1492

In 1492 (on October 12) Christopher Columbus's expedition makes it's first landfall in the Caribbean. This event is regarded as having started the colonial conquest of the western hemisphere and it marks the beginning of centuries of enslavement and oppression of Native Americans (Taíno in the case of Hispaniola) and slaves from Africa.

December

 * December 5 is the date Christopher Columbus and his fleet of three ships go on shore in the North of Hispaniola - then known as Kiskeya by the native people - in the Bay des Moustiques. Columbus fails to discover the island, since it is already inhabited.