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.