page_title: Cubagua
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cubagua / History
caption_attribution_description: Spanish:Ruinas de la isla de Cubagua, Nueva Esparta, Venezuela
context_page_description: Cubagua or Isla de Cubagua is the smallest and least populated of the three islands constituting the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, after Isla Margarita and Coche. It is located 16 kilometres north of Araya Peninsula, the closest mainland area.
context_section_description: The first human settlement on Cubagua has been dated to 2325 BC, a time within the Meso-Indian Period (5000-1000 BC).
  In 1498, Cubagua was sighted by Christopher Columbus along with Margarita island. Later in 1499 Spanish expeditions returned to exploit abundant pearl oysters, enslaving the indigenous people and harvesting the pearls intensively. They became one of the most valuable resources of the incipient Spanish Empire in the Americas between 1508 and 1531, by which time the local indigenous population and the pearl oysters had been devastated. In 1528, Cristóbal Guerra founded the city of Nueva Cádiz, the first settlement to hold the title of "city" in Venezuela. The city became a synonym for the suppression by the Hispanic Conquistadores in South America. Nueva Cádiz, which reached a population between 1000 and 1500, was destroyed in an earthquake followed by a tsunami in 1541. The ruins have been declared a National Monument of Venezuela in 1979.
caption: Ruins of Nueva Cádiz
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