The capital is San Juan. Der Freistaat Puerto Rico (spanisch Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico [esˈtɑðo ˈliβɾe ɑsoˈsjɑðo ðe ˈpweɾto ˈriko], englisch Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, früher deutsch auch Portoriko) ist das größte und einwohnerreichste der Außengebiete der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika. In what ocean was the supposed lost island of Atlantis located? Description: This map shows where Puerto Rico is located on the World Map. With its name which translates to Spanish as "Rich Port", Puerto Rico has a population of 3,674,209 (2013 est). That positive growth continued on into the 1960s.
Senator Millard Tydings introduced a bill in the U.S. Congress calling for independence for Puerto Rico. The U.S. response to that peaceful protest march was called a massacre by some, and on April 2, 1943, U.S. None of Puerto Rico’s rivers is large enough for navigation, but several northward-flowing rivers are harnessed for municipal water supplies, irrigation, and hydroelectricity, and along the south coast irrigation is essential for agriculture. Many formerly cultivated and eroded areas in the mountains have been set aside as forest preserves. Pockets of alluvial soils on the south coast are somewhat fertile, but all farmlands there are fertilized. As an incentive to increase the population of Puerto Rico, free land was offered to Europeans who would colonized the island, swear loyalty to the Spanish Crown and allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church; the scheme worked worked well, very well. Caribbean National Forest, southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has more than 200 species of birds, but land animals are mostly confined to nonpoisonous snakes, lizards, mongooses, and the coquí (Eleutherodactylis portoricensis), a frog whose name is onomatopoeic with its call (“co-kee!”) and which has become a kind of national mascot. Many Puerto Ricans remained unhappy with the U.S. takeover of their island, and the Great Depression made things worse.
Although Puerto Rican relief is relatively low by continental standards, the island sits less than 100 miles (160 km) south of a precipitous depression in Earth’s crust: an extensive submarine feature of the Atlantic known as the Puerto Rico Trench, which descends to more than 5 miles (8 km) below sea level—the Atlantic’s deepest point—at a site northeast of the Dominican Republic.
Near the very end of the 19th century, desiring strategic naval positions across the Caribbean and Central America, the United States offered Spain 160 million dollars for Puerto Rico and Cuba. Puerto Rico’s precipitation mainly falls on the north-facing mountain slopes, so that most of the permanent rivers flow from the interior to the north and west coasts, including the Grande de Loíza, Grande de Arecibo, and Grande de Añasco rivers—all of which are some 40 miles (65 km) long—and La Plata, which extends 46 miles (75 km). Puerto Rico is located on the continent of North America, in between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands. Today the island of Puerto Rico is one of the major tourist destinations in the Caribbean, and a significant factor in the regional petrochemical, pharmaceutical and technology industries. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. So will you! In the 1950s, the Puerto Rican financial situation took a strong turn, as its new manufacturing-based economy began to replace the island's long-dependency on agricultural products. Go back to see more maps of Puerto Rico Maps of Puerto Rico.
They were followed by the Igneri people from South America around 120 AD.
Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but they can't vote in U.S. presidential elections. By the mid-16th century, they were reduced to near extinction by the harsh conditions of work and by the infectious diseases brought here by Europeans. It is roughly rectangular in shape, extending up to 111 miles (179 km) from east to west and 39 miles (63 km) from north to south.
The river courses on the south coast are dry most of the year, carrying water only after rainfall. San Felipe del Morro (also called El Morro) castle, on a high bluff overlooking San Juan Bay, Puerto Rico. Numerous varieties of fish abound in the surrounding waters, but edible and inedible species mingle together, limiting commercial fishing there. Tropical rainforests cover parts of the north side of the island, and thorn and scrub vegetation predominates on the drier south side.
Compared with its Greater Antillean neighbours, Puerto Rico is one-fifth as large as the Dominican Republic, one-third the size of Haiti, and slightly smaller than Jamaica. Spain's answer was a resounding "No!". On October 30, 1950, nationalists organized a 3-day revolt against the U.S. in various cities and towns. Es umfasst auch die Spanischen Jungferninseln. Powerful tectonic forces that over millions of years have created these features still occasionally cause earthquakes in Puerto Rico. Hurricanes develop in the region between June and November and occasionally traverse the island, including a storm in 1899 that killed about 3,000 Puerto Ricans; other devastating but less lethal hurricanes occurred in 1928, 1932, 1956, 1989, 1998, and 2017. The easternmost island of the Greater Antilles chain, it lies approximately 50 miles (80 km) east of the Dominican Republic, 40 miles (65 km) west of the Virgin Islands, and 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of the U.S. state of Florida.