The Taino genocide

The Taino genocide (1492-1518) is where the Spanish wiped out most of the Tainos (Arawaks), the native people of the northern Caribbean (present-day Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, etc). Columbus himself set it in motion and oversaw it till 1500.

According to one estimate, genocide and disease wiped out 3 million of the 3.5 million Tainos – 85%. Most were already dead when smallpox arrived in 1518.

 

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Community Village‘s insight:

 

I read about this in a community college history book.

See on abagond.wordpress.com

Tainos

The Taínos (tah-EE-noes), commonly called the Arawak Indians, were the main people who lived in the Caribbean when Columbus arrived in 1492. They are the ones he called “Indians”, thinking he was in Asia.”

Spanish genocide and disease wiped out 85% of the Tainos. It shocked Europe, even back then. And yet, despite all that – or, rather, because of all that – the Spanish debated whether the Tainos had souls in the Valladolid Debate (1550-1551).”
See on abagond.wordpress.com