The amerindians and european patterns of settlement

THE AMERINDIANS AND EUROPEAN
PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT
Groups Members: Dannah Smart
Kristal Sookdeo
Rachael John
Rachel Friday
Suresh Bedasee
Tiffany Ragoobir
LECTURER: ANSEL ST. HILAIRE, BA, MSc.
Caribbean History

OBJECTIVES
• The Groups of Caribbean Indians
• Christopher Columbus 1st & 2nd Voyages
• Tainos
• European Colonies in the Eastern Caribbean

• It was said that there were Two main groups of Indians even though there was
Three.
• The third group the Ciboney had all but disappeared from the Caribbean
• Therefore today we will look at the Two main groups of Indians that existed in the
Caribbean.
• The Tainos and the Caribs:
THE GROUPS OF CARIBBEAN INDIANS

THE TWO MAIN GROUPS OF INDIANS IN
THE CARIBBEAN CON’T.
• The Tainos
1. Predominated the Greater Antilles.
2. Where the first group of Indian the
Spanish encountered.
3. They had sophisticated agricultural
techniques.
• The Caribs
1.Predominated the Lesser Antilles.
2.Was believed to have practiced
Cannibalism. Which could have been a
largely ritualistic function
3.Raided other villages for food.

CARIBBEAN INDIANS CON’T.
• The Tainos
4. Produced various crops like manioc,
cassava, sweet potatoes, yams, peanuts,
beans, guavas and pineapple.
5. Hunted small games and fished to
provide sufficient food for their tribe.
• The Caribs
4. Produced no fruits, vegetables or
beans, they were a warlike tribe, which
focused more on raiding other tribes
villages.
5.Raid villages for their brides rather
than making payments or doing services
for them.

CARIBBEAN INDIANS CON’T.
• The Tainos
6. Had an inherited chief called the
Cacique.
7. Had houses made out of wood and thatch
and were generally arranged in central
plazas
8. Villages were organized in districts and
regional chiefdom and separated into
classes.
9.And men and women had different roles
• The Caribs
6. Had a temporary war chief with no
official name found for them.
7. Did not have plazas and other public
structures.
8. Therefore there was no need to have
districts or different classes in society.
9. Were to busy raiding villages to study the
different roles of men and women.

Christopher Columbus 1st & 2nd Voyages

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 1ST & 2ND VOYAGES
• 1492 – First voyage of Columbus occurred in the Age of Discovery of Bahamas,
Hispaniola, San Salvador, Cuba and Turks.
• 1493 - Second voyage of Columbus, he discovered Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat
and back to Hispaniola in which some of the Spanish settlers had remained from the
first voyage.
• The king and Queen of Spain had instructed Columbus to establish the gold mines, trade
with the Indians of the New World and to convert them to Christianity. Ferdinand and
Isabella funded adventure by providing him with a fleet of 17 ships and 1500 Spanish
male settlers.
• The Spanish settlers were interested only in seeking for gold and they became dependent
on the Tainos for their food supplies.

• The Spanish developed the forced labour system for the Indians and it interfered with
their production of food. The Indians were forced to work on the gold producing areas,
cotton and other fields.
• 1497 – The Repartimento system had developed by Columbus, it meant that whole
groups of Indians were allocated to the Spaniards for their service.
• Forced labour of the Indians did not produce enough yield from the gold mines and that
same time the Tainos were treated poorly and they protested against the harsh
treatment from the Spanish settlers.
• The Indians abandoned their field of agriculture, which lead to scarcity of food supplies
for both the European settlers and the Indians.

• The Tainos population decreased not only by the scarcity of food but also by the diseases
the European brought to the New World, which the Indians had no immunity for these
diseases example small pox, measles, influenza and they also committed suicide due the
failure of their economy and social structure of life.
• Because of all this serious problems Columbus had proved that he was unable to govern
Hispaniola successfully.
• The Spanish settlers relied on food supplies sent from Spain while Columbus had to
returned to Spain to answer questions about his leadership.
• 1498 – By the third voyage Columbus tried desperately to improve the situation but yet
still he could not have controlled the Indians along with Spanish colonist and he had to
return to Spain.

• 1502 - The Queen appointed Nicolás de Ovando to rescue Hispaniola. Nicholas de Ovando set
sailed with 2500 settlers including trained agriculturalist.
• Nicolás was given extensive powers over the Indians, he removed all leaders of the Tainos by
brutal action massacred.
• Ovando decided that the Indians had to be brought under tight control by the Repartimento
system which allowed the Spanish to assign the Indian community to work in the gold mine or
in agriculture
• This allow the Indians to spend six months at work and then the other six months in their own
villages to recover

• Another system was introduced the Encomienda system. Each Spanish settler was given one
or more of the group of Indians as their encomienda and they would work on field an in return
their master ( Spanish settlers) is responsible for protecting them and converting them to
Christianity
• 1511 – In Santa Domingo, Antonio de Montesinos preached a sermon to safeguard the rights of
the Indian population in Spain
• 1516 – Bartolome de Las Casas was another defender of the Indians in the Spanish Empire
and he was appointed to the office of Protector of the Indians.

