Taíno genocide
| Taíno genocide | |
|---|---|
A 16th-century illustration by Flemish Protestant Theodor de Bry for Bartolomé de las Casas' Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias, depicting Spanish torture and murders of Indigenous peoples during the conquest of Hispaniola. | |
| Location | West Indies |
| Date | 1493–1550 |
| Target | Taíno |
Attack type | Genocide, mass murder, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, slavery, starvation, collective punishment, genocidal rape, forced conversion, cultural genocide |
| Deaths | Between 80% and 90% of the Taíno population died in first 30 years. |
| Perpetrators | Spanish Empire |
| Motive | Settler colonialism Spanish imperialism Proto-White supremacy |
| Part of a series on |
| Genocide of indigenous peoples |
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The Taíno genocide was committed against the Taíno Indigenous people by the Spanish during their colonization of the Caribbean during the 16th century. The population of the Taíno before the arrival of the Spanish Empire on the island of Quisqueya or Ayití in 1492, which Christopher Columbus baptized as Hispaniola, is estimated at between 10,000 and 1,000,000. The Spanish subjected them to slavery, massacres and other violent treatment after the last Taíno chief was deposed in 1504. By 1514, the population had reportedly been reduced to just 32,000 Taíno, by 1565, the number was reported at 200, and by 1802, they were declared extinct by the Spanish colonial authorities. However, descendants of the Taíno continue to live and their disappearance from records was part of a fictional story created by the Spanish Empire with the intention of erasing them from history.