La Isabela
La Isabela in the Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic is considered the first formal European settlement in the New World.
It was founded by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493. This was after discovering that the fort of La Navidad, which he had constructed during his first trip, had been totally destroyed by the native Taino people. The settlement was established to search for precious metals.[1]
La Isabela was struck by two of the earliest Atlantic hurricanes observed by Europeans in 1494 and 1495. Hunger and disease soon led to mutiny, punishment, disillusion, and more hunger and disease. It reached the point where a group of settlers, led by Bernal de Pisa, attempted to capture and make off with several ships and go back to Spain. Isabella barely survived until 1496 when Columbus decided to abandon it in favor of a new settlement, now Santo Domingo.
References
- ^ Thibodeau, A. M.; Killick, D. J.; Ruiz, J.; Chesley, J. T.; Deagan, K.; Cruxent, J. M. & Lyman, W. (2007), "The strange case of the earliest silver extraction by European colonists in the New World", PNAS 104 (9): 3663–3666, doi:10.1073/pnas.0607297104, PMC 1805524, PMID 17360699, http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1805524
Further reading
- Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1601–1615), Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano [General History of the deeds of the Castilians on the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea], Madrid .
- Chiarelli, B. & Luna Calderón, F. (1987), "The excavations of La Isabela, the first European city of the New World", International Journal of Anthropology 2 (3): 199–210, doi:10.1007/BF02442230
- Boscolo, A. (1987), "Christopher Columbus and La Isabela", International Journal of Anthropology 2 (3): 211–214, doi:10.1007/BF02442231
- Deagan, Kathleen A. & Cruxent, Jose (2002), Archaeology at La Isabela: America's First European Town, New Haven: Yale University Press
- Deagan, Kathleen A. & Cruxent, Jose (2002), Columbus's Outpost Among the Tainos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493-1498, New Haven: Yale University Press
External links