How did the arrival of Columbus lead to the decline of the Arawaks?

The Arawaks were an Indian people living on the Greater Antilles and South America. They were the first natives found by Christopher Columbus on the Hispaniola island (present-day Haiti and Dominican Republic). They were wiped out by Old World diseases to which they didn't have any immunity. The Taino, the Arawak subgroup who lived on the Caribbean islands, were farmers and practiced slash-and-burn cultivation of cassava and corn.