The first modern iteration begins with the European desire to impose permanent settlements on the island after Christopher Columbus claimed it for Spain in 1493. This process is in stark contrast with Taíno forms of habitation that included frequent mobility. As anthropologist Hilda Lloréns observed, the Taínos “island hopped as a matter of living in the region,” constituting themselves as a “populations in transit” (Lloréns 2018). But based on the notions that indigenous peoples were inferior and that their sociopolitical organization was deficient, Europeans proclaimed that native land was available for their own settlement through two main discourses: the terra nullius doctrine—a declaration that the land was “unclaimed” or “belonging to no one”—and vacuum domicilium (“empty dwelling”), the assertion that because indigenous land was not “enclosed” and native individuals had no “title” to land, it was vacant (Springborg 2015; Kumpulanian 2016).