History of Haiti
Following the arrival of Europeans, La Hispaniola's indigenous population suffered greatly to near extinction, in possibly the worst case of depopulation in the Americas. A commonly accepted hypothesis attributes the high mortality of this colony in part to European diseases to which the natives had no immunity. A small number of Taínos were able to survive and set up villages elsewhere. Spanish interest in Hispaniola began to wane in the 1520s, as more lucrative gold and silver deposits were found in Mexico and South America. Thereafter, the population of Spanish Hispaniola grew at a slow pace.
La Dehesa
It is believed that the first human group to be discovered here were mainly hunter–gatherer nomads .They came in search of guanacos; they arrived in Santiago in approximately 10,000 BC. Around the year 800 BC, the area became inhabited along the shores of the Mapocho River, representing the first sedentary population, which resulted from the establishment of farming communities and the auchenids' domestication. The area was controlled by the Inca and by the Spanish during the seventeenth century. The Spanish were still in control of the area in the early 1800s Bernardo O'Higgins helped to win its independence from that empire in 1810.