Captaincy General of Puerto Rico
Encyclopedia
The Captaincy General of Puerto Rico was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....

, created in 1580 to provide better military management of the island of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, previously under the direct rule of a simple governor and the jurisdiction of Audiencia of Santo Domingo
Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo
The Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo was the first court of the Spanish crown in America. It was created by Ferdinand V of Castile in his decree of 1511, but due to disagreements between the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Colon and the Crown, it was not implemented until it was reestablished by...

. Its creation was part of the, ultimately futile, Habsburg
Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

 attempt in the late sixteenth century to prevent incursion into the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 by foreign powers, which also involved the establishment of Captaincies General in Cuba
Captaincy General of Cuba
The Captaincy General of Cuba was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire created in 1607 as part of Habsburg Spain's attempt better to defend the Caribbean against foreign powers, which also involved creating captaincies general in Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Yucatán. The restructuring of...

, Guatemala
Captaincy General of Guatemala
The Captaincy General of Guatemala , also known as the Kingdom of Guatemala , was an administrative division in Spanish America which covered much of Central America, including what are now the nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and the Mexican state of Chiapas...

 and Yucatán
Captaincy General of Yucatán
The Captaincy General of Yucatán was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created in 1617 to provide more autonomy for the Yucatán Peninsula, previously ruled directly by a simple governor under the jurisdiction of Audiencia of Mexico...

. Nevertheless, the Captaincy General played a crucial role in the history of the Spanish Caribbean. The institution lasted until the establishment of an autonomous local government, headed by a governor-general
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

 and an insular parliament, which was instituted just months before the loss of Puerto Rico to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1898.

Antecedents

In 1508 Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...

 was commissioned to carry out the initial colonization of Puerto Rico and was, therefore, upon successfully founding the city of Caparra (on the site of today's Guaynabo
Guaynabo, Puerto Rico
Guaynabo is a municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas; south of Cataño; east of Bayamón; and west of San Juan...

), appointed its first governor in 1509 by the regent of Castile, Ferdinand V
Ferdinand II of Aragon
Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...

. Since Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

's death in 1506, the Spanish Crown
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...

 had refused to recognize his heirs' right to appoint governors of the West Indies, but in 1511 the Council of Castile
Council of Castile
The Council of Castile , known earlier as the Royal Council , was a ruling body and key part of the domestic government of the Crown of Castile, second only to the monarch himself. It was established under Queen Isabella I in 1480 as the chief body dealing with administrative and judicial matters...

 ruled in Diego Colón
Diego Colón
Diego Columbus was the 2nd Admiral of the Indies, 2nd Viceroy of the Indies and 3rd Governor of the Indies. He was the firstborn son of Christopher Columbus and wife Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, and was born in 1479/1480 in Porto Santo, Portugal or 1474 in Lisbon, Portugal. He died February...

's favor. As a result, Ponce de León lost his position and left the island, not wishing to serve under Colón. The Columbus family appointed governors from then until 1536, when Diego's son, Luis Colón sold the rights to govern the Indies to the crown. In the same year that Diego Colón won his case, the first diocese
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, comprising the northeast portion of the island of Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States...

 was established on the island under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Seville
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville
The Archdiocese of Seville is part of the Catholic Church in Seville, Spain. The Diocese of Seville was founded in the 3rd century. It was raised to the level of an archdiocese in the 4th century. The current Archbishop is Juan José Asenjo Pelegrina...

. (It was later transferred to the newly elevated Archdiocese of Santo Domingo
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santo Domingo is a Metropolitan Archdiocese, in the Dominican Republic. It is responsible for the dioceses of Baní, Barahona, Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia en Higüey, San Juan de la Maguana and San Pedro de Macorís.The see was elevated to an archdiocese on 12...

 in 1546. The Puerto Rico Diocese would oversee the church in the Province of Guayana
Guayana Province
Guayana Province was a province of the Spanish Empire and later of Venezuela. It was incorporated into the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1776 and covered a territory roughly equal to today's Guayana Region and Guyana....

 in Venezuela from the 16th to 18th centuries.)

