9781422286203

12

U.S. Territories and Possessions

to settle the land, forcing the Tainos to mine for gold. Before the middle of the century, the gold was gone and the Taino were dying out from diseases brought by the Europeans. The Spanish brought slaves from Africa to cultivate sugar cane. Spanish men had children with Taino and African women. The children with Spanish and indigenous heritage were referred to as mestizo . The society was divided

Juan Bautista and Spain claimed it as part of its colonial territory. The capi- tal of Puerto Rico, San Juan, was orig- inally called Puerto Rico (Rich Port) because Spain realized that the city was a good base for naval operations. In time, there was a switch and the entire country was known as Puerto Rico, while the city became known as San Juan. In the 16th century, Spain started

During the Spanish colonial period, the Puerto Rican economy was based on agriculture. This included plantations where labor-intensive crops like sugar cane and tobacco were grown, as well as ranches for raising livestock.