The Dominican Republic, which is located on the eastern half of the large Caribbean island of La Hispaniola, was one of the first places that Spanish settlers arrived when they came to explore the new world. Spanish is now the official language of the Dominican Republic (one half of the island of La Hispaniola), but who were the original people of this area, who first encountered the Spanish explorers?
This so-called "New World" of the Europeans housed a strong indigenous population, that dwelled between the Caribbean islands and the Americas. The Arawak people actually pre-date the Taino, and it is believed that they were the ancestors of the Taino people. This belief probably stems from the fact that the language of the Taino is related to what is known as the Arawak family of languages. The Bahamas and Lesser and Greater Antilles were also inhabited by the Taino prior to Columbus's arrival and they were able to make their way around the Caribbean because they were seafarers.
At one point, what is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti, had five Taino fiefdoms. Each fiefdom had a chief (Cacique) who would receive a tithe from the local tribe. The chief held the top role in tribal life and his honors and status allowed him a better lifestyle than most. Everything a chief owned underlined their status as ruler. Unlike leaders in many tribal communities, the Cacique could be either male or female. The society was also matrilineal, which resulted in inheritance being handed down to the oldest child (male or female) of the deceased woman (if she did not have a male sibling). Among their unusual traditions, was the practice of a newlywed couple moving into the home of the maternal uncle.
The Taino also had regional enemies before the arrival of the Spanish, with whom they would later have many conflicts. Invasions and conquest of lands by other tribes was not unknown, and the Taino were driven from South American by regional rivals, the Carib. The Carib influence was maintained from the Lesser Antilles to South America. The Carib essentially pushed the Taino to the north-eastern portion of the Caribbean where the Spanish first encountered them.
The decline of the Taino people began in the 18th century. Diseases inadvertently brought by Spanish settlers, like smallpox, decimated the Taino and many other indigenous peoples of the Americas and Caribbean. Battles with the Europeans and integration into their society, in the form of intermarriages, further reduced their numbers until they were all but gone.
The island of La Hispaniola is believed to have been inhabited by between 100,000 to 1,000,000 Taino, before European settlers arrived on their shores. Approximately 600,000 Taino are though to have resided in Puerto Rico during this time. An incredible 8,000,000 Taino were thought to have lived throughout the Caribbean region. Some experts believe that small communities of Taino people continue to exist in areas of the Caribbean, even though it is widely believed that the culture died out several centuries ago.
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