ABSTRACT
The Caribbean is a transcendental space for understanding European colonial expansion on a global level. Despite this, research on this subject shows an imbalance with respect to other regions. Homogeneous and limited perspective on this process predominates, with repercussions throughout the social, academic, and heritage spheres. This chapter focuses on showing the diversity and complexity of the processes of adaptation and colonial transformation in the Caribbean, emphasizing the role of Indigenous communities and their social networks of interaction in three spaces linked to early European colonization. The conjugation of historical criticism with archaeological data generated in recent decades highlights that many of the cultural trajectories and practices documented during the colonization of the Caribbean are understandable only in light of a deep historical perspective crossing the so-called historical divide. The examples in this chapter illustrate the complex and diverse interactions, strategies, and transformations generated by the first colonial experience in the Americas. In addition, it evidences how the socio-cultural networks that emerged during the colonization marked a new process of interconnection that, at different rates, led to the Caribbean’s entry into a global world.
