Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar was a Spanish conquistador who led the conquest of Cuba and governed the island from its colonization through much of the early sixteenth century.

Spanish conquest of Cuba: The Spanish campaign that brought Cuba under colonial rule between 1511 and 1515. Velázquez commanded the campaign and established Spanish control across the island.
Hispaniola: A Caribbean island shared today by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Velázquez participated in its Spanish conquest before receiving authority over Cuba.
Christopher Columbus: An Italian navigator whose Spanish-backed Atlantic voyages initiated sustained European colonization of the Americas. Velázquez’s first Caribbean service began with Columbus’s 1493 expedition.
Spanish Empire: The overseas empire ruled by Spain from the late fifteenth century into the nineteenth century. Velázquez’s governorship extended Spanish imperial rule into Cuba.
Baracoa: A Cuban town founded by Spaniards in 1511, often described as the island’s oldest European settlement. Velázquez established Cuba’s first Spanish settlement here during the conquest.
Columbus’s second voyage: Christopher Columbus’s 1493–1496 expedition that established Spain’s first lasting colony in the Americas. Velázquez reached the Caribbean with this expedition and joined Spanish colonial life.
Bartolomé de las Casas: A Spanish Dominican friar who criticized colonial violence and advocated for Indigenous peoples. His accounts describe the brutality of Spanish conquest and colonization in Cuba.
Indigenous depopulation in the Americas: The catastrophic decline of Indigenous populations after European arrival, caused by disease, violence, displacement, and forced labor. Cuba’s conquest accelerated these destructive forces among its Indigenous communities.
Santiago de Cuba: A city in southeastern Cuba founded by Spaniards in 1515. Velázquez founded the settlement and made it an early seat of colonial administration.
Hernán Cortés: A Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that brought the Aztec Empire under Spanish control. Velázquez authorized his expedition to Mexico, then tried to recall him.

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