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1492-12-00

1492-12-00: (Marien, the Northwestern Taíno Chiefdom Whose Cacique Guacanagaric Allied With Columbus in December 1492, Providing Land and Labor for La Navida…

Haitian

1492-12-00: (Marien, the Northwestern Taíno Chiefdom Whose Cacique Guacanagaric Allied With Columbus in December 1492, Providing Land and Labor for La Navidad, the First Spanish Settlement on the Island): Marien was one of the five Taíno chiefdoms on Hispaniola, occupying the northwestern sector of the island. Its cacique, Guacanagaric, met Columbus in December 1492 and became his first indigenous ally, providing the land and labor to construct La Navidad, the earliest Spanish settlement on the island, near present-day Cap-Haïtien. Guacanagaric’s decision to cooperate was likely a strategic calculation within the existing dynamics of Taíno inter-chiefdom politics, but it set a pattern that would repeat across the hemisphere: an indigenous leader extending hospitality to newcomers who would soon destroy everything he governed.