Once the early Europeans established control over the indigenous landscapes of the Caribbean islands, it set the stage for the colonisation of the rest of the Americas. "The region was the port of entry to the rest of the Americas", explains Corinne Hofman, professor of Caribbean Archaeology at Leiden University. This study shows that the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean played a crucial part in global history. Furthermore, Caribbean indigenous knowledge survived until today and is present in many aspects of contemporary culture and daily life in the Caribbean and beyond. Until now, this has been largely overlooked.

More than 300 indigenous settlements recorded

Hofman and colleagues conduct research as part of the NEXUS1492 project in Northern Hispaniola, the region where Christopher Columbus built the first Spanish town in the Americas and where the first Amerindian-European confrontations took place. New archaeological investigations and the recording of contemporary cultural traditions in Northern Hispaniola (in contemporary Dominican Republic and Haiti) have shown that the European colonizers made use of existing Amerindian routes. Between 2013 and 2017 more than 300 indigenous archaeological sites were recorded in Northern Hispaniola. Through the settlement patterns identified with drone footage, and the diversity of material remains found, this study reveals the existence of a complex socio-cultural landscape and indigenous networks of exchange and interaction at the eve of the European encounters.

Adapting indigenous trails to colonial purposes

The archaeological data suggest that the indigenous socio-cultural landscape along the route followed by Columbus was characterised by connection and interaction. The creation of this route, a series of small Spanish forts, popularly known as the "Ruta de (Cristobal) Colon", was not European, but was the adaptation of an indigenous trail to colonial purposes. The data clearly demonstrates that the Spanish took advantage of indigenous networks and knowledge, which facilitated experimentation with European crops and cattle, and ultimately led to the enslavement of indigenous peoples and the further conquering of the American continent. It is now clear that the Spanish made use of the indigenous networks to disperse rapidly throughout the region and to lay the foundations for a route that was instrumental in the subsequent colonial domination.

Indigenous Caribbean influence today

Within 20 years of the arrival of the Europeans, indigenous peoples were reported to be either killed, enslaved or converted and forced to integrate into the Castilian socio-political system. The colonial strategy to erase all indigenous elements in the area was far from complete, but certainly affected the socio-historical significance of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. However, this study found that indigenous culture is clearly evident in cultural and religious practices in the Caribbean today. Indigenous agricultural practices, use of indigenous plant species as well as the use of tools (canoes, baskets) and techniques of fishing that descend from past Amerindian traditions remain important parts of everyday life in the region today.

This persistence of indigenous cultural traditions and knowledge in the present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti strongly counters the idea of substitution, displacement or disappearance implied by the traditional historical narrative. Prof. dr. Hofman says: "The role of the Caribbean and its indigenous peoples in the colonisation of the Americas has been neglected for too long, it is time to rewrite this infamous chapter of global history."