European explorers arrived in the early 1500s, with one of the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Shortly after his stay on the islands, the Spanish colony of Santiago was established on Jamaica beginning in 1509. The colony was headquartered in Villa de la Vega, later known as Spanish Town after the arrival of English explorers many years later. The English took over the island by 1655, though the Spanish refused to accept this defeat until sparking the Anglo-Spanish War, and eventually signing a treaty in 1670 that officially handed the land over to the English.