People of an Unknown World

Discovery, Conquer and Colonization of Puerto Rico

Columbus’s Second Voyage

• Because of the success of his first voyage, Columbus had the support of the Queen and King of Spain to embark once more to the West Indies.

• This time, he was in charge of 17 ships with more than a thousand men in total.

• The ships contained animals, plants and tools.

• The monarchs wanted Columbus to convert the native people to Catholicism, which was their main religion.

Columbus’s Second Voyage

• He discovered several islands of the Lesser Antilles.

• On November 19, 1493 he arrived at Puerto Rico, which he called San Juan Bautista.

• On this trip, he also discovered Jamaica.

• He made two more trips, for a total of 4 trips. On his third trip, he discovered the northern coast of South America and on his fourth, he reached Central America.

A New World

• Columbus’s voyages were truly essential to the people of Europe, Africa and Asia. Up until that point they believed the Earth only consisted of the continents they knew and ignored the existence of land in the Americas.

Two Cultures Face to Face

• The arrival of the Spanish greatly changed life in Borikén.

• The Spaniards were very interested in the Gold that was in our island’s rivers and the Taíno gave them a few pieces.

• In turn, the Taíno were interested on the new animals that the Spanish brought over such as pigs, goats, cows and sheep because they had never seen these animals before.

• Taínos believed that the Spaniards were gods, because of their clothes and their impressive weapons. They thought that Spaniards were immortal.

Two Cultures Face to Face

• The Spaniards forced the Taíno to extract gold from the rivers and to work for them as slaves.

• They also took Taínos from the islands and kidnapped them, taking them back to Spain as slaves.

• The Taíno were soon dominated by the Spaniards, who conquered and colonized the island.

• How do you think the Taíno felt?

Activity

• Imagine you’re a Taíno or Taína living through Spain’s conquer of our island. You are forced to work all day, every day, by these strange people that arrived out of nowhere.

• In your notebook, write a paragraph that explains how you feel and why.

Writing Workshop: A Taíno Slave

I am a Taíno working for the Spaniards, I feel…

Vocabulary and Important Facts• Columbus discovered America on October 12, 1492 arriving at San

Salvador Island.

• Puerto Rico was discovered on November 19, 1493 and was named San Juan Bautista.

• The Spaniards conquered the island and made the Taíno people work for them because they wanted the gold on the island.

• The Taíno were slaves to the Spaniards and thought they were immortal.

• Puerto Rico was a colony of Spain.

VOCABULARY

• Conquer – getting a territory and its population by way of war.

• Colonization – occupation of a conquered territory.

• Colony – territory run by a foreign country.