Page "Hispaniola" Paragraph 8

The island was inhabited by the Taíno, one of the indigenous Arawak peoples.

The Taino were at first tolerant of Columbus and his crew, and helped him to construct La Navidad on what is now Môle Saint-Nicolas, Haiti, in December 1492.

European colonization of the island began earnestly the following year, when 1, 300 men arrived from Spain under the watch of Bartolomeo Columbus.

In 1496 the town of Nueva Isabela was founded.

After being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo.

It is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas.