The Ancestral Wichita people lived in the eastern Great Plains from the Red River in Arkansas north to Nebraska for at least two thousand years.

Early Wichita people were hunters and gatherers who gradually adopted agriculture.

Farming villages are developed about 900 CE on terraces above the Washita and South Canadian Rivers in present-day Oklahoma.

The women of these tenth-century communities cultivate varieties of maize, beans, and squash (known as the Three Sisters), marsh elder (Iva annua), and tobacco, which is important for religious purposes.

The men hunt deer, rabbits, turkey, and, primarily, bison, and catch fish and harvest mussels from the rivers.

These villagers live in rectangular, thatched-roof houses.

The fourteenth century saw significant population movements and cultural changes among Native American peoples across North America, though these occurred within distinct regional and linguistic contexts rather than as part of a unified migration.

Southwestern Pueblo Peoples The Keres people settled along the upper Rio Grande valley in what is now New Mexico. Along with their Tanoan-speaking neighbors and the Zuni and Hopi peoples to the west, these agricultural communities maintained their pueblo settlements during a period when many other Southwestern agricultural societies experienced decline or abandonment. The fourteenth century marked important transitions for Ancestral Pueblo peoples, with many groups migrating from the Four Corners region to areas with more reliable water sources.

Siouan Language Family The Siouan language family encompasses numerous distinct tribal groups across a vast geographic area. While some linguists have proposed connections between Siouan and other language families, including the isolated Yuchi language, these relationships remain unproven and controversial among specialists.

Siouan-speaking peoples include the Catawba of South Carolina and numerous other groups. The Missouri River branch includes the Mandan of the northern Great Plains (primarily in present-day North Dakota), the Absaroke (Crow) and Hidatsa, who share close linguistic and cultural ties. The Mississippi Valley Siouan speakers include the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota (collectively known as the Sioux), the Dhegiha groups (Omaha, Osage, Kansa, Ponca, and Quapaw), and the Chiwere-speaking peoples (including the Ho-Chunk/Winnebago). The southeastern branch included the now-extinct Tutelo, Ofo, and Biloxi languages.

Yuchi The Yuchi people, historically located in the southeastern United States including parts of present-day Tennessee and Georgia, spoke a language that most linguists classify as an isolate, though some researchers have suggested possible distant relationships to Siouan languages.

Caddoan Language Family The Caddoan language family includes the Caddo of the southern Plains and several northern groups. The Caddo proper inhabited areas of present-day Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. The northern Caddoan groups include the Pawnee of the central Plains, the Arikara of the northern Plains (particularly along the Missouri River in present-day North Dakota), and the Wichita of the southern Plains.

The Quest for Gold and the European Age of Exploration

The desire for gold was one of the primary motivations behind European explorations and conquests in Africa and the Western Hemisphere during the 15th and 16th centuries. Wealth from gold fueled economies, financed wars, and expanded European influence worldwide.

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Gold and the African Expeditions

• Portuguese Expansion (15th Century)

  • Portugal, under Prince Henry the Navigator, began exploring the West African coast in search of gold sources.
  • The Portuguese established trading posts (feitorias) along the coasts of Senegal, Ghana (Gold Coast), and Benin, tapping into existing African gold trade networks.
  • In 1471, the Portuguese reached the Gold Coast (modern Ghana), one of the richest gold-producing regions in Africa.
  • By 1482, they built Elmina Castle, their first major African trading fort, to control the gold trade.

• The Trans-Saharan Gold Trade Declines

  • Before European expansion, gold was traded across the Sahara to North Africa and the Mediterranean.
  • The Portuguese diverted the gold trade to the Atlantic, weakening North African and Islamic control over West African gold.
  • European access to African gold strengthened monarchies and banking systems, financing further explorations and military conquests.

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Gold and the Discovery of the Western Hemisphere

• Christopher Columbus’s Voyages (1492–1504)

  • Spain’s sponsorship of Columbus was partly motivated by the promise of gold.
  • In Hispaniola and Cuba, Columbus’s men searched for gold deposits, enslaving indigenous peoples to work in gold mines.
  • The lack of substantial gold deposits in the Caribbean pushed Spain to explore deeper into the Americas.

