The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a United States territory situated in the northeastern Caribbean Sea basin, where the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean waters meet. The archipelago includes Puerto Rico mainland and its islands: Vieques, Culebra, and Mona.
Immigration to Puerto Rico Prior to the Twentieth Century
Puerto Rico received its first European immigrants in 1493 after the second voyage of Christopher Columbus. Around 1,500 Castilian Spaniards settled first in the Guaynabo area. American Indians called Tainosinhabited the land with an estimated population of 50,000 that almost perished entirely due to slavery, diseases, suicide, escape, and unsuccessful fight against the conquerors. Thousands of African slaves from what are today Ghana, Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, the Guineas, and Togo replaced the Tainos in the gold industry. More Spaniards arrived and founded new towns along the Caribbean coast and later in the mountain regions, where they may have mixed with the...
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Franco, E., Schuermeyer, I.N. (2012). Puerto Rico. In: Loue, S., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5659-0_628
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