La Isabela

La Isabela in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic was one of the first European settlements in the Americas. La Navidad, established by Christopher Columbus a year earlier and just slightly to the west of La Isabela, in what is present day Haiti, is considered the first in the New World. The only earlier European settlements in the Americas were settlements by the Vikings in Greenland and Newfoundland which dated from 500 years earlier.

Founded by Columbus during his second voyage in Dec. 1493, it was named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. Having initially discovered the Fort of La Navidad, which had been constructed during his first trip, it had been totally destroyed by the native Taíno people upon his return. The settlement was established to search for precious metals. When little gold was found, Columbus proceeded to enslave the people of the island.

La Isabela was struck by two of the earliest North 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. La Isabela barely survived until 1496 when Columbus decided to abandon it in favor of a new settlement, now Santo Domingo.

After his first voyage to the New World, Columbus returned to Hispaniola with seventeen ships. Columbus' settlers built houses, storerooms, a Roman Catholic church, and a large house for Columbus. He brought more than a thousand men, including sailors, soldiers, carpenters, stonemasons, and other workers. Priests and nobles came as well. The Spaniards brought pigs, horses, wheat, sugarcane, and guns. Rats and microbes came with them. The settlement took up more than two hectares.

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