The time of Spanish colonization in the Americas (1494–1655)

Article principal : The Spanish in Jamaica

It is generally accepted that Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive in Jamaica. During his
second trip to the Americas, which took place in 1494, he arrived on the island on May 5th. [13] During
his fourth journey to the Americas, Christopher Columbus stopped again in Jamaica. When a storm
forced his ships ashore in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on June 25, 1503, he had already been traveling
throughout the Caribbean for about a year at the time. After being marooned on the island for an entire
year, Columbus and his crew were eventually able to set sail in June of 1504.

The island was given to the Columbus family by the Spanish crown, but for many years it was a relatively
unimportant backwater that was primarily prized for its ability to provide a supply base for food and
animal hides. On the northern coast of the island in 1509, Juan de Esquivel established the first
permanent European settlement by naming it "New Seville." This town was named Sevilla la Nueva (New
Seville). A decade later, Friar Bartolomé de las Casas reported to the Spanish authorities about Esquivel's
behavior during the Higüey massacre in 1503. This event took place in 1503. [source: missing citation]

In the year 1534, the capital was relocated to the city of Villa de la Vega, which would eventually
become Santiago de la Vega and is presently known as Spanish Town. From the time it was founded
until 1872, this hamlet was Jamaica's capital under both the Spanish and the English. After that, the seat
of government was relocated to Kingston.

Many Arawak people were taken as slaves by the Spanish.

[12] Some of them made their way into the mountains, where they joined forces with the maroons.

[7]

[8] Unfortunately, the majority of them perished as a result of European diseases as well as being
overworked.
[14] In addition, the Spaniards were the ones who brought the first Africans to the island to be used as
slaves. Nearly all of the Taino people had perished by the beginning of the 17th century, when the
island's population was estimated to be around 3,000 people, including a small number of African slaves.
[15] Due to the absence of gold on the island, Jamaica was primarily utilized by European colonizers as a
strategic location from which to support their endeavors on the American continent. [16]

Because the Spanish colonists on the early missions did not bring women with them, they ended up
taking Taino women as their common-law wives, which led to the birth of mestizo children.

[17] The Taino women were frequently subjected to sexual violence at the hands of the Spanish. [18]
[19]

In spite of the fact that the indigenous Taino people referred to the island as "Xaymaca," the Spanish
gradually changed the name of the country to "Jamaica."

[20] The island was called "Jamaiqua" on the so-called Admiral's map that was drawn up in 1507, and
Peter Martyr refers to it as both "Jamaica" and "Jamica" in his work "Decades," which was written in
1511. [20]