From 1536 to 1545 the island was overseen by the president of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo, who was also captain general
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

 of the Caribbean. It was administered locally, not as one unit, but by the alcaldes ordinarios
Alcalde
Alcalde , or Alcalde ordinario, is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An alcalde was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian cabildo and judge of first instance of a town...

of the two municipalities of the island, San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

 (a reconstituted Caparra) and San Germán
San Germán, Puerto Rico
San Germán is a municipality located in the southwestern region of Puerto Rico, south of Mayagüez and Maricao; north of Lajas; east of Hormigueros and Cabo Rojo; and west of Sabana Grande. San Germán is spread over 18 wards and San Germán Pueblo...

, who were elected annually by the cabildos
Cabildo (council)
For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...

 from among the local settler population. (The island was split along the Camuy
Rio Camuy
The Río Camuy is a river in the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is the third largest underground river in the world and has one of the largest cave systems in the western hemisphere, known as the Rio Camuy Caves....

 and Jacaguas Rivers.) Since most of the settlers did not have the training to become governors, the system proved ineffective. The island's Spanish residents complained to the crown.

Starting in 1545 governors with legal training (gobernadores letrados) were appointed by either the crown or the Santo Domingo Audiencia. As the highest judicial office on the island, they heard cases in the first instance in their immediate districts, and in appeal from the regional alcaldes. The next court of appeal was the Audiencia in Santo Domingo. In addition to being the highest administrative office on the island, governors also derived power from their right to annually appoint two of the four regidor
Regidor
A Regidor is a member of a council of municipalities in Spain and Latin America. Portugal also used to have the same office of Regedor.-Mexico:...

es
of the cabildos on the island. As with all other Spanish political officials, governors were subject to the juicio de residencia
Juicio de residencia
A juicio de residencia was a judicial procedure of Castilian law and the Laws of the Indies. It consisted of this: at the termination of a public functionary's term, his performance in office was subject to review, and those with grievances against him were entitled to a hearing...

, an official review of their time in office. Since governors were the king's highest representative on the island, they had oversight over the Church because of the right of patronage (real patronato) that the monarchs of Spain had in the Americas. They controlled the construction and maintenance of church buildings, paid the salaries of the clergy and saw to it that only Papal bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....

s and encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...

s approved by the Council of the Indies were published on the island.

The growing military conflicts with other European powers, both in Europe and in the New World, convinced the crown to add the office of captain general to the governor in 1580. Following this, mostly military men, not lawyers, were appointed governors-captains general, assisted by a legal advisor (asesor) in their judicial and administrative duties.

Establishment

Puerto Rico had a vital strategic importance, even as it was economically marginal, to Spain as the gateway to the Caribbean, or as it was called at the time, "the key to the Indies." Given the sea currents and wind patterns of the Atlantic, it was usually the first port of call for ships arriving from Europe. Despite this, or perhaps because of its negligible economic importance, the Spanish took a long time to build up the island's defenses. The first fortified building was the Ponce de León family home (today the Casa Blanca), which was given its first defensive features in the 1520s. In the next decade construction began on the first true fort, La Fortaleza
La Fortaleza
La Fortaleza is the current official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico. It was built between 1533 and 1540 to defend the harbor of San Juan. The structure is also known as Palacio de Santa Catalina . It is the oldest executive mansion in the New World...

, at the entrance of the bay, and by 1539 construction began of a full defensive complex around San Juan, which included Forts San Felipe del Morro
Fort San Felipe del Morro
Also known as Fort San Felipe del Morro or Morro Castle, is a 16th-century citadel located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.- Rundown :Lies on the northwestern-most point of the islet of San Juan, Puerto Rico...

, San Cristóbal
Fort San Cristóbal
The Castillo de San Cristóbal is a Spanish fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was built by Spain to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan. It is part of San Juan National Historic Site....

, and San Jerónimo
Fort San Jerónimo
Fortín de San Gerónimo del Boquerón is a small fort located in the entrance to what is known today as the Condado Lagoon which faces the historic town of Miramar in San Juan, Puerto Rico....

. On the other side of the island, San Germán was left practically defenseless, and was easy prey to French attacks throughout the century.

