Puerto Rico: Sport and the Restoration of National Pride

Race, religion, and revolt dominated the history of Puerto Rico. After Christopher Columbus discovered the island in 1493 colonisation by the Spanish occurred in earnest in 1506. With the Spanish came Catholicism and disease. The latter decimated the ranks of the native Indians, and African slaves replaced them beginning in 1508. The island sustained attacks by the English and the Dutch over the next two centuries and island residents had revolted against their Spanish masters by 1848. Spain abolished slavery in 1873, and granted Puerto Ricans their independence in 1897. Unfortunately for the islanders the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana, Cuba only five days after the establishment of the provisional cabinet. 1