The island of Hispaniola, of which Haiti occupies the western three-eighths,[19][20] has been inhabited since around 6,000 years ago by Native Americans who are thought to have arrived from Central or northern South America. These Archaic Age people are thought to have been largely hunter gatherers. During the 1st millennium BC, the Arawakan-speaking ancestors of the Taino people began to migrate into the Caribbean. Unlike the Archaic peoples, they practiced the intensive production of pottery and agriculture. The earliest evidence of the ancestors of the Taino people on Hispaniola is the Ostionoid culture, which dates to around 600 AD.[48] Main article: Chiefdoms of HispaniolaIn Taíno society the largest unit of political organization was led by a cacique, or chief, as the Europeans understood them. At the time of European contact, the island of Hispaniola was divided among five 'caciquedoms': the Magua in the northeast, the Marien in the northwest, the Jaragua in the southwest, the Maguana in the central regions of Cibao, and the Higüey in the southeast.[49][50] Taíno cultural artifacts include cave paintings in several locations in the country. These have become national symbols of Haiti and tourist attractions. Modern-day Léogâne, started as a French colonial town in the southwest, is beside the former capital of the caciquedom of Xaragua.[51] Colonial era Spanish rule (1492–1625) Main articles: Columbian Viceroyalty, New Spain, and Captaincy General of Santo Domingo Artist's impression of Christopher Columbus landing on Hispaniola, engraving by Theodor de Bry Navigator Christopher Columbus landed in Haiti on 6 December 1492, in an area that he named Môle-Saint-Nicolas,[52] and claimed the island for the Crown of Castile. Nineteen days later, his ship the Santa María ran aground near the present site of Cap-Haïtien. Columbus left 39 men on the island, who founded the settlement of La Navidad on 25 December 1492.[53] Relations with the native peoples, initially good, broke down and the settlers were later killed by the Taíno.[54] The sailors carried endemic Eurasian infectious diseases, causing epidemics that killed a large number of native people.[55][56] The first recorded smallpox epidemic in the Americas erupted on Hispaniola in 1507.[57] Their numbers were further reduced by the harshness of the encomienda system, in which the Spanish forced natives to work in gold mines and plantations.[58][54] The Spanish passed the Laws of Burgos (1512–1513), which forbade the maltreatment of natives, endorsed their conversion to Catholicism,[59] and gave legal framework to encomiendas. The natives were brought to these sites to work in specific plantations or industries.[60] As the Spanish re-focused their colonization efforts on the greater riches of mainland Central and South America, Hispaniola became reduced largely to a trading and refueling post. As a result piracy became widespread, encouraged by European powers hostile to Spain such as France (based on Île de la Tortue) and England.[54] The Spanish largely abandoned the western third of the island, focusing their colonization effort on the eastern two-thirds.[61][53] The western part of the island was thus gradually settled by French buccaneers; among them was Bertrand d'Ogeron, who succeeded in growing tobacco and recruited many French colonial families from Martinique and Guadeloupe.[62] In 1697 France and Spain settled their hostilities on the island by way of the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697, which divided Hispaniola between them.[63][53] French rule (1625–1804) Main articles: Saint-Domingue and French West Indies France received the western third and subsequently named it Saint-Domingue, the French equivalent of Santo Domingo, the Spanish colony on Hispaniola.[64] The French set about creating sugar and coffee plantations, worked by vast numbers of those enslaved imported from Africa, and Saint-Domingue grew to become their richest colonial possession,[63][53] generating 40% of France’s foreign trade and doubling the wealth generation of all of England’s colonies, combined.[65] The French settlers were outnumbered by enslaved persons by almost 10 to 1.[63] According to the 1788 Census, Haiti's population consisted of nearly 25,000 Europeans, 22,000 free coloreds and 700,000 Africans in slavery.[66] In contrast, by 1763 the white population of French Canada, a far larger territory, had numbered only 65,000.[67] In the north of the island, those enslaved were able to retain many ties to African cultures, religion and language; these ties were continually being renewed by newly imported Africans. Some West Africans in slavery held on to their traditional Vodou beliefs by secretly syncretizing it with Catholicism.[53] The French enacted the Code Noir ("Black Code"), prepared by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and ratified by Louis XIV, which established rules on slave treatment and permissible freedoms.[68] Saint-Domingue has been described as one of the most brutally efficient slave colonies; at the end of the eighteenth century it was supplying two-thirds of Europe's tropical produce while one-third of newly imported Africans died within a few years.[69] Many enslaved persons died from diseases such as smallpox and typhoid fever.[70] They had low birth rates,[71] and there is evidence that some women aborted fetuses rather than give birth to children within the bonds of slavery.[72] The colony's environment also suffered, as forests were cleared to make way for plantations and the land was overworked so as to extract maximum profit for French plantation owners.[53] Saint-Domingue slave revolt in 1791 As in its Louisiana colony, the French colonial government allowed some rights to free people of color (gens de couleur), the mixed-race descendants of European male colonists and African enslaved females (and later, mixed-race women).[63] Over time, many were released from slavery and they established a separate social class. White French Creole fathers frequently sent their mixed-race sons to France for their education. Some men of color were admitted into the military. More of the free people of color lived in the south of the island, near Port-au-Prince, and many intermarried within their community.[63] They frequently worked as artisans and tradesmen, and began to own some property, including enslaved persons of their own.[53][63] The free people of color petitioned the colonial government to expand their rights.[63] The brutality of slave life led many people in bondage to escape to mountainous regions, where they set up their own autonomous communities and became known as maroons.[53] One maroon leader, François Mackandal, led a rebellion in the 1750s; however, he was later captured and executed by the French.[63