Profit and glory-driven conflict in the Caribbean!

After the Spanish settlement of the island of Puerto Rico, things were not entirely peaceful like the settlers had anticipated.

It has now come to our attention that the British have recently attempted to raid the ports and ships on the island of Puerto Rico, completely disregarding the peace agreement previously made between the two empires. Spanish spies discovered that Queen Elizabeth I authorized Francis Drake and John Hawkins to seize the island. Their motive was not surprisingly the promise of gold of silver worth two million ducats, which was being stored in San Juan. Clearly, the reward was great if these men were successful.

Drake and Hawkins sailed from Plymouth on August 28^th with a large convoy of twenty-seven ships and 4,500 sailors. Due to inclement weather, they reached the island of Guadeloupe in the middle of November, which severely slowed their progress. By this time, several Spanish frigates spotted the pursuers while on their way to San Juan. Ultimately, news of the upcoming British invasion reached the island shortly before Drake and Hawkins. The inhabitants of Puerto Rico acted fast. By the time Drake and Hawkins arrived on San Juan Bay, the entrance to the harbor was blocked by two sunken ships and the five frigates that had spotted their presence earlier. Also, the city was emptied, except for the 800 seamen from the frigates and 750 men inside the forts. The British ships were subjected to endless rounds of cannon shots, and the efforts to steer their vessels out of the line of fire were unsuccessful. Drake nearly lost his life when a cannon shot blew through his cabin; luckily, he was not killed. However, Hawkins perished earlier in a rampant fever epidemic, and the remaining crew had begun to show signs of the disease, as well. Desperate, Drake then ordered the men to invade the island. His men were able to set fire to some of the frigates, but the casualties were so high that Drake was forced to retreat. Unfortunately, Drake died by late January as a victim of the fever epidemic that killed Hawkins. (See page 4 for obituaries)

The story of conflict does not end here! Another brave soul accepted the task of capturing San Juan three years later: George Clifford, the Earl of Cumberland. This mission differed from the previous in one important aspect: the island was not given advanced notice of the impending attack, and it did not have the support of Spanish seamen in the ports as before. Thus, when Cumberland and his men entered San Juan on June 16^th, there was little resistance. Cumberland learned from Drake’s mistakes and avoided sailing directly into the bay; instead, he landed his troops four leagues east of the city. Two days later, the invading troops marched right into the city, only to find it deserted, except for 400 men quartered in the Morro fort. Governor Mosquera refused to surrender control of the island, so Cumberland was forced to siege the city. The men in El Morro resisted for fifteen days, but finally surrendered due to a shortage of food and ammunition. After his victory, Cumberland declared Puerto Rico under British jurisdiction and sent the remaining Spanish soldiers to Jamaica.

However, holding the island proved more difficult than overcoming it. Two weeks after the victory, 400 of Cumberland’s men fell victim to an epidemic. Cumberland made preparations to leave the island, and he left Sir John Berkeley to succeed him. Before Cumberland left, he raided the island. He took artillery, 1,000 boxes of sugar, a few thousand hides, 2,000 quintales of ginger (one quintal = 100 lbs), a ship full of slaves and pearls, and the church organ and bells. By September, Berkeley abandoned the island, as well. This departure ended the British occupation before the Spanish arrived to rescue the island.

Clearly, Puerto Rico continues to be severely bruised because of its strategic value. The main goal during the seventeenth century became the need to fortify the islands belonging to the Spanish empire. Not long after Cumberland fled, Puerto Rico began to rebuild a castle and fort near the site where Cumberland succeeded in outflanking the Spaniards.

Did the conflict finally cease there? The answer is no. The Dutch also saw many gains in the takeover of Puerto Rico. They were the next empire to attempt to take San Juan. See next week’s issue for the outcome of this invasion!

Sources:

Noel, Jesse. “The Seventeenth Century, Hapsburg Era.” Revista de Historia de América. No. 89 (Jan. - Jun., 1980), pp. 29-48. Published by: Pan American Institute of Geography and History. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20139358>

Wagenheim, Olga Jiménez De. Puerto Rico: An Interpretive History from Pre-Columbian Times to 1900. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1998. Print.

The truth behind the “good” and the “noble;” peoples of Puerto Rico before Columbus

This is a special report to let the world know about the group of natives that inhabited the island of Puerto Rico before Columbus and his settlers arrived. Last week, we covered the controversy surrounding the colonization of Puerto Rico; this week, we plan to discover the identity of these peoples. Who were they? What did they look like? Did they welcome the arrival of the Europeans? The answers to these questions and more will be revealed this week in The Puerto Rico Report.

It is commonly known that before the colonization attempts made my Columbus and his settlers, a people known as the Tainos inhabited the island of Puerto Rico. More specifically, the natives of the island referred to themselves locally as the “Borinquen,” which was their name for this island. The word “Taino” means “good” or “noble;” it is said that the natives spoke this word to Columbus upon his arrival to indicate they were not to be confused with the Island-Carib peoples. Though the Tainos often referred to themselves as the “Borinquen,” we will be referring to them as Tainos for this issue. The Tainos populating Puerto Rico were one of the most culturally advanced inhabitants, as well as the most populous, in the Caribbean at that time. We have discovered that approximately 600,000 Tainos lived on the island before settlement by Europeans.  

To start off, we will discuss how the Tainos provided for themselves. They used an impressively sophisticated form of agriculture; they heaped mounds of earth together to cultivate root crops in the soft soil. These mounds were called conuco; they stood three feet high and were usually arranged in rectangular rows. This made it easier to harvest the crops. What is interesting about this technique is that these more permanent fields were a completely different process to the slash-and-burn method other tribes used during this time. Furthermore, the main crop was casaba, or cassava. The Tainos frequently ate sweet potatoes, squash, beans, peppers, and peanuts, as well. Fruit, tobacco, cotton, and calabashes were grown around the dwellings. They also ate fish, iguanas, wild parrots, dogs, and manatees.

