Puerto Rico History

The first inhabitants of the area now known as Puerto Rico, the Arcaicos, likely came to the island from North America and settled around Loíza. They were soon followed by the Igneri people, who came up from Venezuela around AD 300 and inhabited the coastal areas. However, the Ostinoids replaced both of these tribes; by AD 1000, the Ostinoids had evolved into the Taíno civilization, the most influential group in the island’s ancient history. Known for making grinding tools and jewelry, this peaceful people lived in communities of 300 to 600 inhabitants, governed by one cacique (chief). Their name for the island, Boriquén (Borinquén, or Borikén), is a term still used proudly and affectionately by Puerto Ricans today. After nearly 500 years alone on the island, the Taínos were attacked by the Caribs of South America. This invasion sent many Taínos scrambling to the central mountains in retreat, a precursor to the more lasting invasions that the near future would hold.

The Spanish Empire In The New World (1493-1835)

Caribbean Treasure: A Rich Port. Puerto Rico changed forever on November 19, 1493, when Christopher Columbus, representing the Spanish government, landed on the island during his second exploratory trip to the New World. After dubbing the island “San Juan Bautista,” Columbus promptly moved on in search of greater treasures. One man on this initial voyage, however, didn’t dismiss the island so quickly: the famed Juan Ponce de León returned in July 1508 to settle down for good. The Taínos, possibly looking for allies against the Caribs (or possibly living up to their peaceful reputation) were hospitable to Ponce de León and allowed him to explore the northern coast in search of gold. On August 12, 1508, the Spaniard established the first European settlement on the island, Caparra.

This peaceful arrangement did not last. Under the auspices of the Repartimiento de Indos (Distribution of Indians) ordinance, Ponce de León instituted a system to control the native population by selecting an hidalgo (aristocrat) to control each village, encouraging intermarriage between Europeans and Taínos, and converting the local population to Catholicism. This plan was intended to civilize the Taínos and prepare them to be slaves for the Spaniards. Needless to say, the island’s 30,000 Taínos did not find the arrangement nearly as agreeable as the Spanish did—a sentiment that only deepened when the natives began dying from smallpox, whooping cough, and other European diseases. In 1511, the Taínos joined with their erstwhile enemies, the Caribs, to rebel against the Spaniards. However, they could not hold out against the European pistols, and by 1550 the few indigenous peoples who remained retreated to the central mountains.

More Trouble In Paradise. Meanwhile, the Spaniards were facing their own problems confronting the difficulties of life in the yet-undeveloped Caribbean. The island was plagued by persistent disease, unreliable crops, and hurricanes. Soon, too, the Spanish discovered that the flat, swampy terrain of the Caparra settlement exposed residents to both malaria-carrying mosquitoes and human attacks. They therefore moved the capital to an island in front of a large, protected bay—the future San Juan. (In an unexplained mix-up, the capital city took the island’s name and the island became “Puerto Rico.”)

When the Spaniards realized that other European powers might attack the island in an attempt to disrupt Spanish trade, they constructed several forts, including La Fortaleza , El Morro , and San Cristóbal . This foresight prepared the Spanish for strikes by French, English, and Dutch forces. Most of the attackers didn’t get beyond the forts of San Juan; those with the ingenuity to attack other spots on the island were quickly conquered by tropical diseases. At this time the Spanish also began importing West African slaves to replace the labor of the rapidly dwindling native population.

The Emergence Of A People. Bound by the rules of a mercantile economy, Puerto Rican islanders traded only with the Spanish, sending raw materials to Spain and receiving finished goods in return. Because the Spanish levied heavy taxes on Puerto Rican products, the Spanish profited while the islanders lived in poverty. To remedy the situation, inhabitants outside of San Juan, hidden from the watchful eye of the Spanish, began clandestine trade with other nations. When Spanish royalty got wind of this illegal trade in the 1760s, it sent Irish-born Spaniard Alejandro O’Reilly to put an end to it. Upon arrival, O’Reilly found a population of 50,000 people with no government infrastructure. He responded by lowering taxes, building roads and schools, and developing the sugar cane industry. The changes were a success: within 50 years the population tripled and a Puerto Rican identity began to develop.

A Revolutionary World. In the late eighteenth century, the eruption of revolutions all over Latin America would irrevocably, though indirectly, shape Puerto Rico’s future. A 1791 slave rebellion on the nearby island of Hispaniola caused foreign nations to turn to Puerto Rico for sugar and rum imports; this marked the beginning of the island’s close relationship with the US. By 1830 the population had soared to 330,000, and Puerto Rico and Cuba were the only two remaining Spanish colonies. The Spanish monarchy’s fear of losing the islands prompted a series of reforms. In 1809 Puerto Rico was officially allowed to send a non-voting representative to the Spanish Cortes (Parliament), and the mercantilist trade system slowly came to an end as Spain cut tariffs and opened ports to foreign trade. Many white Spaniards migrated to the island and developed an agricultural industry, with large haciendas producing the cash crops of sugar cane, coffee, and tobacco.

