c.

c. AD 1000 – 1500 (Conflict and Warfare): While often idealized as peaceful, indigenous Caribbean societies engaged in structured forms of warfare and raiding. This is evidenced by the presence of defensive settlement locations, skeletal remains showing trauma, and Spanish accounts of “Carib” raids. Keegan and Hofman argue that warfare was likely a means of social competition and a way to acquire captives or prestige goods, rather than a quest for territorial conquest. This “external warfare” was a factor in the shifting political alliances and the rise and fall of various regional cacicazgos (chiefdoms) across the archipelago.