Captaincy General of Santo Domingo
| Capitanía General de Santo Domingo | ||||||||||||
| Colony of Spain | ||||||||||||
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| Capital | Santo Domingo | |||||||||||
| Languages | Spanish | |||||||||||
| Government | Monarchy | |||||||||||
| King | ||||||||||||
| • | 1493-1516 |
Ferdinand II and Isabella I (first) |
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| • | 1788-1795 | Charles IV (last) | ||||||||||
| Governor | ||||||||||||
| • | 1493-1500 | Christopher Columbus | ||||||||||
| • | 1788-1801 | Joaquín García y Moreno | ||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||
| • | Human settlement | Before 1493 | ||||||||||
| • | European settlement | 1493 | ||||||||||
| • | Ceded western portion to France | 1697 | ||||||||||
| • | Ceded eastern portion to France | 1795 | ||||||||||
| Area | 54,642 km² (21,097 sq mi) | |||||||||||
| Currency | Santo Domingo real | |||||||||||
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| Today part of |
 Dominican Republic Haiti
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The Captaincy General of Santo Domingo was the first colony in the New World and was claimed for Spain. The island was originally named "La Española" (Hispaniola) by Christopher Columbus. From 1511, the courts of the colony were placed under the jurisdiction of the Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo. In the 17th century, after years of struggles with the French, the Spanish lost the western third of the island. The Spanish remained in control of the eastern two-thirds of the island, which later became the Dominican Republic.
The colony of Santo Domingo played a significant role in the establishment of Spanish colonies in the New World serving as a headquarters for Spanish conquistadors on their way to the conquest of the Americas.
Columbus reached the island on his first voyage, on December 5, 1492, naming it La Española. Believing that the Europeans were in some way supernatural, the Taínos welcomed them with all the honors available. This was a totally different society from the one the Europeans came from. Guacanagarí, the chief who hosted Christopher Columbus and his men, treated them kindly and provided them with everything they desired. Yet the Taínos' allegedly "egalitarian" system clashed with the Europeans' feudalist system, with more rigid class structures. This led the Europeans to believe the Taínos to be either weak or misleading, and they began to treat the tribes with more violence. Columbus tried to temper this when he and his men departed from Ayiti—as the Taínos called the island—and they left on a good note.
Columbus had cemented a firm alliance with Guacanagarix, who was a powerful chief on the island. After the shipwrecking of the Santa María, Columbus decided to establish a small fort with a garrison of men that could help him lay claim to this possession. The fort was called La Navidad, since the events of the shipwrecking and the founding of the fort occurred on Christmas Day. The garrison, in spite of all the wealth and beauty on the island, was wracked by divisions that evolved into conflict amongst these first Europeans. The more rapacious ones began to terrorize the Taíno, Ciguayo and Macorix tribesmen up to the point of trying to take their women. Viewed as weak by the Spaniards and even some of his own people, Guacanagarix tried to come to an accommodation with the Spaniards, who saw his appeasement as the actions of someone who submitted. They treated him with contempt and even took some of his wives. The powerful cacique of the Maguana, Caonabo, could brook no further affronts and attacked the Europeans, destroying La Navidad. Guacanagarix was dismayed by this turn of events but did not try too hard to aid these guamikena, probably hoping that the troublesome outsiders would never return. However, they did return.
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Wikipedia