christopher columbus explored waters of cuba the bahamas and hispaniola.
christopher columbus explored waters of cuba the bahamas and hispaniola.
who explored waters of cuba the bahamas and hispaniola?
christopher columbus
the word "antilles" originated in the period before the european conquest of the new world. europeans used the term "antillia" as one of the mysterious lands featured on medieval charts, sometimes as an archipelago, sometimes as continuous land of greater or lesser extent, its location fluctuating in mid-ocean between the canary islands and eurasia. the first european contact with the greater antilles came from christopher columbus' first voyage to the americas, as he sailed south from the bahamas to explore the northeast coast of cuba and the northern coast of hispaniola. the spanish began to create permanent settlements on cuba and hispaniola. the atlantic slave trade brought many africans towards the islands. france began to exert influence over the area of haiti from 1625, dividing hispaniola into two halves. neighbouring jamaica was invaded by the british, defeating the spanish colonists.
greater antilles
sometime between 500 and 800, tainos began crossing in dugout canoes from hispaniola and/or cuba to the bahamas. hypothesized routes for the earliest migrations have been from hispaniola to the caicos islands, from hispaniola or eastern cuba to great inagua island, and from central cuba to long island (in the central bahamas). the settlement sites in the caicos islands differ from those found elsewhere in the bahamas, resembling sites in hispaniola associated with the classic taino chiefdoms that arose after 1200. william keegan argues that the sites on caicos therefore represent a settlement after 1200 by tainos from hispaniola seeking salt from the natural salt pans on the island. great inagua is closer to both hispaniola and cuba than any other island in the bahamas, and sites on great inagua contain large quantities of sand-tempered pottery imported from cuba and/or hispaniola, while sites on other islands in the bahamas contain more shell-tempered pottery ("palmetto ware"), which developed in the bahamas. while trade (in dugout canoes) between cuba and long island was reported by columbus, this involved a voyage of at least over open water, although much of that was on the very shallow waters of the great bahama bank. moreover, the tainos probably did not reach central cuba until after 1000, and there is no particular evidence that this was the route of the initial migration to the bahamas.
lucayan people