• The Spanish Conquests in the Americas

  • Hernán Cortés (1519–1521) defeated the Aztec Empire, capturing its golden treasures, melting them down to finance the Spanish Crown.
  • Francisco Pizarro (1532–1533) conquered the Inca Empire, where gold was considered sacred, seizing vast quantities from temples, royal tombs, and palaces.
  • The gold and silver mines of Potosí (Bolivia) and Zacatecas (Mexico) became the largest sources of wealth for Spain, financing its imperial dominance in Europe.

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Impact of the Gold Rush on European Empires

• Economic and Political Power

  • Gold allowed European monarchies to strengthen their military and bureaucratic systems.
  • The influx of gold fueled the Commercial Revolution, expanding banking, investment, and trade.

• The Slave Trade and Labor Exploitation

  • The insatiable demand for gold led to forced labor systems like the encomienda in the Americas.
  • African slave labor became essential in gold and silver mining operations.

• Increased Rivalries and Colonization

  • European powers competed fiercely for control of gold-rich territories, leading to colonial wars and empire-building.
  • The search for gold pushed explorers deeper into uncharted lands, accelerating European territorial expansion.

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Conclusion: Gold as the Catalyst for Global Expansion

The quest for gold was one of the strongest driving forces behind European exploration and conquest. It funded empires, fueled wars, and transformed global economies, playing a pivotal role in shaping the Age of Exploration and the creation of the Atlantic World.

 

Spain, in its exploration and exploitation of the New World, finds an outlet for the crusading energies that the war against the Muslims had stimulated.

Portuguese mariners are opening a route around Africa to the East in the fifteenth century.

At the same time as the Castilians, they have planted colonies in the Azores and in the Canary Islands (also Canaries; Spanish, Canarias), the latter of which have been assigned to Spain by papal decree.

The conquest of Granada allows the Catholic Kings to divert their attention to exploration, although Christopher Columbus's first voyage in 1492 is financed by foreign bankers.

In 1493 Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, a Catalan) formally approves the division of the unexplored world between Spain and Portugal.

The Treaty of Tordesillas, which Spain and Portugal sign one year later, moves the line of division westward and allows Portugal to claim Brazil.

New discoveries and conquests come in quick succession.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific in 1513, and the survivors of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition complete the circumnavigation of the globe in 1522.

In 1519 the conquistador Hernán Cortes subdues the Aztecs in Mexico with a handful of followers, and between 1531 and 1533 Francisco Pizarro overthrows the empire of the Incas and establishes Spanish dominion over Peru.

In 1493, when Columbus brought fifteen hundred colonists with him on his second voyage, a royal administrator had already been appointed for the Indies.

The Council of the Indies (Consejo de Indias), established in 1524, acts as an advisory board to the crown on colonial affairs, and the House of Trade (Casa de Contratacion) regulates trade with the colonies.

The newly established colonies are not Spanish but Castilian.

They are administered as appendages of Castile, and the Aragonese are prohibited from trading or settling there.

The West Indies (1396–1539 CE)

Taíno Worlds, Kalinago Seas, and the First Atlantic Conquests

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Geography & Environmental Framework

Stretching from Bermuda and the Bahamas to Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles, the West Indies in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries formed a crescent of islands bridging two worlds: the tropical Americas and the open Atlantic.
Three great clusters defined the region:

• the Northern West Indies—Bermuda, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and northern Hispaniola;

• the Eastern West Indies—Puerto Rico, Hispaniola’s eastern valleys, Trinidad, and the volcanic arc of the Lesser Antilles;

• and the Western West Indies—Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and the Inner Bahamas.

This was a realm of coral banks, fertile alluvial plains, mangrove lagoons, and volcanic ridges swept by the trade winds. The Gulf Stream carried marine abundance northward while drawing future transatlantic routes across its current.

