 Taino rock carvings
|
Puerto Rico was originally inhabited by the Taíno Indians, (also called Arawak,) and archeological evidence suggests that the first inhabitants came from what is now Venezuela in the 1st century A.D. The Taíno name for the island was Borínquen , or 'Island of the Brave Lord'. It was part of a well structured and well defined culture that orginated in Hispaniola and extended throughout the Antilles Islands. The King of this culture lived on Hispaniola, and district caciques , or chiefs, governed the different |
districts of Puerto Rico. The Taíno culture was rigidly stratified, and heredity determined a resident's status in society. At the top, of course, was the cacique, followed by the nitaínos , or nobles, who served as advisers to the cacique, the commoners, and lastly the naborías , or slaves. Taíno villages ranged in size from a few hundred to a few thousand inhabitants, and the houses, (some large enough to hold 40 family members,) were built around a large open space reserved for games and public ceremonies. The caciques home was always the largest in the village, and fronted on this public square.
|
Puerto Rico was first discovered by Columbus on his second voyage to the new world on November 19, 1493, but fifteen years passed between it's discovery and serious attempts to colonize and create settlements. During those 15 years, although Columbus had promptly claimed the island for the Spanish crown, the 30,000 or so Taínos living here lived in relative peace from Spanish attentions. During this time, the Spanish would sail from Hispaniola to this island that Columbus had renamed San Juan Bautista to barter for food, and relations between the Spanish and the Taíno's were always friendly.
|
Ponce de León visited the island during this period, and the trinkets and ornaments made of gold possessed and worn by the Taínos caught his eye, and he secretly scouted the southern coast for mines. In 1508, Ponce de León and the Spanish governer of the Caribbean, Nicolas de Ovando, signed a secret agreement which granted Ponce de León the rights to mine the island for gold, with the condition that 2/3's go too the Spanish King. The deal was struck in secret with the hopes of avoiding the abuse, family separations, enslavement, and starvation that Columbus and his sons had brought upon the inhabitants of Hispaniola in their greed for wealth, even though Columbus' son, Diego Colón, had inherited the rights to exploit the island's wealth. After six weeks of searching, the Ponce de León discovered a suitable site for a settlement located several miles inland on the Bayamon River, and founded the town of Caparra.
|
 Ponce de León
|
Initially, relations between the Spanish and the Taínos were very friendly, and panning for gold in the river beds produced enough wealth to convince Ponce de León that Puerto Rico, (still called San Juan Bautista at this time,) merited permanant settlement. Before long, King Ferdinand learned of Puerto Rico's excellent prospects, and directed a number of family friends here. Diego Colón also caught wind of Puerto Rico's wealth, and angered that Ponce de León had grabbed the island for himself, granted titles to two of his father's supporters, Cristóbal Sotomayor and Miguel Díaz, and financed their establishment on the island. Puerto Rico now began to suffer what Ponce de León and Nicolas de Ovando has sought to avoid, and before long the Taínos were being enslaved and pressed into labor for the benefit of Sotomayor and Díaz.
|
Almost immediately, the gold rush to Puerto Rico was on, and while King Ferdinand appointed Ponce de León as Governer in 1510, he did not empower him to abolish the enslavement of the Taínos. The competition for gold was so fierce that the only people who truly profited were the men like Ponce de León who made their fortunes selling supplies to the miners. In the winter of 1511, violence erupted and guerrilla warfare soon spread throughout the island. Ponce de León responded immediately, capturing nearly 200 Taínos, enslaving them, and branding them on the face with the king's first initial. The uprising was quelled by June, and peace was restored.
|
 Slaves at work on a Plantation
|
Columbus' son, Colón, through politics, had turned Ponce de León's governership into little more than little more than a title, and León was given permission to explore the peninsula NorthWest of Puerto Rico now called Florida. Puerto Rico was one of Spain's richest suppliers of gold until 1540 when the sources were exhausted, and the Spanish immigrants turned to agriculture as the mainstay of their survival. Labor proved a problem initially, as the Tainos had been nearly wiped out through epidemics of disease and the harsh conditions under the
|
Spanish, but before long, slaves were being imported from West Africa. Three classes of people emerged at this point. The large plantation owners, usually of purely European ancestry, the mestizos , (a person of mixed European and Taíno or African ancenstry, who generally farmed a small subsistance plot of land inland that would not compete with the large coastal plantations,) and the slaves. A number of crops were experimented with, including ginger and tobacco, but sugar proved the most profitable and dependable cash crop.
