This chapter offers a brief overview of the multiple transformationsthe island went through with the rise and fall of the colonial economy in the sixteenth century, as it cycled through gold extraction, and then the expansion of African slavery with the establishment of sugar plantations, all the while exploiting indigenous labor. After the decline of the sugar economy, ginger and cattle ranching followed as the most important economic activities in the last two decades of the century. The chapter ends with a description of the city of Santo Domingo as the social and political center of the colony.