The Little Ice Age introduced modest cooling and intensified storm seasons. Hurricanes scoured cays and coastal plains, yet rainfall nourished tropical crops. Fertile volcanic soils on Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica sustained dense agriculture, while the limestone islands of the Bahamas and Caicos required careful rotation and seaborne exchange.

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Societies and Subsistence

Before European arrival, the West Indies were home to two major cultural traditions—Taíno and Kalinago (Carib)—each bound by canoe networks, kinship, and ritual economies that spanned the sea.

Taíno Chiefdoms

Across Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, the Taíno organized into hierarchical cacicazgos ruled by hereditary caciques. Their societies combined agriculture, fishing, and craft production in well-planned villages.

Agriculture: Root crops—cassava, sweet potato, and yam—formed the subsistence core, planted in raised conucos(mounded fields) that preserved soil fertility and moisture. Maize, beans, and peppers supplemented diets; cotton provided fiber for cloth and nets.

Fisheries and foraging: Canoe fleets harvested fish, shellfish, and manatees, while inland groups hunted hutia and iguana. Inter-island trade moved food, ornaments, and ceremonial goods across hundreds of kilometers.

Settlement patterns: Villages clustered along river valleys and coasts, centered on batey plazas and ceremonial ball courts that doubled as civic spaces. Populations were dense in the Cibao Valley of Hispaniola, the plains of Cuba, and the river valleys of Puerto Rico.

Kalinago Mariners

Farther southeast, from Trinidad through the Lesser Antilles, Kalinago (Carib) communities emphasized mobility, warfare, and seaborne exchange. Their houses of palm and reed dotted volcanic slopes near fishing grounds. Gardens of cassava and plantain alternated with hunting and raiding expeditions across island chains. Kalinago warriors, renowned canoe-builders and navigators, connected South America’s Orinoco delta to the Antilles through constant movement.

Peripheral Worlds

The low-lying Bahamas supported small Taíno populations linked by canoe to Hispaniola and Cuba; the Turks and Caicos functioned as seasonal fishing outposts. The Caymans and Bermuda remained uninhabited, rich in seabirds and turtles—ecological reserves soon to draw European attention.

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Technology & Material Culture

Indigenous technology harmonized with maritime landscapes.
Dugout canoes, some exceeding twenty meters, moved goods and people between islands. Stone celts, shell adzes, and polished tools shaped wood and fiber; cotton hammocks, nets, and woven baskets filled domestic life. Pottery of Saladoid descent displayed incised geometric patterns. Wooden zemí idols embodied deities and ancestors, serving as the spiritual heart of Taíno ritual.

Adornment carried political meaning: gold pendants on Hispaniola, shell necklaces in the Bahamas, and feather capes on Cuba signaled rank and lineage. Kalinago artisans produced bows and poisoned arrows, carving ceremonial paddles and trophies that proclaimed prowess.

After 1492, Spanish iron, glass beads, and cloth entered the islands, transforming aesthetics and trade even as disease and conquest accelerated collapse.

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Movement & Interaction Corridors

The sea was the West Indies’ great highway.
Canoes followed predictable trade-wind loops between the islands, while deep channels—the Old Bahama Channel, the Windward Passage, and the Anegada Passage—linked regional clusters.

Taíno navigators oriented by stars, currents, and bird flight, maintaining contact from Hispaniola to Cuba and the Bahamas. Kalinago raiders crossed from Trinidad to Dominica and Guadeloupe, exchanging goods or waging war.

From 1492 onward, these networks collided with Atlantic crossings.
Christopher Columbus first landed on San Salvador (Guanahaní) in the Bahamas, continued to Cuba and Hispaniola, and by his second voyage (1493) reached Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles. La Isabela (1494) and Santo Domingo (1498) became the first European towns of the Americas. The Caribbean—once an Indigenous maritime world—was transformed into Spain’s initial colonial theater.

