Migration to the Caribbean

By: Jahcoby Zelaya & Kaylee Ebanks

Earliest Caribbean Migrations
• Spanning a million square miles and dotted with more than 700 islands, the Caribbean Sea was one of the last
places colonized by Native Americans as they explored and settled North and South America. Archaeologists
have long struggled to pinpoint the origins and movements of those intrepid seafarers. Now, thanks to genetic
material gleaned from the bones of ancient Caribbean residents, the invisible history of this tropical
archipelago is coming to light.
The earliest European migration
•Christopher Columbus established the first European settlements in the Caribbean. Columbus set sail in
September 1492, carrying an elaborate feudal commission that made him perpetual governor of all lands
discovered and gave him a percentage of all trade conducted, determined to find a faster, shorter route to China
and Japan. He intended to build a trading empire along the West African coast, similar to the successful
Portuguese venture. His goal was to establish direct commercial relations with the producers of spices and other
luxuries from the legendary East, thereby bypassing the Arab middlemen who had monopolized trade since the
capture of Constantinople in 1453. He also intended to connect with the lost Christians of Abyssinia, who were
said to have large amounts of gold—a commodity in high demand in Europe. Finally, Columbus, as a devout
Christian, desired to spread Christianity to new peoples. Of course, Columbus did not discover the East.
Nonetheless, he referred to the people he met as "Indians," and the region he discovered as the "West Indies"
because he had sailed west.