Where did Caribs and Arawaks come from?
The Island Carib, who were warlike (and allegedly cannibalistic), were immigrants from the mainland who, after driving the Arawak from the Lesser Antilles, were expanding when the Spanish arrived. Peculiarly, the Carib language was spoken only by the men; women spoke Arawak.
Who were the original inhabitants of West Indies?
Archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian populations of the West Indies into three chronological groups. The first to arrive in the region were the Paleo-Indians (5000–2000 bce), who were hunter-gatherers on the littorals of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Trinidad and who originated in Central or South America.
How did the Arawaks get here?
Columbus was soon to find out that there was no gold in Jamaica. On arrival at St Ann’s Bay, Columbus found the Arawak Indians inhabiting the island. Columbus was then able to land and claim the island. The Spaniards, when they came, tortured and killed the Arawaks to get their land.
What race are Arawaks?
Arawak, American Indians of the Greater Antilles and South America. The Taino, an Arawak subgroup, were the first native peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus on Hispaniola.
What happened to the Arawak tribe?
It was long held that the island Arawak were virtually wiped out by Old World diseases to which they had no immunity (see Columbian Exchange), but more recent scholarship has emphasized the role played by Spanish violence, brutality, and oppression (including enslavement) in their demise.
Are Arawaks indigenous?
The Taíno were an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. In the Greater Antilles, the northern Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas, they were known as the Lucayans and spoke the Taíno language, a derivative of the the Arawakan languages.
Why is it called West Indian?
The West Indies refers to a collection of islands in the Caribbean. These islands have nothing to do with India – they were named the West Indies because when Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Hispanola (where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are), he thought that he was in India.