Puerto Rico History, Language and Culture

History of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico was first inhabited in around 3,000 BC. When Columbus landed in 1493 on his second voyage to the New World, the island’s inhabitants were the Tainos, Arawak people originating from South America. Claiming the territory on behalf of the Spanish Crown, Ponce de Leon governed Puerto Rico from 1508.

Puerto Rico was eventually ceded to the USA in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War. In Guanica, on Puerto Rico's southern coast, you can see a monument to the spot where ‘invading’ US troops landed during the war.