USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -When Christopher Columbus arrived on the Bahamian Island of Guanahani (San Salvador) in 1492, he encountered the Taíno people, whom he described in letters as “naked as the day they were born.” The Taíno had complex hierarchical religious, political, and social systems.

Detailed explanation-2: -He thought he could go to India, to find gold, silk, and spices. He did not know there was land in between Europe and Asia, and he ran into the islands in the Caribbean Sea. That is why when he first saw the Taínos, he called them Indians. He thought these islands were off the coast of China.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Taíno were an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Antillean Arawak, or Taino, were agriculturists who lived in villages, some with as many as 3, 000 inhabitants, and practiced slash-and-burn cultivation of cassava and corn (maize). They recognized social rank and gave great deference to theocratic chiefs.

Detailed explanation-5: -During his voyages through the Caribbean islands and the Central and South American coasts, Columbus came upon indigenous people that he labeled “Indians.”