Taino's On The Island Of Hispaniola Analysis
Before Columbus set out on his revolutionary voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, for over a thousand years the Taino people dominated the island of Hispaniola. The Taino people, like early civilizations in Europe or China, relied on gathering food from the plentiful forests on the Island, as well as from fishing. The Taino people, based on archaeological evidence, also developed farming and cultivated yuca, sweet potatoes, maize, beans and other crops. (Poole,1) Estimates as to the actual population of the Taino’s on the Island of Hispaniola range from 700,00 on the low end to up to 1.5 million on the high end of the range (Wilson, 10). Even with possibly over a million Taino’s on the island of Hispaniola, within a mere 50 years the population
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forcibly took over Dominican debt and then went about building railroads, hospitals, roads and other internal improvements in order to modernize the mainly agrarian nation. The U.S., though often with much guerrilla opposition, did successfully create a new Dominican National Guard, and put an end to the infighting between various strongmen that had plagued the country for the latter half of the 19th Century. Then, in 1930, after a violent campaign, Trujillo, the commander of the military, took power and held onto power either directly or through puppets like his brother, Hector, until 1961 (Metz, 40). Trujillo is credited with giving women suffrage in 1942 and growing the economy, but Trujillo is mainly viewed as a tyrannical dictator who accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth and killed thousands in order to stay in power (Metz, 42). Finally, under the direction of President John Kennedy, the U.S. started to cut ties with Trujillo as national revolution movements as well as regional revolutions started to ferment. After some high profile killings, and new sanctions from the Organization of American States, the U.S. decided to downgrade the embassy in Santo Domingo to the consular level. This action proved to be the beginning of the end for Trujillo as he then did not have U.S., international or national support. Then on May 30, 1963 Trujillo was assassinated with the U.S. rumored to have had a hand in the killing (U.S. Library of Congress, Country
forcibly took over Dominican debt and then went about building railroads, hospitals, roads and other internal improvements in order to modernize the mainly agrarian nation. The U.S., though often with much guerrilla opposition, did successfully create a new Dominican National Guard, and put an end to the infighting between various strongmen that had plagued the country for the latter half of the 19th Century. Then, in 1930, after a violent campaign, Trujillo, the commander of the military, took power and held onto power either directly or through puppets like his brother, Hector, until 1961 (Metz, 40). Trujillo is credited with giving women suffrage in 1942 and growing the economy, but Trujillo is mainly viewed as a tyrannical dictator who accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in wealth and killed thousands in order to stay in power (Metz, 42). Finally, under the direction of President John Kennedy, the U.S. started to cut ties with Trujillo as national revolution movements as well as regional revolutions started to ferment. After some high profile killings, and new sanctions from the Organization of American States, the U.S. decided to downgrade the embassy in Santo Domingo to the consular level. This action proved to be the beginning of the end for Trujillo as he then did not have U.S., international or national support. Then on May 30, 1963 Trujillo was assassinated with the U.S. rumored to have had a hand in the killing (U.S. Library of Congress, Country