On his second voyage across the Atlantic, Columbus and his fleet encountered the mountainous island inhabited by the Taíno people, who called it Borikén. Spanish colonization followed within two decades, devastating the indigenous population through disease, forced labor, and violence, and reshaping the island's demography and culture for centuries.
Columbus commanded a far larger fleet on this second expedition than his first — seventeen ships and over a thousand men, aiming to establish permanent Spanish settlements rather than simply explore. As the fleet moved through the Caribbean, they spotted the lush, mountainous island the Taíno inhabitants called Borikén.
Columbus named it San Juan Bautista, though the island would eventually take the name Puerto Rico — 'rich port' — after Spanish settlers focused on its harbor at what is now San Juan. The Taíno people, who had developed complex agricultural and social systems, greeted the Spanish with initial curiosity that soon turned to resistance as colonization intensified.
Within a generation, the Taíno population collapsed under the weight of European diseases, brutal labor systems, and violent suppression of rebellion. Puerto Rico became a key Spanish colonial outpost in the Caribbean, a status that would persist for four centuries until the Spanish-American War transferred control to the United States in 1898.
Key people: Christopher Columbus