Thursday, February 16, 2006

Puerto Rico; A Visit to A wonderful Island


Puerto Rico; A Visit to a Wonderful Island


Google


Introduction


We have some JLanders who are from Puerto Rico.I thought that you might like to hear about their island informally here. Please keep in mind that I am doing research for them. If I make an error you just tell me and I will correct it! thanks!


In 1493 Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on his second voyage. there were at this time 50,000 indians originally from South America called Tainos.The Tainos made the mistake of showing the Spainish their gold and inviting the Spainish to take as much of it as the wihses. The Spanish went home. In 1500 the Spanish king and queen said that it was okay to bring slaves to this island. In 1508 the Spanish came back with the mission to populate, set up a mission on the island and govern the native population there.


In 1509 the Spanish established the repartimento; a system for splitting up the native population as unpaid slaves among the Spanish. Two years later the priests tried to change this system by requiring that the native peoples be paid well. The Spanish ended up reversing this position by paying them very little and keep them busy.


In 1510, the native people drowned the leader Diego Slacedo to see if he was immortal or not. When the Spanish leader Ponce de Leon heard of this he ordered the killing of 6,000 men.


In 1513 African slaves were introduced to the island.In 1521 more Spanish settlers arrived and they had no women among them so they got native women and Puerto Rico became a mixed race.


In 1595 Sir Francis Drake set the island on fire and caused plague to attack the villagers on the island. The English withdrew.


In 1599 the Spanish sent 400 people over to set up the government of the island in the name of Spain.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

interesting history lesson

Anonymous said...

Nat
In researching the history of islands such as Puerto Rico, it is appalling to learn what the civilized world inflicted upon the native people.  The arrogance of the new world discoverers still amazes me to this day.
Sam