Editing Port-au-Prince (section)

===Spanish colonization===
Prior to the arrival of [[Christopher Columbus]], the island of [[Hispaniola]] was inhabited by the Taíno people, who arrived in approximately 2600&nbsp;BC in large dugout [[canoe]]s. They are believed to come primarily from what is now eastern [[Venezuela]]. By the time Columbus arrived in 1492&nbsp;AD, the region was under the control of Bohechio, Taíno [[cacique]] (chief) Xaragua.<ref name="Revolutionary_Freedoms">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-p7qRKl_G0C&q=Bohechio+Haiti&pg=PA19|author1=Accilien, Cécile |author2=Adams, Jessica |author3=Méléance, Elmide |author4=Jean-Pierre, Ulrick|title=Revolutionary freedoms: a history of survival, strength and imagination in Haiti|publisher=Caribbean Studies Press|location=[[Coconut Creek, Florida]]|year=2006|pages=19–23|isbn=1-58432-293-4|access-date=9 February 2010}}</ref> He, like his predecessors, feared settling too close to the coast; such settlements would have proven to be tempting targets for the [[Island Caribs|Caribs]], who lived on neighboring islands. Instead, the region served as a hunting ground. The population of the region was approximately 400,000 at the time, but the Taínos were gone within 30 years of the arrival of the Spaniards.<ref name="Caribbean_Islands">{{cite book|author1=Gorry, Conner |author2=Miller, Debra|title=Caribbean Islands|publisher=Lonely Planet|date=1 October 2005|pages=245–246|isbn=1-74104-055-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJObOeOb0wEC&q=port-au-prince+climate&pg=PA245|access-date=9 February 2010}}</ref>

With the arrival of the Spaniards, the Amerindians were forced to accept a [[protectorate]], and Bohechio, childless at death, was succeeded by his sister, [[Anacaona]], wife of the cacique [[Caonabo]]. The Spanish insisted on larger tributes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Samuel M. |title=Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus |page=89 |date=1990 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-0462-1 |url= |url-access= |quote=The events of 1494 and early 1495 ultimately precipitated a collective and violent reaction from Indians in the western Vega. Colón took this as an opportunity to subjugate the island brutally and to establish a tribute system through which gold and food could be collected from the Indians in greater quantity. }}</ref> Eventually, the Spanish colonial administration decided to rule directly, and in 1503, [[Nicolas Ovando]], then governor, set about to put an end to the régime headed by Anacaona.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} He invited her and other tribal leaders to a feast, and when the Amerindians had drunk a good deal of wine (the Spaniards did not drink on that occasion), he ordered most of the guests killed. Anacaona was spared, only to be hanged publicly some time later. Through violence, introduced diseases and murders, the Spanish settlers decimated the native population.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

Direct Spanish rule over the area having been established, Ovando founded a settlement not far from the coast (west of [[Etang Saumâtre]]), ironically named ''Santa Maria de la Paz Verdadera'', which would be abandoned several years later. Not long thereafter, Ovando founded ''Santa Maria del Puerto''. The latter was first burned by French explorers in 1535, then again in 1592 by the English. These assaults proved to be too much for the Spanish colonial administration, and in 1606, it decided to abandon the region.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}