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Vieques history - learn what once happend
Archaeological evidence suggests that Vieques was first inhabited by ancient Native American peoples who travelled from continental America perhaps between 3000 BC and 2000 BC. Further waves of settlement by Native Americans followed over many centuries. The Arawak-speaking Saladoid (or Igneri) people, thought to have originated in modern-day Venezuela, arrived in the region perhaps around 200 BC (again estimates vary). The European "discovery" of Vieques is sometimes credited to Christopher Columbus, who landed in Puerto Rico in 1493. It does not seem to be certain whether Columbus personally visited Vieques, but in any case the island was soon claimed by the Spanish. During the early 16th century Vieques became a center of Taino rebellion against the European invaders, prompting the Spanish to send armed forces to the island to quell the resistance. The native Taino population was decimated, and its people either killed, imprisoned or enslaved by the Spanish. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Spanish took steps to permanently settle and secure the island. In 1811, Don Salvador Melendez, then governor of Puerto Rico, sent military commander Juan Rossello to begin what would become the annexation of Vieques by the Puerto Ricans. In 1816, Vieques was briefly visited by Simon Bolivar while fleeing defeat in Venezuela. During the second part of the 19th century, thousands of black immigrants came to Vieques to work on the sugar cane plantations. They arrived from the nearby islands of St. Thomas, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Croix, and many other Caribbean nations, some as slaves and some as independent economic migrants. Since this time black people have formed an important part of Vieques' society. In 1898, after Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War, Vieques, along with mainland Puerto Rico, was ceded to the United States. In the 1920s and 1930s, the sugar industry, on which Vieques was totally dependent, went into decline due to falling sugar prices and industrial unrest. Many locals were forced to move to mainland Puerto Rico or St. Croix to look for work. During World War II, the United States military purchased about two thirds of Vieques as an extension to the Roosevelt Roads base nearby on the Puerto Rican mainland.
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Vieques Vacations site
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