The Spanish-American War

The Spanish American War was a war that lasted 3 months. This is how it all started. In the time period of 1508 and 1890 Spain had a lot of land in the Americas (North America, South America, and Central America). By 1898 Spain only had 2 colonies left which were Cuba and Puerto Rico.

I got this map from the internet:http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/carib.htm

People in Cuba wanted independence. The Americans were on the rebel side. President William McKinley sent out a boat called the U.S.S Maine. He was scared that the Americans in Cuba were not safe.  So, he sent the ship to Cuba to help the Americans that live there.

I got this picture from the internet: http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-pre-news-photo/463958791#the-last-sunset-of-the-maine-1898-the-uss-maine-a-predreadnought-picture-id463958791

When the U.S.S Maine got there all the crew were scared because they thought the Spanish planted a mine to keep them away. At 9:40 PM on February 15, 1898 the boat exploded.  

I got this picture from the internet: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1800s/p/ussmaine.htm

But they did not know if it was a mine that blew them up or if it was something else. After the ship blew up some of the Spanish went down to look for any evidence of a mine but they didn’t find anything. They still thought that a mine blew it up so they sent out a report that said a mine blew the ship up but didn’t say who did it. 

After that, President McKinley said “you have to let Cuba be independent or there’ll be a war,” but, the Spanish refused and that’s what started the war. The war went on for 3 months and a lot of people died.

The Americans won and got Puerto Rico and part of Cuba.

  

75 years after the war ended people looked in the boat (the U.S.S Maine) and found that the boat didn’t get blown up by a mine, it blew up because they stored the coal next to the weapons which caused a fire.

I think that the Spanish American War was interesting because I think how it started was interesting.

Spanish Explorers

About 500 years ago, there was time period called the Renaissance. It was a time when people were curious about a lot of things: art, music, writing, and exploring new places. Spain sent out many explorers to find gold, land, and people to turn into Christians.

Puerto Rico is one of the places where Spanish explorers settled.  Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover it.  On his second voyage, he brought a person named Juan Ponce de Leon.  

 

This is a picture of Juan Ponce de Leon from another website.

 Juan Ponce de Leon became the governor of Puerto Rico. After that, the king sent Juan Ponce de Leon to find a special fountain called the Fountain of Youth. It was called this because people thought that drinking the water from it would let you live forever. This fountain was supposed to be in Florida. The name Florida means full of flowers. They failed at finding the Fountain of Youth.

The Spanish explorers were very important because they changed history. They brought their culture to Puerto Rico and changed it forever.

Indigenous People: The Taíno

About 4000-6000 years ago, people called the Taíno came to Puerto Rico. They were a group of the American Indian people of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands). The Taíno people stayed on these islands for thousands of years. They were very skilled in farming, fishing, hunting, sailing, and making things like boats.

 

 

A Taino canoe. I got this picture from another website.

 

 

They played games with balls and had dances. They had interesting beliefs including their Creation Story. They believed that all people came from two caves: the Taíno people came out of one cave and everyone else came out of another cave.

 

This is a cave drawing, also called a petroglyph. I got this picture from another website.

  

In 1492 Christopher Columbus came from Spain looking for gold. The Taíno didn’t know anything about the Spanish and the Spanish didn’t know anything about the Taíno. Both sides felt curious, confused, and scared. The Spanish wanted the Taíno to do work for them. They also wanted them to become Christian. The Taíno didn’t want to do those things. That caused a problem. One day the Spanish blamed the Taíno for stealing clothes. This started a war that went on for 10 years. 

During this war, two main things helped the Spanish win. These were that the Spanish had weapons the Taíno didn’t have, like cannons, and the Spanish brought different germs that gave the Taíno diseases they never had before, like smallpox. A lot of Taíno got sick and died. Most of the Taíno people died. Before the Spanish came, there were between 20,000 and 50,000 Taínos. By 1544, there were only 60 left.

Today we know the Taíno lived here because we can find evidence of some of their ball fields and villages. Many names we use today for places, plants, and animals (like iguana) came from the Taíno.