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! ====Late colonial period==== [[File:Hacienda La Fortuna Francisco Oller 1885 Brooklyn Museum.jpg|thumb|Sugar [[hacienda]]s, like the one depicted above, ran a significant portion of the Puerto Rican economy in the late 19th century. |alt=|left]] During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Spain concentrated its colonial efforts on the more prosperous mainland North, Central, and South American colonies. With the advent of the lively [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon Dynasty]] in Spain in the 1700s, the island of Puerto Rico began a gradual shift to more imperial attention. More roads began connecting previously isolated inland settlements to coastal cities, and coastal settlements like [[Arecibo, Puerto Rico|Arecibo]], [[Mayagüez, Puerto Rico|Mayagüez]] and [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]] began acquiring importance of their own, separate from San Juan. By the end of the 18th century, merchant ships from an array of nationalities threatened the tight regulations of the [[Mercantilism|Mercantilist system]], which turned each colony solely toward the European metropole and limited contact with other nations. U.S. ships came to surpass Spanish trade and with this also came the exploitation of the island's natural resources. Slavers, which had made but few stops on the island before, began selling more enslaved Africans to growing sugar and coffee plantations. The increasing number of Atlantic wars in which the Caribbean islands played major roles, like the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]], the [[Seven Years' War]] and the [[Atlantic Revolutions]], ensured Puerto Rico's growing esteem in [[Madrid]]'s eyes. On 17 April 1797, Sir [[Ralph Abercromby]]'s fleet invaded the island with a force of 6,000–13,000 troops,<ref>Confirmation of troop count is unattainable, only Spanish and Puerto Rican sources are available regarding troop count.</ref> which included German soldiers and Royal Marines and 60 to 64 ships. Fierce fighting continued for the next days with Spanish troops. Both sides suffered heavy losses. On Sunday 30 April the British ceased their attack and began their retreat from San Juan. By the time independence movements in the larger Spanish colonies gained success, new waves of loyal European-born immigrants began to arrive in Puerto Rico, helping to tilt the island's political balance toward the Crown. [[File:Castillo San Felipe del Morro SJU 06 2019 6598.jpg|thumb|The 16th-century Spanish colonial-era [[Castillo San Felipe del Morro|Castle San Felipe del Morro]], in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]]]] In 1809, to secure its political bond with the island and in the midst of the European [[Peninsular War]], the [[Junta (Peninsular War)|Supreme Central Junta]] based in [[Cádiz]] recognized Puerto Rico as an overseas [[Provinces of Spain|province of Spain]]. This gave the island residents the right to elect representatives to the recently convened [[Cortes of Cádiz]] (effectively the Spanish government during a portion of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]), with somewhat equal representation to mainland Iberian, Mediterranean ([[Balearic Islands]]) and Atlantic maritime Spanish provinces ([[Canary Islands]]). [[Ramón Power y Giralt]], the first Spanish parliamentary representative from the island of Puerto Rico, died after serving a three-year term in the Cortes. These [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|parliamentary and constitutional reforms]] were in force from 1810 to 1814, and again from 1820 to 1823. They were twice reversed during the restoration of the traditional monarchy by [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand VII]]. Immigration and commercial trade reforms in the 19th century increased the island's ethnic European population and economy and expanded the Spanish cultural and social imprint on the local character of the island.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Puerto Rico |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/monge-puertorico.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=archive.nytimes.com |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820221316/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/monge-puertorico.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Minor [[Slave rebellion|slave revolts]] had occurred on the island throughout the years, with the revolt planned and organized by [[Marcos Xiorro]] in 1821 being the most important. Even though the conspiracy was unsuccessful, Xiorro achieved legendary status and is part of the [[folklore of Puerto Rico]].<ref name="GB">[[Guillermo A. Baralt]], ''Slave revolts in Puerto Rico: conspiracies and uprisings, 1795–1873''; Markus Wiener Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-55876-463-7}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page