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Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Religion and ritual structured every level of Taíno and Kalinago life.
Taíno worship centered on wooden and stone zemí idols representing creator spirits and ancestors. Cohoba(hallucinogenic snuff) ceremonies brought shamans into communion with deities, while areíto dances and songs celebrated lineage and fertility.
Kalinago spirituality emphasized war and transformation—spirits of the sea, forest, and ancestors guarded their island realms.

Both peoples treated the sea as sacred space: a living medium binding communities, not separating them. Ball courts, plazas, and rock carvings encoded mythic cycles linking humans to cosmic order.

Spanish colonization imposed Christianity with violence, replacing temples with churches and ball courts with fortresses. Yet hybrid practices—hidden zemís, syncretic rituals—survived in remote valleys and islands.

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Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Agricultural systems embodied deep ecological intelligence.
Mounded conucos conserved moisture, composted organic matter, and resisted erosion; root crops ensured harvests through hurricanes and droughts. Rotational gardening, fishing, and forest foraging diversified subsistence.

Kalinago mobility provided resilience—raiding and exchange substituted for failed crops.
Even under Spanish assault, Indigenous strategies adapted: survivors retreated to uplands, outlying cays, and the Guiana coast, merging with maroon and African communities that would emerge later.

By 1539, however, epidemic disease, slavery, and ecological disruption had devastated most settled Taíno populations. Only small enclaves remained in mountainous Hispaniola, eastern Cuba, and the Bahamas, where blended communities preserved fragments of ancestral culture.

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Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

Between 1492 and 1539, the West Indies became the crucible of European empire.

• The Spanish Crown claimed the islands under the Capitulaciones of Santa Fe; colonization radiated from Hispaniola to Puerto Rico (1508), Jamaica (1494), and Cuba (1511).

• Gold mining, encomienda labor, and forced conversion dismantled Indigenous authority.

• The Kalinago held out longer, attacking Spanish ships from Guadeloupe and Dominica, maintaining partial independence into the seventeenth century.

• Uninhabited islands—Bermuda, Caymans, Turks and Caicos—entered nautical charts as vital waypoints for the Iberian Atlantic.

The demographic collapse was unprecedented: within a generation, Taíno and allied peoples were reduced from hundreds of thousands to a fraction of their former numbers.

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Transition (to 1540 CE)

By 1539 CE, the West Indies had been transformed from an Indigenous maritime world into the first stage of the Atlantic colonial order. Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico were Spanish provinces; the Bahamas lay depopulated by slave raids; the Kalinago still commanded the outer Antilles, resisting conquest through speed and sea power.

The old networks of Taíno and Kalinago exchange had given way to transatlantic routes carrying gold, sugar, captives, and faith. Yet under the ruins of conquest, fragments of Indigenous resilience endured—in language, foodways, music, and ritual memory.

The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries thus marked both the culmination of an Indigenous Caribbean civilization and its violent transformation—the moment when the West Indies, once the heart of the Taíno sea, became the crucible of a new Atlantic world.

Northern West Indies (1396–1539 CE): Taíno Worlds and Atlantic Crossings

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Northern West Indies includes Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos, northern Hispaniola, and the Outer Bahamas (Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, Cat Island, San Salvador, Long Island, Crooked Island, Mayaguana, Little Inagua, and eastern Great Inagua). The Inner Bahamas belong to the Western West Indies. Anchors included the Bahama Banks, the Caicos archipelago, Bermuda’s volcanic outcrop, and the Cibao Valley of northern Hispaniola. This was a world of shallow reefs, sandy cays, blue holes, and fertile valleys on Hispaniola, where limestone plateaus contrasted with rugged northern highlands. Warm waters of the Gulf Stream brushed these islands, carrying marine abundance and, by the early 16th century, European fleets.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age brought modest shifts: stronger hurricane cycles swept the Bahamas and Hispaniola, while rainfall variability shaped agriculture. On Bermuda, isolated and uninhabited, the subtropical climate sustained cedar forests and seabird colonies. The Gulf Stream maintained productive marine ecosystems, though storm surges reshaped low-lying cays.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Northern Hispaniola: Populated by Taíno chiefdoms (cacicazgos), who cultivated cassava, maize, beans, peppers, and sweet potato in conucos (mounded fields). Villages clustered in valleys and along rivers, ruled by caciques with stratified social order. Fishing, manatee hunting, and shellfishing supplemented diets.

