Puerto Rico Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

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 Emigration is a major part of contemporary Puerto Rican history. Starting soon after World War II, poverty, cheap airfares, and promotion by the island government caused waves of Puerto Ricans to move to the United States, particularly to the Northeastern states, and Florida. This trend continued even as Puerto Rico's economy improved and its birth rate declined. Puerto Ricans continue to follow a pattern of "circular migration", with some migrants returning to the island.<ref>"Puerto Rico", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico#Immigration_and_emigration Wikipedia, accessed 15 May 2021.</ref>
-====Spanish Immigration====
+====Background====
-*At the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish people began to colonize the island of Puerto Rico.
+*At the '''beginning of the 16th century''', the Spanish people began to colonize the island of Puerto Rico.
-*Despite the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and other decrees for the protection of the indigenous population, some Taíno Indians were forced into an encomienda system of forced labor in the early years of colonization. The population suffered extremely high fatalities from epidemics of European infectious diseases. In 1520, King Charles I of Spain issued a royal decree collectively emancipating the remaining Taíno population. By that time, the Taíno people were few in number.
+*Despite the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and other decrees for the protection of the indigenous population, some '''Taíno Indians''' were forced into labor in the early years of colonization. The population suffered extremely high fatalities from '''epidemics of European infectious diseases'''. In 1520, King Charles I of Spain issued a royal decree collectively emancipating the remaining Taíno population. By that time, the Taíno people were few in number.
-*Enslaved Africans had already begun to be imported to compensate for the native labor loss, but their numbers were proportionate to the diminished commercial interest Spain soon began to demonstrate for the island colony.
+*'''Enslaved Africans'''' had already begun to be imported to compensate for the native labor loss, but their numbers were proportionate to the diminished commercial interest Spain soon began to demonstrate for the island colony. Other nearby islands, like Cuba, Hispaniola, and Guadalupe, attracted more of the slave trade than Puerto Rico.
+*With no significant industries or large-scale agricultural production as yet, enslaved and free communities lodged around the few coastal settlements, particularly around '''San Juan''', also forming lasting '''Afro-creole''' communities.
+*The colony's seat of government was on the forested Islet of San Juan and for a time became one of the '''most heavily fortified settlements in the Spanish Caribbean''' earning the name of the "Walled City".
+*During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, slavers, which had made but few stops on the island before, began selling more enslaved Africans to growing sugar and coffee plantations.
+*To increase its hold on its Puerto Rico and Cuba, the Spanish Crown revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 (ntended to also attract non-Spanish Europeans) as a result of which '''450,000 immigrants, mainly Spaniards''', settled on the island in the period up until the American conquest. Hundreds of families arrived in Puerto Rico, primarily from the '''Canary Islands and Andalusia, but also from other parts of Spain such as Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia and the Balearic Islands and numerous Spanish loyalists from Spain's former colonies in South America'''.
+Hundreds of non-Spanish families, mainly from '''Corsica, France, Lebanon, China, Portugal, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Italy.''', also immigrated to the island.
+*Continuous European immigration and high natural increase helped the population of Puerto Rico grow from 155,426 in 1800 to almost a million by the close of the 19th century. A census conducted by royal decree on 30 September 1858, gave the following totals of the Puerto Rican population at that time: 341,015 were free colored; 300,430 identified as Whites; and 41,736 were slaves.  A census in 1887 found a population of around 800,000, of which 320,000 were black.
 ====French Immigration====