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When did Puerto Rico start?
When did Christopher Columbus come to Puerto Rico?
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- Native Population
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Puerto Rico’s native Taíno population—whose hunter-gatherer ancestors settled the island more than 1,000 years before the Spanish arrived—called it Borinquén, and referred to themselves as boricua (a term that is still used today). During his second expedition to the Indies in 1493, Christopher Columbus returned several Taíno captives to Borinquén ...
In order to produce cash crops such as sugar cane, ginger, tobacco and coffee, the Spanish began importing more slaves from Africain the 16th century. They also spent considerable resources turning San Juan into an impregnable military outpost, building a fortified palace for the governor (La Fortaleza) as well as two massive forts—San Felipe del M...
In July 1898, during the brief Spanish-American War, U.S. Army forces occupied Puerto Rico at Guánica, on the island’s south side. Under the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the war later that year, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Cuba to the United States. The interim U.S. military government established on the island ended...
Big political, economic and social changes swept Puerto Rico after World War II. In 1948, Congress passed an act permitting Puerto Ricans to elect their own governor. Four years later, Puerto Rico would officially become a U.S. commonwealth, which enabled the island to create its own constitution and granted other powers of self-government. By that...
Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, but the island’s ambiguous statusin relation to the United States has driven heated debate over the years between those who support its commonwealth status, those who favor full-fledged Puerto Rican statehood and those who want the island to be its own independent nation. As citizens of a commonwealt...
In the first decade of the 21st century, Puerto Rico’s economic growth slowed, even as its national debt rapidly expanded. In 2015, the worsening economic crisis led its governor to announce that the commonwealth could no longer meet its debt obligations. Two years later, under legislation passed by Congress to help Puerto Rico deal with its econom...
Doug Mack, The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA. W.W. Norton, 2017. Puerto Rico, History, Art & Archives: U.S. House of Representatives. Smithsonian. Library of Congress. Puerto Rico statehood referendum draws big support—but small turnout, CNN.
The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the Ortoiroid people between 430 BC and AD 1000. At the time of Christopher Columbus 's arrival in the New World in 1493, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos.
Christopher Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico in 1493 during his second voyage to the New World. Initially, Columbus christened the Island San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist). The name was soon changed to Puerto Rico, or “rich port,” when the Spaniards realized the impressive amount of gold found in its rivers.
(3m 18s) tv-pg. Learn about Puerto Rico's complex history, starting with its Spanish rule to becoming a U.S. territory. See how its eventual commonwealth status, the 2006 recession, and...
