It was first discovered by Christopher Columbus in the 1490s. The indigenous people of the island, named the Taino, experienced great brutality at the hands of the Spaniards. They were enslaved and killed until barely any Taino people were left. As a result, Africans had to be shipped in to satisfy all the labor jobs on plantations. Then, in the late 1600s the French traveled to the island, built their plantations, and carried out the same brutality as the Spaniards as well as shipping in even more African slaves (IN-TEXT