With the creation of the Captaincy General in 1580, Governor-Captain General Diego Menéndez de Valdés (1582 - 1593), was able to continue encircling San Juan with defenses. To fund the construction and an enlarged garrison, an annual subsidy, the situado, was ordered from the royal coffers in New Spain, although for the next two centuries, the situado often did not reach Puerto Rico. The number of permanent soldiers under Menéndez de Valdés went from fifty to just over two hundred, and was later raised to over four hundred in 1596, the number at which it would stay for the next century. The improvements to the city's defenses proved to be ready by the time they faced their first major challenge, an assault by a 27-ship fleet led by Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...

. The island would also serve as an important bastion in Spain's struggles against the piracy
Piracy in the Caribbean
] The era of piracy in the Caribbean began in the 16th century and died out in the 1830s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe and North America with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1690s until the 1720s...

 practiced by its rivals in the Caribbean that would plague Spain during the next two centuries. Many Puerto Ricans also became Spanish privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

s that operated against the British, French and Dutch possessions in the area, the most famous of whom was Miguel Henríquez. Despite this at times formal, at times informal, conflict, contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....

 proved to be a crucial element of the local economy, as was common in many peripheral areas of Spanish America, but which syphoned off to foreign powers most of the money that came to the island in the situado.

To supplement the inadequate number of regular soldiers, local militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

s (milicias urbanas) were organized in each of the islands five districts (partidos) outside of the capital: San Germán, Arecibo
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo is a municipality in the northern midwest coast of Puerto Rico and located by the Atlantic Ocean, north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta, and Florida. Arecibo is spread over 18 wards and Arecibo Pueblo...

, Aguada
Aguada, Puerto Rico
Aguada is a municipality of Puerto Rico, located in the western coastal valley region bordering the Atlantic Ocean, west of Rincón, Aguadilla and Moca; and north of Anasco. It is part of the Aguadilla-Isabela-San Sebastián Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Coamo
Coamo, Puerto Rico
Coamo is a municipality in Puerto Rico located in the southern region, north of Santa Isabel; south of Orocovis and Barranquitas; east of Villalba and Juana Díaz; and west of Aibonito and Salinas. Coamo is spread over 10 wards and Coamo Pueblo...

, Loíza
Loíza, Puerto Rico
Loíza is a small town and municipality in the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico, north of Canóvanas; east of Carolina; and west of Río Grande. Loíza is spread over 5 wards and Loíza Pueblo...

 and Ponce
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Ponce is both a city and a municipality in the southern part of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government.The city of Ponce, the fourth most populated in Puerto Rico, and the most populated outside of the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the...

. The militia men were not regularly paid nor even armed. Their weapons consisted of farm implements: machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...

s, improvised wooden lances and regular knives, but the governors-captains general usually attested to their courage. Each partido was overseen by a teniente a guerra, a deputy of the captain general.

The Eighteenth Century and the Bourbon Reforms

Shaken by the losses experienced during the Seven Year's War, in particular the capture of Cuba
British expedition against Cuba
The Battle of Havana was a military action from March to August 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War. British forces besieged and captured the city of Havana, which at the time was an important Spanish naval base in the Caribbean, and dealt a serious blow to the Spanish navy...

 by the British in 1762, Charles III
Charles III of Spain
Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. He was the eldest son of Philip V of Spain and his second wife, the Princess Elisabeth Farnese...

 sent several officials to the Caribbean to review the defenses of the area. Alejandro O'Reilly
Alejandro O'Reilly
Alejandro O'Reilly , was a military reformer and Inspector-General of Infantry for the Spanish Empire in the second half of the 18th century...

 was sent to Puerto Rico in 1765. O'Reilly recommended many reforms, many of which were implemented, among them upgrading the fortifications in San Juan, introducing direct, regular pay for the soldiers on the island (up until then, soldiers had been paid by their commanding officers) and professionalizing the militias. He also undertook a complete census of the island (it recorded 44,883 residents, of which 5,037 were slaves; and 24 towns or villages in the island) and also came to realize the importance of contraband in the local economy. To reverse this O'Reilly recommended developing the legal economy, in particular agriculture, which he found vastly untapped, by returning uncultivated land to the crown and then giving it to persons willing to farm it. In 1784 an intendancy
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

 was created in Puerto Rico, but unlike the one created in Cuba, the office was not separated from the governorship. The reforms were successful mostly in the military sphere. Economic change, unlike in neighboring Cuba
History of Cuba
The known history of Cuba, the largest of the Caribbean islands, predates Christopher Columbus' sighting of the island during his first voyage of discovery on 27 October 1492...

