The Genocide of the Taino (Essay Sample)

It is often said that the Indigenous population experienced  a rapid decrease due to the arrival of the Europeans in addition to their way of rule in the Caribbean. Over the years with more and more study you will learn  it is true what is taught, the Europeans did bring the end of the Indigenous people.

In the early days the Europeans had established a forced labour system for the new enslaved Indigenous people. As a matter of a fact the way I see things is that the Europeans were very clever to come to the Caribbean and enslave the Indigenous people. The system created was the Encomienda system. This was where smaller groups of Indigenous people were assigned to a few privileged Spaniards so that they could be controlled as a result of them already knowing the land that they live on.

It was about two centuries after Columbus had arrived to the New World when the Indigenous population started to decrease as a result of diseases brought to the New World by the Europeans. The Europeans had brought with them a weapon far more deadly than the native inhabitants of the New World. While the Spaniards were immune, the Indigenous people fought greatly against the European diseases while the Spanish worked them unmercifully. It was very silent but very deadly. About 95% of the Indigenous population were rather wiped out or infected. These diseases were a main but also a great cause to their demise. With the battle they faced, the diseases plus the pushing of the Spaniards to work, eventually their bodies couldn't take anymore and gave in.

Many families were suffering because of the systems enforced by the Europeans. At the time adult males were moved from one place to another by the Spaniards. Even some males from various tribes like the Kalinagos were killed in wars with the Spaniards. Many people were suffering due to these drastic  changes to their society. For example, the Taino women were beaten and sexually exploited. In some cases they preferred killing their babies because they did not want them to grow up under such terrible conditions. When the Europeans arrived the Indigenous people also lost their land. At some point the Europeans want to carry out major changes on the Indigenous people's religious practices by forcing the conversion to Christianity. There was also a breakdown of the Amerindian culture as various tribes such as the Tainos and the Kalinagos had to follow  the Europeans way of life. 

Even though the Indigenous groups across the Caribbean were different in many ways, they seem to have many similarities, and one for instance is agriculture. But that had all changed when the Europeans arrived. Tribes like the Tainos were absolutely brilliant farmers and took pride in their work but when the Europeans arrived everything was taken from them. Agriculture was the centre of Amerindian society and they depended on it for survival. The arrival of the Europeans caused the productions of crops to be affected because they had brought animals like cattle, horses, sheep and goats  with them to the New World which destroyed the fields.