|
| By the 1520's, the economic and strategic promise of Puerto Rico was becoming evident to the other European colonial powers, and the French, English, and Dutch all launched attacks on Puerto Rico, (now the island's official name,) in large part through privateers. The first fortifications were initiated in 1522, but the islands first real defensive structure was not completed until 1530, when the descendants of Ponce de León, (who was killed in Florida in 1521 and is now interred in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Juan here in Puerto Rico,) built a house of stone, the Casa Blanca, designed to provide refuge for colonialists in case of foreign aggression. Two years later, construction began on La Fortaleza, which today houses |
the offices of the governer of Puerto Rico and is the oldest executive mansion in the Western Hemisphere. The fort of El Morro was built when the location of La Fortaleza was deemed inadequate to the defenses of San Juan, now the official capital of Puerto Rico. As the 16th century drew to a close, more fortifications were built in response to aggression against Puerto Rico by the other European Powers, especially by the British after open war broke out between Britain and Spain in 1585.
|
 Fortifications at El Morro
|
Due to the extremely restrictive economic policies of Spain towards it's colonies, over the next 180 years Puerto Rico's primary source of economic survival was from illicit trade with the foreign powers, and nearly everyone, from government officials to peasants were engaged in the smuggling of sugar, livestock, tobacco, etc, for slaves, food, tools, and other manufactured goods. In 1765, Spain installed as governer Don Miguel de Muesas, and by building roads and bridges, strengthening defenses, and improving public education, he tried to help to improve Puerto Rico's economy. The Spanish Crown still saw Puerto Rico primarily as a fortification to protect her colonies in the New World though, and was too busy in it's colonial conflicts with the other European powers to lend Puerto Rico much in the way of economic aid.
|
| In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain, and the mother country, embroiled in defending itself against France, saw it's control over it's colonies in the America's weaken to the point that several won independance from Spain. A provisional assembly, called the Cortez convened in
|
 Tall Ships at Battle
|
Spain in the name of the now deposed King Ferdinand VII, and invited Puerto Rico to send a delegation to Cádiz in 1809 in an attempt to prevent the Puerto Rican seperatists from instigating revolution as had happened elsewhere, particularly in Venezuela and Mexico. Ramón Power Giralt went as the colony's emmissary, and was elected vice president of the assembly. Through his efforts, Puerto Ricans gained status as Spanish citizens, tariffs on imports were dropped, a university was founded, and island industry was improved. The Cortez disbanded in 1814 when Napoleon retreated out of Spain, and King Ferdinand returned to the throne, but wary of the strong independance sentiments in the colonies, he left most of these reforms in place by royal decree in 1815. Due to the demands that Spain placed on her colonies during the war, as well as the British blockade of the U.S. coast durign the war of 1812, Puerto Rico's economy suffered in spite of the gains made through the Cortez and the Spanish king's later royal degree.
|
In 1815, King Ferdinand officially ended the trading monopoly between Puerto Rico and Spain. Puerto Rican independance continued to grow and, disobeying King Ferdinand's orders that all trade between Puerto Rico and other countries be carried out using Spanish shipping, the colonial governers gave right of entry to ships under any flag. Trade with the United States was proving especially profitable, and tariffs were further reduced. In 1824, the Spanish king finally relinquished the last traces of mercantilism, and conceded the right of Puerto Rico to allow entry for trade to ships from other nations, and the Puerto Rican economy began to flourish.
|
In 1823, the constitutional government of Spain collapsed, and the King once again had absolute power. He appointed a series of governers over Puerto Rico, giving them absolute power, which began a 42 year reign of oppression and virtual martial law. During this period, beards were declared subversive and the wearing of facial hair was not permitted, a ten o'clock curfew was put in place, and laws were passed requiring all Puerto Ricans to carry passbooks and restricted unauthorized movement about the island.