, was mostly negligible in this period. The island's economy remained tied to the situado subsidy and foreign trade, something which proved harmful during interruption in trade caused by the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

.

The early nineteenth century: revolutions and setbacks

The early nineteenth century presented the dual challenge of invasion in Spain and revolt in the Americas. The Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

 and the Spanish American wars of independence spurred great innovation in Puerto Rico's government. Puerto Rico's ties to Venezuela, due to sailing patterns which made the island the closest port of call from Venezuela, played significantly in this period. The juntas
Junta (Peninsular War)
In the Napoleonic era, junta was the name chosen by several local administrations formed in Spain during the Peninsular War as a patriotic alternative to the official administration toppled by the French invaders...

 which were established in Venezuela in 1810 corresponded with the cabildos of Puerto Rico. The San Juan cabildo turned down the invitation from the Caracas junta to establish a junta on the island, but the San Germán cabildo always maintained the right to self-rule, should Spain be permanently lost to the French. Some individual Puerto Ricans, such as Antonio Valero de Bernabe
Antonio Valero de Bernabe
Brigadier General Antonio Valero de Bernabé , aka The Liberator from Puerto Rico, was a military leader who fought for the independence of South America together with Simón Bolívar and who wanted the independence of Puerto Rico...

, later chose to join the struggle for independence going on in the mainland. In response to the junta movement gathering strength on the mainland, the peninsular government gave Governor Salvador Meléndez extraordinary powers to deal with any revolt on the island, while at the same time many royalist refugees from Venezuela began arriving in Puerto Rico. The island also served as a point of departure for troops on their way to Venezuela, such as those under Domingo de Monteverde
Juan Domingo de Monteverde
Juan Domingo de Monteverde y Rivas , commonly known as Domingo de Monteverde, was a Spanish soldier, governor and Captain General of Venezuela from June 1812 to 8 August 1813. Monteverde was the leader of Spanish forces in the Venezuelan War of Independence from 1812 to 1813...

 and Pablo Morillo
Pablo Morillo
Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....

.

As the government in opposition to the French began to take shape in the form of a Supreme Central Junta
Junta (Peninsular War)
In the Napoleonic era, junta was the name chosen by several local administrations formed in Spain during the Peninsular War as a patriotic alternative to the official administration toppled by the French invaders...

, it recognized the overseas possessions as integral parts of the Spanish nation, and therefore, in 1809 invited them to send a delegates to the Junta. This initiated a period of elections in the Captaincy General which were of ever-increasing representation, culminating in the constitutional periods of 1812-1814 and 1820-1823. The first elections were to be carried out by the cabildos, of which there were five on the island by this time: San Juan, San Germán, Aguada, Arecibo
Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Arecibo is a municipality in the northern midwest coast of Puerto Rico and located by the Atlantic Ocean, north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta, and Florida. Arecibo is spread over 18 wards and Arecibo Pueblo...

 and Coamo. They elected as Puerto Rico's representative, the native Criollo
Criollo (people)
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

Ramón Power y Giralt
Ramon Power y Giralt
Captain Ramón Power y Giralt , commonly known only as "Ramón Power", was, according to Puerto Rican historian Lidio Cruz Monclova, among the first native born Puerto Ricans to refer to himself as a "Puerto Rican" and to fight for the equal representation of Puerto Rico in front of the parliamentary...

, but before he could leave for Spain the Supreme Junta had dissolved itself. Before it had done so, the Junta had sent the call out to convene the traditional Spanish parliament, the Cortes
Cádiz Cortes
The Cádiz Cortes were sessions of the national legislative body which met in the safe haven of Cádiz during the French occupation of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars...

