Slavery in the Americas can be traced back to Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Caribbean in 1492. Upon landing on the island of Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew encountered the native Taíno people. The Spanish quickly enslaved the Taíno and forced them to work in the gold mines and on sugar plantations. Over the next several decades, the Spanish expanded their slave empire across the Caribbean, mainland Central and South America, and later North America. They were soon joined by other European powers, including the Portuguese, English, French, and Dutch, all of whom established slave-based colonies in the Americas.