30 History of Puerto Rico

The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the archipelago of Puerto Rico by the Ortoiroid people between 3,000 and 2,000 BC. Other tribes, such as the Saladoid and Arawak Native Puerto Ricans, populated the island between 430 BC and 1000 AD. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1493, the dominant indigenous culture was that of the Taínos. The Taíno people's numbers went dangerously low during the later half of the 16th century because of new infectious diseases carried by Europeans, exploitation by Spanish settlers, and warfare.

In 1953, the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works implemented a major renumbering of its insular highways. Before 1953, highway routes were numbered in the 1 to just over 100 range and were distributed randomly throughout the island, resulting in several routes with long road lengths. The numbering system adopted in 1953, which is the in use as of 2020 increased the range of route numbers from the just-over-100 to 999, resulting in a decrease in the length of many routes. This new numbering system follows a grid pattern for highways numbered between 100 and 999, with the lower numbered roads found to the west and systematically increasing towards 999 as the traveler moves easterly. Although PR-1, PR-2 and PR-3 routes had notable changes in some of their segments, these three are the only highways that kept their route numbers intact due to their interregional prominence.

The Puerto Rican general strike of 1998 began as a strike of Puerto Rico Telephone Company workers to protest a government privatization plan. Three weeks later, an estimated 500,000 people joined a two-day general strike, bringing commerce and travel in Puerto Rico to a standstill. Protests and pickets were mostly peaceful, but in the week before the general strike some infrastructure elements were sabotaged, and two bombs were detonated. The strike failed to stop the privatization plan, and in July a consortium led by GTE bought the PRTC for US$1.9 billion.

Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra (1745–1813), born in Estadilla, Spain, was a Benedictine monk and the first historian to extensively document Puerto Rico's history, nationality, and culture.

Anacaona also known as Golden Flower, was a Taíno cacique (chief), religious expert and poet born in Xaragua (Haiti). Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Ayiti, now known as the island of Hispaniola was divided into five kingdoms. Anacaona was born into a family of chiefs, and was the sister of Bohecio, the chief of Xaragua.

Anarchism as a social movement is one of the manifestations of the political left within the working classes of Puerto Rico, having its peak during the late 19th and early 20th century. Anarchism was predominantly present within, but not exclusive to, the working classes that emerged as the sociopolitical environment changed. The municipalities of Caguas and Bayamón were the epicenters of the movement. It was also recorded in other industrial centers, such as Ponce, San Juan, Arecibo, Cayey, Cidra, Juncos, Vega Baja, Utuado, Lares, Yauco and Mayagüez. Despite sharing some core values, Puerto Rican anarchism was heterogeneous in nature. In general, Puerto Rican anarchism was distinctly anti-organized religion, in particular against the Catholic Church that had retained considerable influence since the beginning of Spanish colonialism. Following the Treaty of Paris, it also grew to oppose American sovereignty, as it perceived that the island was being forced into servitude with an Americanization initiative, leading to distinct antiauthoritarian stances against both foreign and local politicians, the wealthy higher classes and American labor unions. However, on principle the anarchists opposed joining the independence movement.

The Confederación Antillana or Antillean Confederation was the vehement idea of Ramón Emeterio Betances about the need for natives of the Spanish Caribbean to unite into a regional entity that would seek to preserve the sovereignty and well-being of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

The Archivo General de Puerto Rico, established in 1955, is an archives documenting the history and culture of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The governmental Institute of Puerto Rican Culture began overseeing its operation in 1956. It is located in a building shared with the national library on Avenida Juan Ponce de León in San Juan. Among its collections is the "Fondo de Obras Publicas", formerly housed in the University of Puerto Rico's archives.

The University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, is a public research university in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. It is the largest campus of the University of Puerto Rico system in terms of student population and it was Puerto Rico's first public university campus.

Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste, was a Puerto Rican historian and writer. He was the patriarch of a prominent family of Puerto Rican educators, politicians and writers.

Cadets of the Republic, known in Spanish as Cadetes de la República, was a quasi-military youth organization of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party in the twentieth century. The organization was also referred to as the Liberation Army of Puerto Rico (Ejército Libertador de Puerto Rico)

Sixto Escobar was a Puerto Rican professional boxer. Competing in the bantamweight division, he became Puerto Rico's first world champion.

The flag of Puerto Rico represents and symbolizes Puerto Rico and its people.

This is a list of the flags of Puerto Rico. These flags represent and symbolize Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican people. The most commonly used flags of Puerto Rico are the current flag, which represents the people of the commonwealth of Puerto Rico; municipal flags, which represent the 78 municipalities of the archipelago; political flags, which represent the different political beliefs of the people; and sports flags, which identify Puerto Rico as the country represented by its athletics during competitions.

Avelino González-Claudio is a Puerto Rican independence activist who served time in a U.S. federal prison for his participation in an armored truck robbery planned by Los Macheteros. Although the robbery took place in 1983, González-Claudio was not apprehended until 25 years later, in 2008. After pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery, González-Claudio was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2010. He was released three years later, in 2013.

