Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Santo Domingo, now known as Hispaniola in 1492 and served as governor until 1499. “On 6 December, 1492, he landed on Môle St. Nicholas (now in Haitian territory), then, passing along the north coast of the island to the Bay of Samana, landed again and penetrated inland as far as the summit of Santo Cerro (Holy Hill), where, looking down upon the magnificent upland plain which he named La Vega Real, he planted a wooden cross to commemorate his discovery.” The Taíno name for the island of Hispaniola, often used in songs as another name for the country, was Quisqueya which translates to “Mother of all Lands.” The native inhabitants of the island led by Anacaona, the female chief of Xaragua, welcomed Columbus and his crew peacefully. There is no evidence that Columbus treated the native population with disrespect, but five years later Columbus was recalled to Spain and succeeded first by an incompetent administrator and then by a brutal imperialist Nicolás de Ovando who initiated a Spanish feudal system turning the native Taínos into serfs on their own lands. Taíno men who survived execution for failing to submit to the new laws or annihilation by small pox and measles were pushed into a small enclave on the north eastern part of the island. Taíno women who survived were taken as common law wives by the Spaniards. As a result many Dominicans living on the island today have Taíno ancestry
