|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, associated with the United States since 1898 and 1917, respectively, possess rich pasts associated with the European explorers and colonizers, as well as the Taino and Carib Americans Indians, who inhabited the region before the arrival of the Europeans. Known human settlement in the Caribbean Islands reaches back at least 4,000 years. The Taino Indians lived in small villages controlled by chiefs, where they subsisted on domesticated tropical crops such as pineapple, manioc and batatas as well as seafood. Carib Indians living in the Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands and Isla Vieques, at times raided Taino settlements and seized captives. In 1493, Columbus landed in a bay on Puerto Rico's west coast, and he claimed the island for Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Fifteen years passed, however, before Spanish explorers, led by Juan Ponce de León, explored and colonized the island. Indians, as Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus called the Caribbean's first inhabitants, first explored and settled numerous Caribbean Islands 5,000 years ago. In learning how to survive in the island environment, they created various distinctive cultures. Columbus's voyages to the "New World" initiated European colonization of the Caribbean Islands and, later, of the American mainlands during an era of intense competition for lands and riches between the maritime European powers. Spain preceded Portugal, England, France, Sweden, Denmark and other European states in staking claim to the "New World." Yet, fantastic as it sounds, Columbus died believing he had found islands near India and China; he never knew that his voyages opened the Western Hemisphere to European colonization. Most of the native inhabitants were wiped out by European diseases within 50 years; thereafter, Spanish landowners purchased imported African slaves who replaced the Indian workers at Spanish estates and mines.
To illustrate the history of the islands, this itinerary links National Parks with places listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The 52 historic places highlighted in this itinerary can teach us about the contributions made by various peoples who settled in Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands. The itinerary includes a map showing the location of these historic places along with a brief description of their importance in our nation's past. Use this guide for locating interesting historic places near the National Parks in the Caribbean. The National Parks, National Historic Landmarks and other historic places included in this travel itinerary are listed in the National Register of Historic Places--the Nation's official list of important historic places worthy of preservation. Visitors may be interested in Historic Hotels of America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, located near some of the places featured in this itinerary. For more information on historic places in the Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands contact: Puerto Rico Office of Historic Preservation |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Comments or
Questions
JPJ/RQ/SB