Boudewijn Hendricksz was a Dutch corsair and later Admiral. He is most famous for his role in the Battle of San Juan (1625) during the Eighty Years' War, in which he tried but failed to capture San Juan from Spanish forces. In the same year, prior the assault on San Juan he attempted to recapture Bahia, Brazil after the Spanish overcame Dutch forces in the city.

Hurricane Maria in September 2017 devastated the entirety of Puerto Rico and caused a major humanitarian crisis. Originally a powerful Category 5 hurricane, Maria was the strongest storm to impact the island in nearly 90 years. Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on September 20 at high-end Category 4 status, bringing a large storm surge, very heavy rains, and wind gusts well above 100 mph (160 km/h), flattening neighborhoods and crippling the island's power grid. An estimated 2,982 fatalities and US$90 billion in damage occurred as a result of the hurricane.

Instituto de Música Juan Morel Campos, formerly known as Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce, is a musical arts institution in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is an institution of the Ponce Municipal Government. Its first director was Librado Net Pérez.

The Liberal Party of Puerto Rico was a pro-independence political party. The Liberal Party was founded in 1932 as a formal disaffiliation between two political parties which composed the political coalition known as the Alianza (Alliance).

This list of Governors of Puerto Rico includes all persons who have held that post, either under Spanish or American rule. The Governor of Puerto Rico is the Head of Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The position was first established by the Spanish Empire during the 16th century following the archipelago's colonization.

This is a list of highways in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The list focuses on major, signed, roads in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The list shows local roads, that is, those with both terminuses within the municipality, as well as inter-municipal roads.

This list of islands in Ponce, Puerto Rico, is a summary of the seven islands that form part of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. It consists of islands, keys, and cays, and similarly named geographic features surrounded by large bodies of water, namely, the Caribbean Sea.

This list of mountains in Ponce, Puerto Rico, consists of both hills, mountains, and similarly named geographic features with a summit in the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

This is a list of municipal flags of Puerto Rico. There are 78 municipal flags in Puerto Rico, one for each municipality. The region and the people of each municipality are represented by the flags which, in most cases derive their symbolism from the region's Coat of Arms.

Roberto Maldonado-Rivera is a Puerto Rican nationalist who had the fine imposed on him in the 1983 armored car robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut, case remitted under the terms of President Bill Clinton's clemency offer on September 7, 1999. Maldonado-Rivera had already served the terms of his prison sentence and had been released several years prior to Clinton's offer.

Puerto Rican citizenship is the status of having citizenship of Puerto Rico as a concept distinct from having citizenship of the United States. Such a citizenship was first legislated in Article 7 of the Foraker Act of 1900 and later recognized in the Constitution of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rican citizenship existed before the U.S. takeover of the islands of Puerto Rico and continued afterwards. Its affirmative standing was also recognized before and after the creation of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in 1952. Puerto Rican citizenship was recognized by the United States Congress in the early twentieth century and continues unchanged after the creation of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The United States government also continues to recognize a Puerto Rican nationality. Puerto Rican citizenship is also recognized by the Spanish Government, which recognizes Puerto Ricans as a people with Puerto Rican, in addition to, U. S. citizenship. It may also grant Spanish citizenship to Puerto Ricans on the basis of their Puerto Rican citizenship.

The Puerto Rico National Library is the national library of Puerto Rico. It was officially opened on April 11, 1973. The library was created by Joint Resolution No. 44 of 1967, which was later repealed and superseded by Act No. 188 of 2003.. The library is ascribed to the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture.

Sports in Puerto Rico can be traced from the ceremonial competitions amongst the pre-Columbian Native Americans of the Arawak (Taíno) tribes who inhabited the island to the modern era in which sports activities consist of an organized physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose for competition. One of the sports which the Taíno's played was a ball game called "Batey". The "Batey" was played in "U" shaped fields two teams; however, unlike the ball games of the modern era, the winners were treated like heroes and the losers were sacrificed.

During the first two decades of the 21st Century, the concept of a sovereign form of association has experienced its largest growth since it was first proposed. The 2000s marked the first time that an incumbent governor ran on a platform advocating sovereignty, when Aníbal Acevedo Vilá did so for the Popular Democratic Party (PPD). The term soberanista was popularized as a consequence, and the ideological breach within the party widened as the conservative wing backed the territorial Commonwealth. During the 2010s, free association recorded its best performance at the polls, finishing as runner-up of the 2012 status referendum. This decade also marked the first time that another party presented supporters of free association in the ballot, with the participation of the Movimiento Unión Soberanista (MUS).

The Unconditional Spanish Party was a loyalist conservative political party in Puerto Rico during Spanish colonial times. It was founded in November 1870. The party favored traditionalist assimilation into the political party system of Spain. It purchased the newspaper Boletín Mercantil to serve as the party's official organ for disseminating its conservative views. Most of its members belonged to the Puerto Rican Volunteers Corps.