La resistencia a la dominación de los indígenas de La Española (1492-1533)

Abstract

This article analyzes the different forms of resistance that the Tainos of Hispaniola deployed against the Castilian domination. The active resistance, violent, was scarce and late compared to the great passive resistance that was manifested since the arrival of the Spaniards. After the failed uprisings of the first years, the Taino tenacity adopted some basic strategies, given the inability to stop the destruction of their world: one, the practice of scorched earth, with the idea of expelling foreigners for lack of food: two, the flight to the mountains, absenting themselves from the haciendas and mines. And three, suicide, which they resorted to when they became aware of the imminent end of their world and their new servile situation. It will be necessary to wait almost two decades to find an active resistance, that of the hispanized cacique Enriquillo.