Richard Worth - Puerto Rico: From Colony to Commonwealth

Published in 2016 by Enslow Publishing, LLC

101 W. 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011

Copyright 2016 by Richard Worth

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Worth, Richard.

Puerto Rico: from colony to commonwealth / by Richard Worth.

p. cm. (Our shared history)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7660-7004-2 (library binding)

1. Puerto Rico History Juvenile literature. I. Worth, Richard. II. Title. F1971.W67 2016

972.95d23

Printed in the United States of America

To Our Readers: We have done our best to make sure all Web Site addresses in this book were active and appropriate when we went to press. However, the author and the publisher have no control over and assume no liability for the material available on those Web sites or any Web sites they may link to. Any comments or suggestions can be sent by e-mail to .

Portions of this book originally appeared in the book Puerto Rico in American History.

Photo Credits: Alejandro OReilly (1722-94) (oil on canvas), Goya y Lucientes, Francisco Jose de (1746-1828)/Museo de San Telmo, San Sebastian, Spain/Bridgeman Images, p..

Cover Credits: Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com (Puerto Rican flags); ilolab/Shutterstock.com (textured background).

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 The Lares Uprising

Chapter 2 A Conflict of Cultures

Chapter 3 The Spanish Government

Chapter 4 Colonial Growth and Development

Chapter 5 The Spanish-American War

Chapter 6 Puerto Rico Changes Direction

Chapter 7 Self-Government for Puerto Rico

Timeline

Chapter Notes

Glossary

Further Reading

Index

The island of Puerto Rico

Chapter

The Lares Uprising

The small uprising began on September 23, 1868. A group of rebels, numbering about 600, attacked the town of Lares on the tiny island of Puerto Rico. Located in the western part of the island, Lares was unprepared for such a surprising attack. As a result, the invaders, wielding knives and machetes, were successful in taking over the town after a brief attack. The rebellion became known as El Grito de Lares (the Cry of Lares) and it was designed to liberate the island from more than three hundred years of oppressive Spanish rule.

The Origins of Rebellion

In the early sixteenth century, the Spanish settled Puerto Rico. Army generals sent from Spain served as the islands governors. A small number of Spanish immigrants, known as peninsulares, brought their money to the island. They established large tobacco plantations and became successful merchants. They also filled all the important political positions on the island.

By contrast, the majority of Puerto Ricans received very little from Spanish rule. These Puerto Ricans were not permitted to vote or hold government jobs. They had little money and could only afford to own small farms or shops. The Spanish did not permit freedom of speech or freedom of the press. In addition, they made Puerto Ricans pay heavy taxes to the colonial government. During the nineteenth century, the Spanish government promised to give the people of the island greater freedom. But this promise was never kept.

In 1865, the government in Spain promised again to improve conditions in Puerto Rico. The Puerto Ricans sent representatives to Madrid, the capital of Spain, to discuss a more liberal colonial policy. By 1867, the discussions in Spain had ended. The Puerto Ricans were told that new special laws would soon go into effect. Puerto Ricans would be able to hold positions in the colonial government and would be given the right to vote. But no such laws ever took effect. Instead, the Spanish governor began to force outspoken Puerto Rican politicians to leave the island.

Among them was Ramn E. Betances. He was a physician who had started a hospital in Mayagez, a small city in western Puerto Rico. There he had treated poor colonists who suffered from many serious diseases.

Betances fled to the Dominican Republic, located near Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. He formed the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico. The committee issued the Proclamation of 1867. It stated that the colonists were victims of the Spanish colonial system, which since Columbus has been, and will always be, the negation of every right and all justice; the absolute and irresponsible empire of a handful of greedy, inept, adventurers...

Ramn E. Betances is considered by many to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement.

Betances also issued his Ten Commandments of Free Men for the future of Puerto Rico. The commandments included an end to slavery and the right to vote in free elections. They also called for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Betances was eventually driven out of the Dominican Republic for his political views. Later he went to St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands are located near Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. In St. Thomas, Betances began gathering arms and ammunition for Puerto Rican rebels who sought independence. Several small groups, or cells, of rebels had already formed in the western part of Puerto Rico. The cells were located in Lares, Mayagez, and Camuy.

The members of the revolutionary cells came from different economic groups on the island. Some rebels were small landowners. Others were peasants and farmworkers. A few were slaves. Slavery had begun in Puerto Rico during the sixteenth century. But an abolition movement, led by Betances, had demanded that the Spanish government end slavery.

All of the people involved in planning the rebellion shared a common set of beliefs. Most importantly, they wanted freedom from Spain and control over their own island. In addition, the rebels sought relief from the financial hardships they experienced under Spanish rule. Some of the small coffee growers were in debt to Spanish merchants in Puerto Rico. These merchants loaned money to the growers, but made the growers pay high interest rates. Then they bought the growers coffee crops at low prices. The rebels also complained about high taxes.

The Uprising Begins

The rebels planned to begin their attack on September 29, 1868, in Camuy. Once the revolt started, Betances was expected to land in Puerto Rico with his supplies of arms. But before the revolt could begin, the plans were discovered. Carlos Antonio Lopez, a member of the local militia, learned about the location and date of the rebellion. He also knew that the leader of the revolt was Manuel Mara Gonzlez. Gonzlez was head of the revolutionary cell in Camuy. The information was quickly relayed to the Spanish military commander in the area. His name was Colonel Manuel de Iturriaga. On September 21, in the middle of the night, Colonel Iturriaga led a small group of soldiers to Camuy. They surprised Gonzlez in his home and arrested him.

When the rebels learned of the arrest, they acted quickly. The date of the rebellion was moved up to September 23. The center of the revolt was changed from Camuy to Lares. In the evening, the rebels gathered outside of Lares under the command of Manuel Rojas. He was president of the local rebel cell. Rojas carried a new flag for the Lares revolt. It had been sewed by Mariana Bracetti. The flag had two blue rectangles on the top and two red rectangles on the bottom. In the top left rectangle was a white star.