, and the cabildos elected Power as the island's representative in the Cortes. Power had a very active term in the Cortes. He quickly had the Cortes suspend the governor's extraordinary powers, and he also secured that the office of the intendant was separated from that of the governor-captain general. The highlight of his legislative activity was the Ley Power (the Power Act), which introduced many administrative and economic reforms in Puerto Rico, many of which survived Ferdinand VII's abolition of the Spanish Constitution of 1812
Spanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...

 and the Cortes. The Spanish Constitution also introduced local government to Puerto Rico. Many more cabildos were introduced to the island, which were popularly elected. A local administrative and legislative board was also elected, the Diputación Provincial.

After the King restored traditional government, he sought to maintain and reward the loyalty of Puerto Ricans by granting the island a limited form of the long-sought free trade. The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
Royal Decree of Graces of 1815
The Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 is a legal order approved by the Spanish Crown in the early half of the 19th century to encourage Spaniards and later Europeans of non-Spanish origin to settle and populate the colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico....

 granted many of the economic requests that Power and the island cabildos had requested since 1810. In the long term, the Decree had very beneficial economic effects. It facilitated foreign migration to the island, started the growth of the sugar industry (although this also meant that the importation of slaves increased), and a series of competent intendants set the island's government finances on good standing for decades to come.

During the second constitutional period after the Riego Revolt
Rafael del Riego
Rafael del Riego y Nuñez was a Spanish general and liberal politician, who played a key role in the outbreak of the Liberal Triennium .-Early life and action in the Peninsular War:...

, new deputies to the Cortes were elected by the island's population, the Diputación Provincial met again, and unlike the first period, the captaincy general and the governorship were separated. Francisco González de Linares, a long-time Venezuelan resident, who had fled after collapse of royalist government there, was appointed governor. Pablo Morillo's successor as head of the royalist forces in Venezuela, Miguel de la Torre
Miguel de la Torre
Miguel de la Torre y Pando, conde de Torrepando was a Spanish General, Governor and Captain General, who served in Spain, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American wars of independence and after.At the age of fourteen he joined the Spanish Army as a soldier during the War of...

, was appointed captain general.

After Ferdinand VII's second abolition of the Constitution, La Torre was made joint governor and captain general, with extraordinary powers to suppress any potential revolt. He would hold the office of captain general for more than fifteen years. Despite La Torre's wariness of the island's liberal tendencies, his long administration was key to the development of large-scale sugar production on the island, something which had been created decades earlier in Cuba. Figures from the period show the growth in this period. In 1820, 17,000 tons of sugar were produced and a mere 5.8 percent of the land was under any type of cultivation. By 1897, Puerto Rico produced 62,000 tons of sugar and had 14.3 percent of its land devoted to agriculture. The small landholdings, which had been traditional since the sixteenth century gave way to large plantations. After sugar, coffee was the second most important crop. In 1818 70 million pounds of coffee were produced, a figure which grew to 130 million pounds by 1830. The increased agricultural activity was partly done by new slave labor, which was imported from other Caribbean islands. In 1817 Spain had signed a treaty with Britain ending the slave trade, but it was not seriously enforced until after 1845. Nevertheless, slaves made a small proportion of the island's work force compared to other Caribbean islands of the time, only 11.5 to 14 percent. In judicial matters, Puerto Rico was granted its own audiencia from 1832 to 1853. Previously appeals had been heard by the former Audiencia of Santo Domingo, now resident in Cuba.

Mid-Century: Slow progress towards autonomy

The death of Ferdinand VII brought about new changes. Regent María Cristina
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies was Queen consort of Spain and Regent of Spain .-Early years and first marriage:...

 reconvened the Cortes
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales is the legislature of Spain. It is a bicameral parliament, composed of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate . The Cortes has power to enact any law and to amend the constitution...

, in its traditional form, and Puerto Rico sent several deputies, all liberals. In 1836, Constitutional government was reestablished in Spain, except this time the government in Spain, despite its liberal tendencies, saw the overseas territories as colonies
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....

