The French Buccaneers settle in What is now Haiti

The Spanish focused their energies in the New World on Mexico and Peru's treasure trove's after the Aztec and Inca Empire's collapse. The Caribbean Islands importance was to provide ports and protection for treasure fleets on the way back to Spain. However The Dutch, English and French started sending ships and adventurers to the area as privateers and pirates that would prey upon Spanish shipping hoping for a share of the loot. As the Spanish islands became neglected these groups would set up their own bases. The coast and islands in what is Haiti today provided good cover for the buccaneers. There was plenty of wild Spanish pigs and cattle to provide meat and hides. The mountains offered good cover from Santo Domingo on the Eastern part of the island were the Spanish settlers lived. A few times the Spanish governor would send soldiers to burn the settlements on Tortue Island in the North, but it wasn't long after they left that more would arrive. Eventually they grew stronger and they became more of a danger when they started roving down the Spanish coasts raiding and holding towns and cities for ransom. Every time a war would brake out in Europe it would serve as a excuse to allow more ships to harass the Spanish which was at that time one of the top world powers.The age of the 1600's was an age of piracy.

Spaniards Come For Gold

Genocide, Forced Labor, Disease, and Assimilation took their toll on the Taino population. Conservative estimates of 100,000 were reduced to two-three thousand survivors in a generation's time. This dark episode is  known as the Black Legend. As gold and silver were "discovered" in Mexico and later Peru, Spanish interest in Hispaniola lessened. As the Indian's numbers diminished it opened the way for the Atlantic African Slave Trade

 The Portuguese had already set up a slave trade up and down the African coast, which would quickly expand as the demand for labor increased in the Americas.

The beginning of the History of Haiti and Hispaniola begins with the Taino Indians. The Indians crossed the Bering Strait from Asia to what is now Alaska. They migrated South across the Americas. A few bands from S. America worked their way back North along the Caribbean Islands. The Tainos eventually settled the bigger islands while it seems the more warlike Caribs settled the smaller islands closer to S. America. Then as we all know Christopher Columbus came in 1492. The picture above represents that meeting. He was in a hurry to find verification that he had indeed found Asia or at least find some kind of gold or treasure to ensure a legacy.   As for the Indians he was quick to point out their hospitality and the fact that they would make good slaves as they did not seem to practice much the art of war. 

The first European settlement in the New World other than the Vikings in Newfoundland was Navidad on the north coast in what is now Haiti. One of Columbus' ships sank on a reef and they decided to create a settlement on the island. By the time Columbus came back on his second journey they were all dead. They had worn out the hospitality of the Indians with their immorality and lust for gold.