On this day, 533 years ago, on December 5, 1492 (November 16, 1492 lunar calendar), the European navigator Columbus first set foot on Hispaniola. 15th century map of Hispaniola On December 5, 1492, Christopher Columbus first set foot on the island and named it Hispaniola after Spain. When Hispaniola was discovered, the island was inhabited by about 1 million Indians, mainly Tainos, and a small number of Siwanes lived in the northwest of the island. There were already five indigenous tribes on the island, who lived in large, densely populated villages, caught birds, fish, rodents, and cultivated the land. The Hispaniola Indians reclaimed with stone axes and cultivated with wooden shovels. The main crops were cassava and sweet potatoes. Comment: Columbus established the first European colony in the Americas on the island.