1492: (The Cartographic Erasure of Indigenous Space): The colonization of the island was codified through European mapping, starting with the north coast map…

1492: (The Cartographic Erasure of Indigenous Space): The colonization of the island was codified through European mapping, starting with the north coast map drawn by Columbus in 1492. This act of documentation transformed the indigenous land into a “fragment” of a larger imperial project, setting the stage for centuries of extraction. The narrative describes the island as a “Very Great Island,” a title that reflects the vast colonial potential envisioned by the Spanish and later the French. From a decolonized perspective, this period marks the beginning of the “historic accident” that displaced native life in favor of a plantation machine. The visual record of this era includes 1759 drawings of the enslaved, illustrating the long duration of human commodification before the revolutionary turn.