Puerto Rico:Colonized

Colonization

•The Spaniards decided to colonize the Island by doing the following:• Establishing towns• Organize work• Assign governors• Bring plants and animals• Set laws and norms• Establish the ideas, customs and religion of Spain.

Juan Ponce de León• The first Spanish governor of Puerto

Rico.

• He used an interpreter to speak with Agüeybaná I, the cacique who helped him travel Borikén.

• Ponce de León explored the Island in order to find an appropriate place to establish a town.

• He founded Villa Caparra in what is now known as Guaynabo. It was the first town established by the Spaniards in Puerto Rico.

Creating Towns• After founding Caparra, the Spaniards

thought it would be better to have a location close to the ports and so they moved the settlement to what is now the town of San Juan.

• Ponce de León thought it was so beautiful that he named it the Bay of Puerto Rico. Later on, the name Puerto Rico would become the name of the island.

• The second town to be established was San Germán, in the Southwest.

• As more Spaniards came to live at the Island, they built more settlements and towns, usually building a plaza with a church on the center of each town.

CTAÍNO REBELLIONStruggle and Resistance

The Story of Diego Salcedo• All of the caciques got together once

evening to see whether the Spaniards were really gods or not.

• They decided to test on a passing officer called Diego Salcedo.

• The group of Indians he was travelling with offered to help him cross a river without getting wet and when they were in the middle of it, they held him underwater and drowned him.

• Afterwards when they watched his body decompose, they informed the caciques that the Spaniards were mortal.

Indigenous Rebellion• The Taínos were already feeling desperate with their living conditions, so after they

found out that the Spaniards were not gods, they decided to rebel against them, to resist the abuse they had against them.

• They attacked the Spaniards, wanting to kill the leaders that had done so much harm to them and at first they were able to surprise the Spaniards.

• But, the Spaniards were better prepared for battle and had more powerful weapons, whereas the Taínos only had arrows and macanas.

• Agüeybaná and many other Indians lost their lives during the war and once again the Taíno fell under Spanish rule.

Defending Taínos

•Some Spaniards, like friars, like Bartolómé de las Casas, did not agree to the abuse of Indians and committed themselves to defending their causes.

•He wrote about the suffering of the Taíno and made it known to the rest of the world.

•But he also shared the opinion that Taíno were like children that needed to be educated to be shown the right path.

Mestizos• With Taínos being eliminated left and

right, the ones that remained eventually mixed with Spaniards and had children that were neither Spanish, nor Taíno, they were a mix of both races and were called Mestizos.

Activity – A news article• Choose one of the following topics:

• The trips of Christopher Columbus

• The Colonization of Puerto Rico

• The Taíno Rebellion

• Write a news article about it and draw a picture representing your story.

• This project will be done in class.

• The information is in our blog.