The Voyage to the New World

First of all, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of


  Castille got married in 1464.   The main reason that they got married was


  to unite their kingdoms into Spain.   The king and queen were Roman


  Catholic, so they gave power to certain people to convert non-Catholics to


  Catholicism.   In 1482, the Roman Catholic monarchs renew the reconquista,


  the military crusade ordered to conquer the remaining Muslim state in


  Iberia, Granada.   In 1492, the Roman Catholic monarchs ordered all


  non-converted Jews expelled from Spain.  


  In April, 1492, Spain received reports that the Portuguese


  succeeded in reaching the Indian Ocean, therefore Spanish monarchs


  authorized Christopher Columbus to sail to Asia and establish trade and


  start to convert natives to Christianity.   The reasons that the monarchs


  let Columbus sail were mainly to search for spices and profits, spread


  Christianity, and to use some of their new technology like the caravel.


  Columbus would receive one-tenth of all the profits, and governance of the


  new lands would be shared by the monarchs and by Columbus.


  There were mainly three different types of natives who lived in


  the Caribbean.   There were the Ciboneys (in Cuba), Caribs (in the lesser


  Antilles), and Taino-Arawaks (in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispanola,


  and Puerto Rico).   The population of the Caribbean Islands was probably


  not too much more than 1,500,000 of which about 1,000,000 lived mainly in


  Hispanola.   Hispanola was the center of Taino culture.   Between 1509 and


  1520, the demand for native labor increased and the native population


  steeply decreased.   Here is a table of how rapidly the population of the


  Tainos decreased:  


  1492- 1,000,000 (about) 1514- 28,000


  1508- 92,000                 1518- 16,000


  1509-...