, which should be governed by special laws. The democratic institutions, such as the Diputación Provincial and the cabildos, established by the 1812 Constitution were removed, and the extraordinary powers granted to the governor maintained. The new Constitution of 1837 ratified Puerto Rico's demoted status. Worse still the "special laws" by which the overseas areas were to be governed, were not drafted until three decades later, when a special Junta Informativa de Reformas de Ultramar (Overseas Informative Reform Board), with representatives from Cuba and Puerto Rico, was convened in 1865. Even then its proposals were never made into laws.

The Gloriosa Revolt
Glorious Revolution (Spain)
The Glorious Revolution took place in Spain in 1868, resulting in the deposition of Queen Isabella II.An 1866 rebellion led by General Juan Prim and a revolt of the sergeants at San Gil barracks, in Madrid, sent a signal to Spanish liberals and republicans that there was serious unrest with the...

 of 1868, which removed Queen Isabel II
Isabella II of Spain
Isabella II was the only female monarch of Spain in modern times. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, who refused to recognise a female sovereign, leading to the Carlist Wars. After a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of...

 from power, initially reaffirmed Puerto Rico's right to participate in the Spanish government. The island elected seven deputies to the Cortes, the Diputación Provincial once again was formed and plans were made to draw up the laws which would grant the island autonomy. But three factors nullified all this progress. First the government in Spain was too unstable (reflected in the fact that between 1871 and 1874 Puerto Rico had five governors). Second the short-lived revolt of Lares
Grito de Lares
El Grito de Lares —also referred as the Lares uprising, the Lares revolt, Lares rebellion or even Lares Revolution—was the first major revolt against Spanish rule and call for independence in Puerto Rico...

 proved to authorities that the situation in Puerto Rico was not as calm as it might seem. Finally and most seriously, the Lares revolt coincided with the Ten Years' War
Ten Years' War
The Ten Years' War , also known as the Great War and the War of '68, began on October 10, 1868 when sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed Cuba's independence from Spain...

 in Cuba, which made the government apprehensive of granting either of the Caribbean islands autonomy. In 1875 the Bourbons were restored when the Spanish government offered the throne to Alfonso XII
Alfonso XII of Spain
Alfonso XII was king of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d'état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic.-Early life and paternity:Alfonso was the son of Queen Isabella II of Spain, and...

. Limited elections, which granted the franchise only to people with large amounts of property, were allowed on the island. True parties also emerged in this period, the Patido Liberal Refomista
Liberal Reformist Party (Puerto Rico)
The Liberal Reformist Party was a political party in Puerto Rico founded by Pedro Gerónimo Goico, Jose Julian Acosta and Roman Baldorioty de Castro in 1870.It was the first political party ever to be established in Puerto Rico....

, which promoted autonomy for the island, and the Partido Liberal Conservador, which pushed for the island's greater integration into the political system of Spain.

The issue of autonomy came to a head in 1895 with the start of the Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War and the Little War...

. The Overseas Minister, with approval from the Prime Minister, took the extra-constitutional step in 1897 of writing the Constitución Autonómica, the new measures which granted the Caribbean islands autonomy. Given the urgency of the movement, the government approved this unusual measure. The new government was to consist of "an Island Parliament, divided into two chambers and one Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

, representative of the Metropolis, who will carry out his duties in its name, the supreme Authority." Elections for the parliament and the municipal councils occurred in early 1898. The island legislature first met in July, only eight days before the US invasion of the island.

See also

  • History of Puerto Rico
    History of Puerto Rico
    The history of Puerto Rico began with the settlement of the archipelago of Puerto Rico by the Ortoiroid people between 3000 and 2000 BC. Other tribes, such as the Saladoid and Arawak Indians, populated the island between 430 BC and 1000 AD. At the time of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New...

  • Military history of Puerto Rico
    Military history of Puerto Rico
    The recorded military history of Puerto Rico encompasses the period from the 16th century, when Spanish conquistadores battled native Tainos in the rebellion of 1511, to the present employment of Puerto Ricans in the United States Armed Forces in the military campaigns in Afghanistan and...

  • Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo
    Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo
    The Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo was the first court of the Spanish crown in America. It was created by Ferdinand V of Castile in his decree of 1511, but due to disagreements between the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Colon and the Crown, it was not implemented until it was reestablished by...

  • List of Governors of Puerto Rico
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