Editing Haiti (section)

====Spanish rule (1492–1625)====
{{Main|Columbian Viceroyalty|New Spain|Captaincy General of Santo Domingo}}
[[File:Columbus landing on Hispaniola adj.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|right|[[Artist's impression]] of [[Christopher Columbus]] landing on [[Hispaniola]], engraving by [[Theodor de Bry]]]]
Navigator [[Christopher Columbus]] landed in Haiti on 6 December 1492, in an area that he named ''[[Môle-Saint-Nicolas]]'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590|title=Columbus the Discoverer|editor=Ober, Frederick Albion|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924097691590/page/n119 96]|year=1906|publisher=Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London|access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> and claimed the island for the [[Crown of Castile]]. Nineteen days later, his ship the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'' ran aground near the present site of [[Cap-Haïtien]]. Columbus left 39 men on the island, who founded the settlement of [[La Navidad]] on 25 December 1492.<ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Haiti|title="Haiti"|access-date=5 September 2019|archive-date=15 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915192813/https://www.britannica.com/place/Haiti|url-status=live}}</ref> Relations with the native peoples, initially good, broke down and the settlers were later killed by the Taíno.<ref name="Bradt10">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 10.</ref>

The sailors carried endemic Eurasian [[infectious disease]]s, causing [[epidemic]]s that killed a large number of native people.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|title=What Became of the Taíno?|journal=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|date=October 2011|access-date=16 October 2013|archive-date=7 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207130050/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Koplow|first=David A.|title=Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge|url=https://archive.org/details/smallpoxfighttoe00kopl|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24220-3}}</ref> The first recorded [[smallpox]] epidemic in the Americas erupted on Hispaniola in 1507.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm|title=History of Smallpox – Smallpox Through the Ages|publisher=Texas Department of State Health Services|access-date=24 July 2013|archive-date=24 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924141608/https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history_smallpox.shtm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their numbers were further reduced by the harshness of the ''{{lang|es|[[encomienda]]}}'' system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in gold mines and plantations.<ref>{{cite book|last=Graves|first=Kerry A.|title=Haiti|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8b047XP92i4C&pg=PA22|date=2002|publisher=Capstone|isbn=978-0-7368-1078-4|page=22}}</ref><ref name="Bradt10"/>

The Spanish passed the [[Laws of Burgos]] (1512–1513), which forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their [[Proselytism|conversion]] to Catholicism,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/BAKEWELL/texts/burgoslaws.html|title=Laws of Burgos, 1512–1513|publisher=Faculty.smu.edu|access-date=24 July 2013|archive-date=6 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606074822/http://faculty.smu.edu/bakewell/bakewell/texts/burgoslaws.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and gave legal framework to ''{{lang|es|encomiendas}}.'' The natives were brought to these sites to work in specific plantations or industries.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186567/encomienda|title=Encomienda (Spanish policy)|encyclopedia=Britannica.com|access-date=24 July 2013|archive-date=7 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807173447/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186567/encomienda|url-status=live}}</ref>

As the Spanish re-focused their colonization efforts on the greater riches of mainland Central and South America, Hispaniola became reduced largely to a trading and refueling post. As a result [[Piracy in the Caribbean|piracy]] became widespread, encouraged by European powers hostile to Spain such as France (based on [[Tortuga (Haiti)|Île de la Tortue]]) and England.<ref name="Bradt10"/> The Spanish largely abandoned the western third of the island, focusing their colonization effort on the eastern two-thirds.<ref>Knight, Franklin, ''The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism'', 3rd edn, p. 54, New York, Oxford University Press 1990.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/> The western part of the island was thus gradually settled by French [[buccaneer]]s; among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing [[tobacco]] and recruited many French colonial families from [[Martinique]] and [[Guadeloupe]].<ref>{{Cite book|author=Ducoin, Jacques|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/849870919|title=Bertrand d'Ogeron, 1613–1676 : fondateur de la colonie de Saint-Domingue et gouverneur des flibustiers|year=2013|isbn=978-2-84833-294-9|publisher=Télégramme|location=Brest|oclc=849870919}}</ref> In 1697 [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Imperial Spain|Spain]] settled their hostilities on the island by way of the [[Treaty of Ryswick]] of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them.<ref name="Bradt11">Clammer, Paul (2016), ''Bradt Travel Guide – Haiti'', p. 11.</ref><ref name="Encylopedia Britannica - Haiti"/>