c. 1200 CE
The Taíno flourish
Arawak-speaking Taíno migrate from the south, establishing farming villages, the cultivation of cassava and tobacco, and a society led by caciques (chiefs).
By around 1200 CE, Arawak-speaking Taíno peoples migrating northward through the Antilles had become the dominant culture across much of Cuba. Their arrival transformed the island from a world of small foraging bands into one of settled agricultural villages.
Farmers and builders
The Taíno cultivated cassava (yuca), sweet potatoes, maize, and tobacco, using raised earth mounds called conucos to farm efficiently in the tropical climate. They lived in villages of thatched houses gathered around a central plaza, and organized themselves under leaders known as caciques.
A culture that left its mark
Many words still used worldwide come from the Taíno: hammock, hurricane, barbecue, tobacco, and canoe among them. Their place names, foods, and farming practices survived the conquest even as the people themselves were devastated by it.
Why it matters
The Taíno are too often treated as a footnote to 1492. But their society was the living world that Spanish colonization shattered — and their influence persists in Cuban language, cuisine, and identity to this day.