History of Puerto Rico

The Caribbean before the landing of Columbus served almost as a bridge between the north coast of South America and Florida for the Amazonian tribes in the south and the north american inhabitants. When Christopher Columbus on his second trip in 1493 landed in Puerto Rico and claimed it for Spain, he found the island populated by as many as 60,000 Arawak or Taino indians, which for the most part, were friendly compared to the Carib indians in some of the more southerly islands which were warlike and to some degree cannibalistic. The conquest of the island didn’t take long, and the peaceful Tainos were put to the task as slaves for the purpose of mining the gold that was found on the island. The gold didn’t last long and in 1511 there was an uprising of the Tainos, who up to this point had believed that the Spaniards were Gods, and took a soldier by the name of Sotomayor and dunked him head first in a river for several hours to see if he would die. Just in case, they had prepared a feast for the Spaniard if he came out alive. However, it wasn’t the Spanish sword that took most of the lives of the Arawaks, but the diseases that were brought from Europe and for which the indians had no defenses. In 1508 the first governor arrived, Juan Ponce de León (who is more famous as the searcher for the fountain of youth and discoveror of the state of Florida). The island remained Spanish despite harassment and numerous conquest attempts by buccaneers and pirates and English and Dutch expeditions. To defend the island against these threats, two forts, El Morro and San Cristóbal,were built to guard the approaches to San Juan harbor. Defense of these forts foiled attempts by Sir Francis Drake in 1595, by another English fleet in 1598, and by the Dutch in 1625 to capture Puerto Rico for their respective empires. The defeat of the British in 1797 finally thwarted that country’s designs on the island, and the Spanish colony was kept intact. During the 16th to the 19th century Puerto Rico was characterized primarily by underpopulation, poverty and neglect by Spain. It was mainly a garrison for the ships that would pass on their way to or from the other and richer colonies. During this time as much as 10 or 11 years would pass between the arrival of ships from Spain and as trade with other countries was prohibited, the island reverted to contraband trading with ships from England, Netherlands or whomever would trade for the main produce of the island, which at that time was ginger. This peasant agriculture continued until the early 19th century, when Spanish law was changed to allow unrestricted trade with the neighbors. The 19th century in Puerto Rico was characterized by a series of strict if not brutal military governors which stifled the independence movements in Puerto Rico that were shaking the foundations of its other American colonies. Slavery and the importation of slaves reached its peak, with the need for workers on the sugar and coffee plantations. Slavery, however, never reached the alarming proportions of freemen to slaves as it did on the other colonies or even on parts of the United States. While in Haiti in 1789 the slaves comprised 90% of the population and in Jamaica 85%, in Puerto Rico in 1834 the census established that 11% of the population were slaves, 35% were colored freemen and 54% were white. It was only until 1873, however, that slavery was finally abolished in Puerto Rico. During the 19th century there was also increased immigration from the colonies that were being lost by Spain and this influx of people and capital allowed for creation of many towns and cities. The economy grew as a result and export-oriented agriculture became prominent, especially coffee and sugar. In 1897 home rule was established for the first time by the Autonomic Charter granted by the Spanish government and Puerto Rico was given the status of a Spanish dominion. This autonomy was short lived, however, as the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War and was ceded Puerto Rico in 1898. The Foraker Act of 1901 established the relationship of the United States with Puerto Rico and many of its provisions are still in force. During this period the Puerto Ricans were in a citizenship limbo as they weren’t citizens of Spain and the title "Puerto Rican citizen", although it applied, meant little, as Puerto Rico was not a free country or legally part of another. This ambiguity was finally solved by the Jones act of 1917 by which Puerto Ricans became American citizens and Puerto Rico became an unincorporated territory of the United States. During the years between 1900 and 1940, Puerto Rico and its people suffered through enormous hardships created by lack of jobs and by poor pay in those jobs that existed. The economy was basically agricultural and one-crop, sugar cane, and the lands producing it and the factories to extract the sugar were mainly owned by corpor