From Colony To Province To Nation To Colony (1835-1898)

Revolutionary Puerto Rico. In spite of these preventative measures, a minor revolution erupted in 1835, and three years later native islander Buenaventura Quiñones was exiled for planning a second revolution. An uprising initiated in the town of Lares in September 1868 declared the island a republic and elected a president, but failed to gain popular support and faded after a month and a half. Perhaps the most lasting contribution of the movement was the rallying cry “Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” which became known as the Grita de Lares (Cry of Lares). These revolutions failed, but changes came about nonetheless. In late September 1868, the Spanish military overthrew the monarchy and a civil war broke out in Cuba. Consequently, Madrid felt the call to improve its relationship with Puerto Rico. Over the next 20 years, Puerto Ricans were granted the right to participate in the Spanish parliament, to form municipal councils, and to develop political parties. Moreover, the island finally achieved the status of a “province.”

A Temporary Victory. In 1881, the election of the liberal Práxedes Mateo Sagasta as prime minister of Spain marked a new era in the country’s governance. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Puerto Rican Luis Muñoz Rivera, leader of the Autonomist Party, went to Madrid to politely ask for Puerto Rico’s independence. In 1897, Mateo Sagasta granted Puerto Rico political and administrative autonomy but retained a military presence on the island. For the next year, Puerto Rico enjoyed a brief stint as a relatively independent state.

Enter The Us. Meanwhile, Spain was battling rebel forces in Cuba and their supporters in Puerto Rico. Independence fighters looked to the increasingly powerful US for assistance and began corresponding with US President William McKinley. On February 15, 1898, the US battleship Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana’s harbor. Although the accident remained a mystery, American journalists blamed the Spanish and public opinion persuaded McKinley to press for war. McKinley requested that Spain withdraw immediately from Cuba, and on April 20, 1898 the US Congress authorized the use of force in the Caribbean.

US troops attacked San Juan on May 12, 1898 with limited success, but within three months the Spanish forces surrendered in Cuba and the war was essentially over. When US troops landed at Guánica on July 25, the Spaniards barely put up a fight. Consequently, on December 10, 1898, Spain signed the Treaty of Paris, which granted Cuba independence and ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the US. Puerto Rico was subject to outside government once again.

Sugarville, Usa (1898-1942)

A Rocky Start. The first two years of American control were a difficult time for the Puerto Ricans. Inhabitants of the island who had hoped for greater liberty under US control were disappointed when the US government placed Puerto Rico under military rule and limited free speech in the press. Additional problems ensued when the Americans mandated that Puerto Rico separate the Catholic Church from the state, which in turn necessitated a complete restructuring of the religion-based educational system. On the economic front, American corporations bought out local businessmen in hopes of taking over the sugar and tobacco industries. To make matters worse, a hurricane devastated crucial coffee crops in 1899. The Americans did provide food, import new vaccines, and build a network of roads on the island, but the first two years of US rule were as rough as any the island had previously experienced.

The Boom. This tenuous situation could not last, and in 1900 the US passed the Foraker Act, which formally established a governor for the island, appointed by the US president, who would control a house of delegates (with elected representatives) and an upper legislature (with appointed officials). Residents of Puerto Rico would be taxed according to US laws, but they would not be considered American citizens. The 1917 Jones Act expanded the legislature to two houses of elected representatives and gave Puerto Ricans American citizenship—coincidentally, just before they would be eligible for the WWI draft.

At this time, the island experienced an economic boom. As a result of the fact that Puerto Rican industry was not taxed or charged duties for trading with the US, American investment increased. The Puerto Rican sugar industry grew, and by 1920 75% of islanders depended on sugar for their livelihood. Wages rose, disease decreased, education expanded, the government spent $50 billion on developing roads, and the population was increasing rapidly.

..And The Bust. Everything came crashing to a halt in the 1930s. Devastating hurricanes in 1928 and 1932 ruined the agricultural income; then, the Great Depression came rolling onto the island. As unemployment rose to 65%, many Puerto Ricans attempted to solve their problems by migrating to the US. Others became increasingly dissatisfied with US control and joined the independence movement. The Puerto Rican Nationalist Party (Partido Nacionalista Puertorriqueño; PNP), headed by Pedro Albizu Campos, led protests for Puerto Rican independence. In 1936, the party was set back when four members were killed and others were jailed for murdering a chief of police, but the demonstrations continued. A year later, at the Masacre de Ponce, 19 people were killed at a PNP protest.