As for the appearance of the Tainos, we have concluded that they had high cheekbones, straight hair, and copper-colored skin. The men were naked or covered the genitalia with loincloths. The unmarried women wore headbands, and the wives wore short skirts referred to as nagua; the length of the skirts indicated the woman’s rank. Both men and women often painted themselves when partaking in special ceremonies. The color red was most cherished in the society. The chiefs were distinguished from the rest of the inhabitants by headdresses decorated with feathers and gold. Moreover, the Tainos wore pendants in the form of carved masks which was also a sign of rank. Clearly, these inhabitants had already developed complex chiefdoms and indications of rank by the time Columbus arrived.

We have also discovered numerous facts about the religion of the Tainos. They worshipped two supreme deities: Yúcahu, who was the lord of cassava and the sea, and Atabey, the goddess of fertility and fresh water. These deities were often referred to as zemis. This term also refers to the idols representing the gods, which were made from wood, stone, bone, pottery, or shells.  Zemis were passed on from generation to generation by inheritance, trade, or gift.

Polygyny was common in the Taino society. Long-distance marriages may be arranged for political purposes, or men obtained wives in their village. Only the chiefs could afford many wives. The Tainos also traded frequently with other islands. Long sea voyages were very common in order to trade. They traded most often with the inhabitants of eastern Hispaniola due to the sharing of a common language.

It is said that Columbus was actually disappointed by the lack of civility with the Tainos. If these sentiments are genuine, we cannot be sure. We can speculate, however, that given a few more centuries isolated from Spanish interference, the Tainos of Puerto Rico would most likely have developed into a more commercially-based society because they would have created a linkage with the people of Middle America. This connection would have allowed them to acquire statehood, writing, and other important aspects of civilized peoples. However, as we stated last week, the Tainos were not left alone. Columbus and his settlers exploited them for a profit, which led to their demise. More importantly, the exchange of diseases caused an epidemic amongst the Tainos, as well. They were the natives that suffered the most.

Aside from the historical aspects of the Tainos presented in this article, we would like to point ou that much of their society did survive and surrounds us even today. For example, many words from the Taino language are used in the English language. Words such as hammock and kayak are from the ancient society. Also, the weaving of baskets is a heritage left behind by the Tainos.

Sources:

Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale UP, 1992. Accessed through Google Books.

Marino, John. Frommer's Puerto Rico. Pg. 211. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publ., 2008. Accessed through Google Books.

The Columbus Controversy

Is there more to this colonization than meets the eye?

It has just come to our attention that on November 19, 1493, an ambitious young explorer by the name of Christopher Columbus discovered yet another island through his colonization attempts in the New World. This is Columbus’ second discovery in one year; on October 12 of last year, Columbus made his first remarkable discovery of San Salvador, Bahamas. This new island has been identified as Puerto Rico, which is located between the Greater and Lesser Antilles. Originally, the island was dubbed San Juan Bautista, for St. John the Baptist, and the town was given the name Puerto Rico due to its magnificent possibilities. However, the lieutenant to Columbus, Juan Ponce de León, suggested these names should be switched; hence, the island permanently became Puerto Rico. These voyages were funded by the gracious Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and they were clearly smart in their choice in explorers.

The first voyage paled in comparison to this discovery. Columbus departed from Cádiz, Spain with 17 ships and approximately 1,500 men. More importantly, the ships brought livestock, such as horses, sheep, and cattle, on the voyage for the first time, as well. Luckily, we were able to retrieve a comment from Columbus during his travels: “I cannot explain the elation I felt when I saw land for the second time amidst the infinite blue sea. Once we broke land, I knew this would be another day to remember.” According to Columbus, the natives of the island were very similar to the peoples he encountered on the island of the Bahamas. There, he named the natives “Indians” because he was initially under the impression that he had reached the East Indies. Clearly, the name stuck; on the island of Puerto Rico, Columbus saw approximately 50,000 Taino Indians who greeted him with kindness.

Unfortunately, Columbus and his fellow travelers did not exactly return the kindness. After the initial discovery, the Spanish began to colonize the island. According to sources, the Tainos were soon forced into slavery by the new inhabitants. The conditions of the enslavement have not yet been released. However, we can safely assume that these conditions are not favorable to the Tainos. Furthermore, to make matters worse, Columbus and his men brought with them infectious diseases. One can see the effect of this situation immediately; the native Tainos have no immunity to the diseases. So, one can easily imagine the devastation caused by the colonization. Columbus himself stated: “There was no way we could have known the destruction our arrival would cause. We were just trying to expand our knowledge of the New World in the name of the Spanish monarchy.” Whether these are the true sentiments of Columbus and his men, we may never know. We do know, however, that the Tainos were pushed to near extinction because of the harsh conditions of slavery and the diseases to which they were exposed.

Overall, one may wish to celebrate this discovery as a victory for mankind because we are able to converse with new peoples and learn the true vastness of the world in which we live. However, others may see this discovery as an opportunity to dominate and exploit innocent peoples, not to enhance our cultural knowledge. What we can all agree on is that the next step for Puerto Rico is going to be the most important one. The fate of this new island lies in our hands.

Sources:

History of Puerto Rico http://welcome.topuertorico.org/history.shtml

"CIA - The World Factbook." Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. Web. 03 Sept. 2011. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rq.html>.