Haiti was founded by the Tainos, an indigenous people who inhabited the island of Hispaniola long before the arrival of the Europeans. In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in Haiti and claimed the island for Spain, but the Spanish largely abandoned the area after depleting its gold reserves. In the early 17th century, the French began to colonise the western third of the island, establishing the colony of Saint-Domingue. The French plantations depended heavily on slave labour, and by the late 18th century, the colony had become the world's leading sugar producer. However, the harsh conditions on the plantations led to a series of slave revolts, culminating in the Haitian Revolution, which began in 1791. The revolution was successful, and in 1804, Haiti became the first independent nation in Latin America and the second independent nation in the Americas after the United States.