponce de León lived here before he colonized Jamaica and, while
looking for the Fountain of Youth, found Florida.
Diego de Velásquez and Hernando Cortés lived here before they left for
Cuba; Cortés then went off to conquer Mexico.
Vasco Núñez de Balboa lived here before he stowed away on a ship bound
for today’s Panama, whose isthmus he would cross to “discover” the Pacific
Ocean. Francisco Pizarro lived here
before he turned traitor to his friend Balboa so that he could lead the Spanish
exploration and conquest of the Inca people that Balboa had dreamed about
leading. Up
Santo
Domingo w
pean-modelled
city was surrounded by stone walls in the 1540s to protect it from corsairs—a
crew of African slaves who were experienced in masonry was brought in to oversee
this and other architectural projects. Santo
Domingo boasts the oldest Catholic cathedral in the New World, a multitude of
magnificent churches and monasteries, the first nunnery, the first hospital, the
first (European) paved road, the first university, treasury office and smelting
ovens, warehouses and government offices, and magnificent stone mansions,
including the “Columbus Palace” (alcazar) built by Christopher’s
son Diego and his blue-blooded wife doña María de Toledo—Diego arrived in
1509 to replace Governor Ovando.
The
colonial era’s “firsts” were not all glorious, of course.
Among other historical markers, Hispaniola also was the venue for:
--The
first bloody European-Indian battles. Santo
Cerro, near La Vega, marks the site of a massive battle that took place in March
of 1495 after Bartolomé Colón had led Spanish troops against the Taínos of
the Cibao for 10 long months.
--The
first breaking of European-Indian treaties by Europeans and the first of the
European’s tragic massacres of Indian men, women, and children, such as the
one that took place in 1504 at Cacica Anacaona’s principle population center
in Jaraguá (today’s Port au Prince) under the orders of Governor Ovando.
--The
first systematic exploitation and enslavement of both Indians and Africans in
the New World under Spain’s encomienda
system and slave laws.
--The
first all-out Indian rebellions. The
most famous is that of the Cacique Enriquillo, who out-maneuvered Spanish troops
from 1519 to 1533 until the crown finally had to negotiate a peace treaty with
him and his people. Up
--The
first African slave rebellion in the New World, which was led by unnamed slaves
on Governor Diego Colón‘s sugar ingenio on Christmas Day of 1521.
--The
above-mentioned rebellion led Colón to announce the first of the New World’s
African slave-control ordinances on January 6, 1522.
Colonial
economics--The
easily obtained gold deposits on Hispaniola were quickly depleted (looking for
gold and silver in new locations was the incentive behind much of the
Spaniards’ expanded exploration), but the land and climate were perfect for
growing sugar cane and for raising cattle, both of which generated extensive
wealth for the Spaniards who remained on the island.
They also experimented with a wide variety of other agricultural
products, including lumber and dyewood, wild cinnamon, cotton, yucca, the
medicinal herbs bálsamo and cañafístola, chocolate, and indigo.
By the middle of the 16th century, however, the Spanish fleets
no longer passed through Santo Domingo, they went directly to La Havana, Cuba,
which was on a more direct route to reach the gold and silver coming out of
Mexico and Peru. This killed
Hispaniola’s early sugar industry, for sugar has a short shelf life and Spain
restricted free trade, insisting that all products be shipped with the royal
fleet. Hispaniola’s economy
stagnated for several centuries, during which time the bulk of her income came
from illegal trade with the mostly French buccaneers who had taken over the
northern and western parts of the island.
Next Page
