THE EUROPEANS ARRIVED

Before the Europeans arrived in the Americas, more than 500 tribes (a collective group of about 22 million people) inhabited what is now the United States. The Spaniards came first. In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on San Salvador Island. He was installed by the Spanish Crown as Viceroy and governor of the Caribbean Islands where he promptly instituted policy of slavery and systematic extermination against the Taino population. From about 8 million Tainos, the population was reduced to about 22.000 in a period of only 22 years. They were victims of disease, slavery, torture, war.
In the U.S. a pre-contact population of about 22 million people dropped to less than 250.000 between 1890 and 1910. Epidemics wiped out 25 to 50% of the population, warfare another 10%. The cultural devastation was even harder to measure, since many tribes were hunted down and virtually exterminated, such as the Pequot of New England and the Yana and Maidu of California. Other tribes were decimated by smallpox, measles, cholera, and other diseases brought by the "superior" Europeans. By the mid 1700s, no less than 6 European powers had claimed some part of North America (Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden and Russia).



Art by C.Natali - copyright 1997