• Turks and Caicos, Bahamas: Supported smaller Taíno communities, relying on root crops, palm fruits, and intensive fishing. Canoes connected island groups.

• Bermuda: Still uninhabited, an ecological haven for seabirds, turtles, and dense cedar forests.

Technology & Material Culture

Taíno crafted dugout canoes, stone celts, shell tools, woven cotton hammocks, and wooden zemí idols embodying deities and ancestors. Pottery (Saladoid-descended) decorated domestic life. Cotton textiles, jewelry of shell and gold (on Hispaniola), and elaborate ritual regalia reinforced social hierarchies. European arrival in 1492 introduced iron, glass beads, and firearms, but also disease.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Taíno sea lanes: Canoes traversed between Hispaniola, the Bahamas, and Caicos, moving food, tools, and ritual goods.

• Gulf Stream: Channeled fish and turtles, later European ships.

• European arrival: Columbus’s first landfall at San Salvador (Guanahaní) in 1492 marked the transformation of the subregion into a corridor of conquest. Hispaniola became Spain’s first colony, with La Isabela (1494) and Santo Domingo (1498, though the latter lies in southern Hispaniola). The north coast hosted ports like Puerto Plata and Monte Cristi.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Taíno spirituality centered on zemí idols, ancestor veneration, and rituals of cohoba (hallucinogenic snuff). Ceremonial ball courts (batey) reinforced cosmological order. Songs, dances (areítos), and oral tradition bound communities. Contact with Spaniards introduced Christianity, often violently; churches and forts were imposed on Taíno landscapes. Bermuda, untouched, remained a symbolic void for Europeans until later accidental landfalls.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Taíno managed fragile soils through shifting conuco fields, polyculture, and reliance on root crops. Fishing and shellfishing diversified subsistence. Communities adapted socially through alliances and exchanges. Yet epidemics, warfare, and enslavement after 1492 devastated populations—especially in Hispaniola, where collapse was rapid and near-total by 1539.

Transition

By 1539 CE, the Northern West Indies had been transformed. Taíno polities endured in fragmented form, especially in remote Bahamian and Caicos islands, but northern Hispaniola was firmly within Spain’s colonial orbit. Bermuda remained uninhabited but was mapped by Iberian sailors as part of Atlantic routes. The subregion, once a thriving Taíno maritime network, had become one of the first crucibles of European empire in the Americas.

Arawak villagers produce about two crops per year of manioc, maize, potatoes, peanuts, peppers, beans, and arrowroot.

Cultivation is by the slash-and-burn method common throughout Middle America, and the cultivated area is abandoned after the harvest.

The natives work the soil with sticks, called coas, and build earthen mounds in which they plant their crops.

They may also use fertilizers of ash, composted material, and feces to boost productivity.

There is even evidence of simple irrigation in parts of southwestern Hispaniola.

Eastern West Indies (1396–1539 CE): Taíno Chiefdoms and the Spanish Conquest

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Eastern West Indies includes Trinidad, Saint Lucia, Barbados, most of Haiti, most of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Anchors included the Orinoco delta feeding into Trinidad, the Cordillera Central of Hispaniola, the karst valleys of Puerto Rico, and the arc of volcanic islands from Saint Lucia to the Lesser Antilles. The region featured fertile valleys, tropical forests, coral reefs, and hurricane-prone coasts.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age brought cooler decades and intensified hurricanes. Seasonal rainfall supported abundant crops, though drought occasionally struck the leeward islands. Fertile volcanic soils on Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Saint Lucia sustained dense agriculture.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Hispaniola and Puerto Rico: Dominated by Taíno chiefdoms (cacicazgos). Populations farmed cassava, maize, beans, and sweet potato in conucos, supplemented by fishing, manatee hunting, and bird snaring. Villages clustered around plazas and ball courts.

