page_title: La Isabela
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: La Isabela / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: Español: Vista panorámica del Parque Nacional Histórico y Arqueológico de La Isabela, Luperón, República Dominicana
context_page_description: La Isabela in Puerto Plata Province, Dominican Republic was the first Spanish town in the Americas. The site is 42 km west of the city of Puerto Plata, adjacent to the village of El Castillo. The area now forms a National Historic Park.
  La Isabela was founded by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in December 1493, and named after Queen Isabella I of Castile. The first attempt of a permanent settlement, the fort of La Navidad, established by Columbus a year earlier to the west of La Isabela, in what is present day Haiti, had been totally destroyed by the native Taíno people when he returned. La Isabela was abandoned by 1500. The only earlier European settlements in the Americas were settlements by the Vikings in Greenland and Newfoundland which dated from 500 years earlier.
  La Isabela was established to search for precious metals. When little gold was found, Columbus proceeded to enslave the people of the island.
  La Isabela was struck by the first known epidemic to spread from Europe to the New World in 1493 and two of the earliest North Atlantic hurricanes observed by Europeans in 1494 and 1495.
context_section_description: Christopher Columbus was absent from Isabela from 24 April until 29 September 1494, on an exploratory trip to Cuba during which time he also discovered Jamaica. Christopher left his brother Diego Columbus as president of the island, with Fray Bernardo Buil and Pedro Fernandez Coronel as regents. During his absence, his brother Bartholomew Columbus arrived, the Tainos revolted, and Captain Pedro Margarit fled back to Spain. On 24 March 1495, Christopher Columbus, allied with Guacanagari, marched against the other caciques with 200 men, 20 horses and 20 hounds. He killed or captured many, including the principal cacique Caonabo. It was Caonabo who was responsible for the Navidad massacre. He was sent to Spain as a prisoner. By then, only 630 Christians remained, "most of them sick, with many children and women among them." Christopher Columbus himself departed for Spain on 10 March 1496 with 225 Christians and 30 Indians aboard the Santa Cruz and Nina. By then, the native Taínos suffering from a "shortage of food and such a variety of plagues" were reduced in numbers by two thirds.
  Within a year of Christopher Columbus' departure, "with their provisions running short and suffering and sickness growing, they became discontented with their present lot and despaired of the future." The alcalde mayor, Francisco Roldán, formed a secret faction, and "disdaining to be ruled by a foreigner," plotted to kill Christopher's brothers Bartholomew and Diego. First plotting to capture the town and fortress of Concepcion in the province of Cibao, Roldan eventually moved his rebels to Xaragua, where the land was fertile and the women were the "best-looking and best-natured in the country." When Christopher entered Santo Domingo on 30 August 1498, he found many of the people he had left behind two and a half years ago were dead, some 160 were sick, while many more had joined Roldan's rebellion. The two-year rebellion finally ended on 3 August 1499, when Christopher agreed to "restore Roldan to his office of perpetual alcalde mayor," allow 15 to return home to Spain, made grants of houses and land for those who stayed, and then "publicly proclaim that all that had happened was caused by false testimony of a few evil men."
  The discovery of gold in 1499 within the cordillera central, and the resultant mining boom, meant Isabela was depopulated by 1500.
caption: Panoramic view of La Isabela archaeological site
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