ANTONIO DE
MONTESINOS
BARTOLOME DE
LAS CASAS

TAINOS
• Tanios lived in unsanitary conditions, especially in the gold mines, overworked,
undernourished and vulnerable to European diseases, the Indians died in
increasing numbers.
• It seemed likely that there were between 500,000 and 750,00 Tanios on
Hispaniola in 1492, however, the brutality of the Ovando’s regime reduced the
size of this population dramatically
• At the same time, the size of the Spanish population on the island was growing,
partly because of a short-lived gold rush during Ovando’s tenure of office
• The reality was that an island densely populated by Indians before 1492 was
transformed into one consisting primarily of Spaniards in the early sixteenth
century.

TAINOS
• In 1519, a smallpox epidemic effectively wiped out the reaming Taino population
• Even after all the work the Tainos did, it wasn’t good enough. The Gold supply on
Hispaniola did not last and the output of gold reached it’s peak in 1510 and thereafter
declined significantly.
• After 1519, gold mining effectively ceased on Hispaniola. Since there was also a
continuing labor shortage, the Spanish searched elsewhere for laborers. For example
they raided the Bahamian Islands for Indians
• In 1509 they occupied Jamaica where thy encountered Tanios but found no gold.
• The Spanish colonized Cuba and Puerto Rico. There they found some gold

TAINOS
• The brief gold rush in each island was followed by the decimation of the Indian population.
• Hawana’s location on the route back to Spain from the mainland colonies guaranteed its
continuing importance but many Spanish settlers left the island to seek their fortune in
Mexico in the 1520’s and in Peru a decade later, leaving the Spanish Caribbean an imperial
backwater.
• There was another source of wealth for the Spanish on Hispaniola, which would have its
own highly significant history in the region; Sugar, The Spanish introduced the cultivation
of sugar cane from the Canary Islands in 1515 and by the late 1530’s -34 sugar mills had
been constructed on the island.
• Although the first slaves from Africa had been imported to work in the gold mines,
significant numbers of Africans were brought to work on the sugar plantations form the
1520’s

EUROPEAN COLONIES IN THE EASTERN
CARIBBEAN

CARIBBEAN
• During the 16th century the Spanish aimed to get control of the Caribbean .
• They had lots of difficulties to keep interlopers from trading illicitly in the region and
stopping privateers from attacking their treasure fleets and their colonies.
• Up until 1540 the French were most active in stealing the Spanish as they sailed through
the Caribbean on their way back to Spain.
• John Hawkins’s idea was to trade directly with the Spanish colonists in Hispaniola,
undermining and undercutting the Spanish- authorized trade agreements.
• In 1562 Hawkins succeeded, even though he was careful to avoid the capital of
Hispaniola and trading with colonists in the northern side of the island.

CARIBBEAN
• Francis Drake had different aims than John Haokins
• Drake was interested in substantial prizes and had a better strategy against the Spanish
• His most daring exploits was to attack the mule trains carrying gold & sliver from Peru to
Central America for their rendezvous with the Spanish fleet.
• Drake sacked Santo Domingo in 1585 before moving on to Carlagena on the mainland of
Latin America
• Years later, Drake and Hawkins were repulsed in an attack on Puerto Rico.
• El Dorado remained hidden but the buccaneers and pirate sought their own rewards in
attacking ships and settlements

CARIBBEAN
• Unlike Drake and other privateers, they operates independently of European governments
and were made up of a mixture of disaffected sailors, religious and refugees.
• In the 17th century they escaped European indentured servants
• Living on the margins of Caribbean society often in remote small island communities, they
terrorized settlers and shipping across the region.
• The buccaneers helped glamorize the Caribbean.