• Trinidad and Lesser Antilles: Populated by Kalinago (Caribs), who practiced shifting cultivation, fishing, and raiding, maintaining mobility across island chains.

• Barbados: Supported small farming and fishing communities, less densely settled than volcanic islands.

• Virgin Islands: Strategically located waypoints with mixed Taíno and Kalinago presence.

Technology & Material Culture

Taíno crafts included dugout canoes, stone celts, shell ornaments, and cotton hammocks. Wooden zemí idols embodied ancestral spirits. Pottery decorated domestic life. Kalinago weaponry featured bows, arrows, and poisoned tips. After 1493, Spanish technologies—iron, firearms, horses—entered the region.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Taíno canoes moved between Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

• Kalinago warriors raided by canoe across Saint Lucia, Dominica, and neighboring islands.

• Spanish expeditions under Christopher Columbus reached the Eastern West Indies on his second voyage (1493), landing at Dominica, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola.

• Spanish conquest followed: Hispaniola was colonized from 1493; Puerto Rico in 1508; the Lesser Antilles remained contested.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Taíno religion centered on zemí idols, rituals of cohoba, and communal dances (areítos). Kalinago spirituality emphasized ancestor veneration and warrior rituals. Spanish Catholicism imposed churches and missions on conquered lands. Ball courts (batey) and plazas served as sacred spaces, soon overlaid by colonial towns.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Taíno relied on conuco mound fields to sustain fertility in fragile soils. Fishing, foraging, and hunting diversified diets. Kalinago adapted to mobility and seaborne raiding, enabling resilience against Spanish advances longer than Taíno chiefdoms. Epidemics, slavery, and warfare devastated populations after 1493, though pockets of resistance persisted.

Transition

By 1539 CE, the Eastern West Indies had been dramatically transformed. Hispaniola and Puerto Rico were firmly under Spanish control, their Indigenous populations decimated by conquest and disease. Trinidad, Saint Lucia, and the smaller Antilles remained in Kalinago hands, resisting conquest. The subregion, once a mosaic of Taíno and Kalinago chiefdoms, had become a frontier of Spanish colonization and Indigenous resistance.

The Caribs of the Lesser Antilles are a highly mobile group; they possess canoes similar to those of the Arawaks, but they employ them for more warlike pursuits.

Their social organization appears to be simpler than that of the Arawaks.

They have no elaborate ceremonial courts like those of the Arawaks, but their small, wooden, frame houses surrounding a central fireplace might have served as ceremonial centers.

Many of their cultural artifacts—especially those recovered in Trinidad—resemble those of the Arawaks.

This might be explained in part by the Carib practice of capturing Arawak women as brides, who then could have socialized the children along Arawak lines.

The social and political organization of Carib society reflects both their military inclination and their mobile status.

Villages are small, often consisting of members of an extended family.

The leader of the village, most often the head of the family, supervises the food-gathering activities, principally fishing, done by the men, and the cultivation activities, done by the women.

In addition, the leader settles internal disputes and leads raids against neighboring groups.

The purpose of these raids is to obtain wives for the younger males of the village.

Warfare is an important activity for Carib males, and before the arrival of the Spanish they have a justified reputation as the most feared warriors of the Caribbean.

Using bows, poisoned arrows, javelins, and clubs, the Caribs attack in long canoes, capturing Arawak women and, according to Arawak informants, ritualistically cooking and eating some of the male captives.

There are, however, no records of Caribs eating humans after the advent of the Europeans, thus casting doubts on the Arawak tales.

The Roman Catholic Church becomes the primary agent in spreading Spanish culture in the Americas.

The ecclesiastical organization developed for Santo Domingo and later established throughout Spanish America reflects a union of church and state closer than that which actually prevails in Spain itself.

The Royal Patronage of the Indies (Real Patronato de Indias, or, as it will be called later, the Patronato Real) serves as the organizational agent of this affiliation of the church and the Spanish crown.