(English)

The recorded history of Haiti began on 4 December 1492 when the European navigator Christopher Columbus happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who variously called their island Ayiti, Bohio, or Kiskeya (Quisqueya). Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it La Isla Española ("the Spanish Island"), later Latinized to Hispaniola.

(Kreyòl ayisyen)

Nan orijin nan, peyi Ayiti a, sa vle di «Pèl tout Antiy yo», sete lik te peple pa Tayino yo oubyen Arawak, pèp semi-sedantè pasifik. Lè Kristòf Kolon akoste li pou premye fwa a sou 6 desanm 1492, peyi a te konte pwobableman plizyè santèn milye abitan yo.