CARIBBEAN
• The Spanish grip on the settlement could not last.
• The Spanish could no longer prevent rival settlements in the 1700 (seventeenth
century), nor could they deter the Dutch from taking over many of their trade
routes in the region all because they were weakened by the Anglo-Spanish wars.
• The French, British and Dutch started developing in the Caribbean countries
in the 1700s (seventeenth century). Albeit at first in the eastern Caribbean, at
some distance from the main Spanish colonies in the region.
• St Kitts was the first permanent non-Spanish colony in the region.
• It was settled in 1624 by both French and British settlers, who shared the
island in a defensive alliance against attacks by the Spanish.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• Another English colonists established a colony on Barbados three years later.
Barbados had significant advantages over St. Kitts.
• They had significant advantage over St. Kitts as there was no Amerindians on the
island at that time, and its position on the eastern fringe of the Caribbean and
against the prevailing trade winds made it difficult for colonists on other islands to
attack.
• Barbados was the ONLY British island in the Caribbean to escape invasion by
another European power.
• Over a number of years the British settled the islands of Nevis, Antigua, and
Montserrat.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• In 1635 the French colonized two larger islands of the Caribbean which was
Guadeloupe and Martinique.
• However they were slow to settle due to the high population of Caribs within the
islands.
• The Dutch primary interest was trade, so they colonized Curacao, close to the
mainland of South America and therefore close to trading opportunities with the
Spanish. There were also salt deposits nearby which they needed for their fishing
industry.
• The Dutch settled smaller islands, sharing St Martin with the French, and occupying
the tiny islands of Saba and St Eustatius, which was also useful as trading bases with
the neighboring French and British colonies.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• Colonies in the eastern Caribbean were largely organized by private enterprise unlike
the Spanish patterns of colonization.
• The Spanish Crown in financing Columbus and his successors saw no equivalence in the
colonies, instead merchants and commercial syndicates took lead in backing these
colonies.
• In Barbados the colonization expedition was financed by a London merchant, William
Courteen, who lost out to James Hay, Earl of Carlisle, who became Lord Proprietor of the
Caribbean Islands.
• Carlisle put in place some land policies which had significant implications for the
development of Barbados such as: initiating a system of sizeable land grants to planters
in return for payment of an annual rent, payable to Tobacco, which meant that
landholding on the island was restricted to those with capital or access to credit.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• It is likely that Carlisle encouraged the importation of white servants to provide the labor
for these plantations, however his policies helped to ensure the development of Barbados
as a plantation colony.
• White servants provided the main labor force on the island of Barbados as well of that of
the other English and French colonies.
• Indentured servitude was a common feature of the 1700 (seventeenth century) which did
not come as a surprise to the Englishmen as it was a way of socializing the offspring of the
middling classes as well as making use of the laboring poor.
• Indentured servants also known as Engages, immigrated to the colonies for a period of
between three to ten years, their fare was paid, and in return for their passage and their
upkeep, they agreed to work for a master for a specific period of time.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• At the end of their period servants would get approximately 10 acres of land, however the
land was soon parceled out causing the servants to migrate elsewhere to receive land or
payment in some form of tobacco or sugar as their freedom dues.
• Voluntary servants weren’t the only European laborers in the colonies, many whites were
sent to the Caribbean as a consequence of political developments in Europe. The prisoners
of war during the English Civil War in the 1640s were often sent to the islands.
• Cromwell’s campaigns in Ireland made a significant number of Irish prisoners of war
whom found themselves shipped to the Caribbean frequently to work on the plantations
instead of serving their prison terms in England.
• White indentured servants were often treated harshly, their housing was frequently
rudimentary, their food inadequate and there punishments severe.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• There were little females on the islands, and these servants had no family ties which meant a
longer term of servitude.
• Richard Ligon a contemporary observer of Barbados complained about overseers beating their
servants mercilessly. Due to the treatment many servants tried to escape, either to settle in
other colonies or join the buccaneers and pirates.
• Whites and black slaves usually joined together to organize conspiracies and to rebel against
their masters, however they usually got caught before they implemented their plan, but it
indicated the depth of the servant’s conditions.
• Indentured servants were required to do demanding tasks on the plantations such as: cleat
the forest lands, prepare the land for farming and crops.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• The first major export crop in the Caribbean was tobacco which was successful but still
could not compete with the quantity and quality of the tobacco being produced in Virginia.
• Tobacco prices fell drastically in the 1630s which led to planers turning to cotton but that
proved difficult to grow and required a significant number of capital and labor.
• Barbados planters grew Indigo which was used in the manufacture of dye for the textile
industry, but this too also proved unprofitable in the early 1640s.
• Tobacco, cotton, nor indigo could transform the Caribbean colonies from their situation as
small scale export economies.
• Sugar however dramatically changed the fortune for Barbados and then the other English
and French colonies in the region.

CARIBBEAN CON’T
• Sugar and Slavery would provide the basis of an agricultural and a demographic
transformation in the 1700s (seventeenth century) Caribbean.

REFERENCES
Heuman, G. (2014). The Amerindians and European patterns of settlement. In The Caribbean: A Brief History
(2nd ed., p. 1,12,13,14,15,16). Broadway,New York, USA: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

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