Puerto Rico Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Conquest and early settlement==== When [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] arrived in Puerto Rico during his second voyage on 19 November 1493, the island was inhabited by the Taíno. They called it ''Borikén'', spelled in a variety of ways by different writers of the day.<ref name=Brau1>{{cite book|last=Brau|first=Salvador|title=Puerto Rico y su historia: investigaciones críticas|year=1894|publisher=Francisco Vives Moras|location=Valencia, Spain|pages=[https://archive.org/details/puertoricoysuhi00braugoog/page/n33/mode/2up 27]–40|url=https://archive.org/details/puertoricoysuhi00braugoog|language=es}}</ref> Columbus named the island ''San Juan Bautista'', in honor of St [[John the Baptist]].{{efn|Today, Puerto Ricans are also known as Boricuas, or people from Borinquen.}} Having reported the findings of his first travel, Columbus brought with him this time a letter from [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|King Ferdinand]]<ref>{{cite web |title=King Ferdinand's letter to the Taino-Arawak Indians |url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/king-ferdinands-letter-to-the-taino-arawak-indians.php |publisher=University of Groningen |access-date=27 March 2015 |archive-date=21 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321192743/http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/king-ferdinands-letter-to-the-taino-arawak-indians.php |url-status=live }}</ref> empowered by the [[Inter caetera]], a [[papal bull]] that authorized any course of action necessary for the expansion of the [[Spanish Empire]] and the Christian faith. [[Juan Ponce de León]], a [[lieutenant]] under Columbus, founded the first Spanish settlement of [[Caparra Archaeological Site|Caparra]] on 8 August 1508. He later served as the first [[List of Governors of Puerto Rico|governor]] of the island.{{efn|[[Vicente Yañez Pinzón]] is considered the first appointed governor of Puerto Rico, but he never arrived from Spain.}} Eventually, traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, and San Juan became the name of the main trading and shipping port city. At the beginning of the 16th century, Spanish people began to colonize the island. Despite the [[Laws of Burgos]] of 1512 and other decrees for the protection of the indigenous population, some Taíno Indians were forced into an [[encomienda]] system of [[Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies|forced labor]] in the early years of colonization. The population suffered extremely high fatalities from epidemics of European [[infectious]] diseases such as [[smallpox]].{{efn|[[PBS]], to which they had no natural [[immunity (medical)|immunity]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Arthur C. Aufderheide |author2=Conrado Rodríguez-Martín |author3=Odin Langsjoen |title=The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-55203-5 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC&pg=PA204 204] |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173835/https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC |url-status=live }}</ref> For example, a [[smallpox]] outbreak in 1518–1519 killed much of the Island's indigenous population.<ref>{{cite book |first=George C. |last=Kohn |title=Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&pg=PA160 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2008 |page=160 |isbn=978-0-8160-6935-4 |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208215043/https://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&pg=PA160#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> "The first ''repartimiento'' in Puerto Rico is established, allowing colonists fixed numbers of Tainos for wage-free and forced labor in the gold mines. When several priests protest, the crown requires Spaniards to pay native laborers and to teach them the Christian religion; the colonists continue to treat the natives as slaves."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/timeline.html |title=Masterpiece Theatre – American Collection – Almost a Woman – Puerto Rico: A Timeline |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222221840/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/timeline.html }}</ref>}}{{efn|Poole (2011) "[The Taíno] began to starve; many thousands fell prey to smallpox, measles and other European diseases for which they had no immunity [...]"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html |title=History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places – Smithsonian |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207130050/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html }}</ref>}}{{efn|[[PBS]] "[The Taíno] eventually succumbed to the Spanish soldiers and European diseases that followed Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/spirits/html/body_taino.html |title=taino |website=PBS |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208073734/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/spirits/html/body_taino.html |archive-date=8 February 2013}}</ref>}}{{efn|[[Yale University]] "[...] the high death rate among the Taíno due to enslavement and European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) persisted."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/ |title=Puerto Rico – Colonial Genocides – Genocide Studies Program – Yale University |publisher=Yale.edu |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520120915/http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/ |archive-date=20 May 2013}}</ref>}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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