A more peaceful solution to the island’s problems emerged in 1938 when Luis Muñoz Marín (grandson of revolutionary Luis Muñoz Riviera) founded the Popular Democratic Party (Partido Popular Democrático; PPD). Marín was less concerned with the status of the island as a colony than he was about improving the quality of life for Puerto Ricans. This plan was well received; in 1940, the PPD won control of the legislature and Muñoz Marín became president of the senate. With this position he attempted to end the sugar monopolies and diversify the economy. Though Muñoz Marín took the first steps toward reviving the economy, it would take a powerful outsider to finish the job.

Operation Save Puerto Rico (1942-1999)

Let The Good Times Roll. In the early 1940s a few changes permanently transformed Puerto Rico, “the poorhouse of the Caribbean,” into a developed area. The first was that Americans began to drink rum when WWII cut off their whiskey supply. Suddenly rum became a major Puerto Rican export. The second, much more significant change, came when American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt devised a plan to shift the island’s economy away from agriculture toward the more lucrative manufacturing and tourism industries. This was Operation Bootstrap, the most successful economic revival campaign in the island’s history. The American government encouraged US manufacturers to move to Puerto Rico, where revenue was partially free from US income tax and cheap labor was available. By 1964, over 2000 American companies had relocated to Puerto Rico. Net income per capita soared from $121 in 1940 to $1900 in the early 1970s. Tourism boomed and Puerto Rico entered the fast lane.

Official Status At Last. Political improvements soon followed. In 1948, the US offered the island a constitutional government that Puerto Ricans approved in a 1951 vote, and in 1952 Puerto Rico became an official commonwealth of the US. As a commonwealth, Puerto Rico was similar to a US state, but residents could not vote in presidential elections, were not represented in Congress, and did not pay income taxes. Many Puerto Ricans, especially independentistas (supporters of independence), protested the island’s new status. These opponents attempted to assassinate both Muñoz Marín and US President Harry Truman by opening fire on the governor’s mansion on the day the bill was signed, July 25, 1952. Two years later, they started shooting in the US House of Representatives, reviving the old Cry of Lares as they shouted “Viva Puerto Rico Libre!” The attack wounded five American legislators.

The violence subsided, but the issue continued to loom large in Puerto Rican politics as two parties competed for power. The New Progressive Party (Partido Nuevo Progresista; PNP), founded in 1968, advocated for statehood; the PPD supported the commonwealth; and a small but vocal minority continued to argue for independence. In 1962, responding to this controversy, Muñoz Marín and US President John F. Kennedy created a “three-point program” that would first study the benefits of the options and then allow Puerto Ricans to vote on the issue. In July 1967, with voter turnout lowered to 65.8% by independentista boycotts, 60.5% of Puerto Ricans voted to maintain commonwealth status, 38.9% cast their ballots for statehood, and .06% voted for independence.

During this time, Operation Bootstrap continued to support Puerto Rico’s economy, generating improvements in education, literacy, life expectancy, and wages. Combined with a growing tourism industry of 100,000 visitors per year, this made the 1960s a time of plenty in Puerto Rico.

The Shifty Seventies. Puerto Rico’s economic health declined throughout the 1970s as the US recession increased the cost of imported fuels and consumer goods. Unemployment on the island rose to an astounding 25% in 1975.

Terror And Tragedy. Controversy wracked the island in 1978 when two alleged terrorists, both under 25 years old, were shot and killed by policemen on the mountaintop of Cerro Maravilla as they were attempting to blow up a television tower as a sign of support for independence. In his 1980 reelection campaign, governor Carlos Romero Barceló called the policemen who were involved heroes and used the incident to further his political agenda, but an investigation later uncovered that the boys had surrendered and were kneeling when the police shot them. Ten members of the Puerto Rican police were convicted and many regard the event, though tragic, as a triumph of the Puerto Rican legal system.

Environmental And Military Concerns. Environmental issues became prominent due to continued population growth and industrial pollution. New organizations developed around these issues, such as the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, a nonprofit created to protect the island’s natural resources, and the Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA), a government-run organization that oversees most of the island’s nature reserves and protected areas.

The foremost issue of the 1980s became the US military presence on the island. Puerto Rico’s strategic position at the edge of the Greater Antilles and its proximity to Cuba made it an ideal site for the American military. The two most prominent bases were the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, located on the eastern coast, and the enormous naval base that occupied two-thirds of Vieques until 2003. Puerto Ricans protested the bases from the start, and alarm grew throughout the 1980s when nuclear weapons were placed on the island.

More Victories For The Commonwealth. In March 1998, the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill finally allowing Puerto Rico to have a federally authorized binding referendum on statehood status—if the advocates of statehood won, then Puerto Rico would be admitted into the Union. However, on December 13, 1998, when the vote was held, almost 80% of the population turned up to vote and 51% chose to retain commonwealth status.