2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