|
In 1865, fearing the growing separatist movement in Puerto Rico and Cuba, the Spanish crown invited them to draft a colonial constitution in the form of a "Special Law of the Indies." The document which resulted from this called for the abolition of slavery, freedom of the press and speech, and for independance on a Commonwealth basis. The crown was slow to grant these concessions, and a growing autonomy movement was being directed by exiles from Puerto Rico living in New York, USA, and the 1860's and 1870's saw the birth and growth of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee. On September 23, 1868, several hundred men marched on and took the town of Lares and arrested it's officials. They elected a provisional president and proclaimed the Republic of Puerto Rico. The governer responded by sending troops who met the rebel front at San Sebastion and the new republic was ended in a quick and easy victory for the Spanish troops.
|
 U.S. troops invade Puerto Rico
|
In 1897, the Liberal Party of Spain and their leader, Mateo Sagasta, and the Autonomist Party here formed a pact which guaranteed Puerto Rican autonomy if the Liberal Party came to power. When the Spanish prime minister was assassinated, Sagasta became the Spanish ruler and immediately declared Puerto Rico an autonomist state. Sagasta's pact elected a two chamber constitutional republican form of government, and while the governer was still appointed by Spain, his powers were carefully restricted. The new government assumed power in July of 1898, but later that month United States general Nelson A. Miles landed on the southern coast with an army of 16,000 men. This was the beginning of the Spanish-American war and the end of Puerto Rico's autonomy. On August 31, 1898, Spain surrendered and as part of the surrender agreement, Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States as a protectorate.
|
Puerto Ricans were fearful of the United States, which they saw as strange and extremely aggressive. General Miles tried to ease these fears by telling them, "We have come... to promote your prosperity and to bestow upon you the immunities and blessing of the liberal institutions of our government." Not all Puerto Rican's believed these words, and Ramón Emetario Betances warned that, "If Puerto Rico does not act fast, it will be an American colony forever." The United States set up a military government and Puerto Rico was placed under the charge of the War Department.
|
During the next 48 years, a series of inept administrators were appointed by the United States, and while in 1900, the United States Secretary of War proposed a program for the gradual introduction of autonomy for Puerto Rico, which then U.S. President McKinnley endorsed, serious steps to allow for this were never taken by the U.S. Puerto Ricans feared, and still fear, that their culture and economy would be swallowed up by the United States. With the passage of the "Foraker Act" in 1900, a combined government of U.S. selected and Puerto Rican elected officials would comprise an Executive Council, and a House of Delegates would funtion as the government. Additionally, a Resident Commissioner, elected by the Puerto Rican people, would speak in the U.S. House of Representatives, but have no voting power. Initially, a 15% tariff on all imports and exports to the U.S. was imposed, with the revenues to be used to benefit Puerto Rico, but after two years, free trade was promised. The colonial government would oversee it's own taxation and insular treasury. Ownership of large estates was discouraged, (in theory,) by the prohibition of businesses carrying on agriculture on more than 500 acres, but this clause has rarely been enforced, and U.S. firms have moved in.
|
The Foraker Act was immediately challenged before the Supreme Court of the United States as to it's Constitutional legality, but the majority of Justices rules that the U.S. Constitution did not apply to an "unincorporated entity" like Puerto Rico. The Chief Justice dissented in a statement that said that it left Puerto Rico, "a disembodied shade of an intermediate state of ambiguous existance." Puerto Rico has consistantly pressed the United States Congress to vote on a plebescite to let the inhabitants of Puerto Rico determine the island's future.
|
In 1946, the United States finally revealed plans to allow Puerto Ricans to elect their own governer, and in 1948, Luíz Muñoz Marin, leader of the Popular Democratic Party, and long time advocate for Puerto Rican rights, was elected, and put forth a proposal for turning Puerto Rico into an associated free state. In 1950, U.S. President Truman approved the Puerto Rican Commonwealth Bill, which provided Puerto Ricans with the vote on whether to remain a colony or assume the status of a commonwealth. As a Commonwealth, Puerto Ricans would draft their own Constitution, though the U.S. Congress would have to approve of the document. In June of 1951, the Commonwealth option was chosen by 75% of the voters in Puerto Rico.
|
Get your own, Free Homepage