Spanish colonists found the city of Santo Domingo
Dating from 1493, when the Spanish settled on the island, and officially from 5 August 1498, Santo Domingo became the oldest European city in the Americas.
Caribbean
Population of the Bahamas grows to nearly 40,000
From the initial colonization(s), the Lucayan expanded throughout the Bahamas in some 800 years (c. 700 – c. 1500), growing to a population of about 40,000.
The Taíno people settle Cuba
At the time of European contact in the late fifteenth century, the Taíno were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba.
The Arawak people arrive on and settle the island of Hispaniola
The Arawak tribe originated in the Orinoco Delta, spreading from Venezuela. They traveled to Hispaniola around 1200 C.E.
The Arawak people settle on Jamaica
Around 800 CE, Arawak arrived, eventually settling throughout the island. Living in villages ruled by tribal chiefs called the caciques, they sustained themselves on fishing and the cultivation of maize and cassava. At the height of their civilization, their population is estimated to have numbered as much as 60,000.
The Lucayans of the Taino people becomes the first inhabitants of the Bahamas
The first inhabitants of the Bahamas were the Lucayans, an Arawakan-speaking Taino people, who arrived between about 500 and 800 C.E. from other islands of the Caribbean.
The Redware people arrive in modern-day Jamaica
The first inhabitants of Jamaica probably came from islands to the east in two waves of migration. About 600 CE the culture known as the “Redware people” arrived; little is known of them, however, beyond the red pottery they left.
Saladoid culture thrives in modern-day Venezuela and the Caribbean
Saladoid culture is a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of territory in present-day Venezuela and the Caribbean that flourished from 500 B.C.E. to 545 C.E. Concentrated along the lowlands of the Orinoco River, the people migrated by sea to the Lesser Antilles, and then to Puerto Rico.
Humans arrive on and settle the island of Hispaniola
For at least 5,000 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America for the Europeans, the island, which he named Hispaniola, was inhabited by indigenous peoples whom he called “Indians.”
Early Cubans develop Levisa, the first known human settlement on the island
The oldest known Cuban archeological site, Levisa, dates from approximately 3100 B.C.E. A wider distribution of sites date from after 2000 B.C.E.