AH Challenge: English Puerto Rico

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to have Puerto Rico become an English/British colony with a POD no earlier than 1492 and no later than the cutoff date for this board. Thus, there are many possibilities for this to happen. Spanish should remain as a language spoken in Puerto Rico, even if, as with French in Canada, it has diverged greatly from the Spanish spoken in Spain and in Latin America.
 
Last edited:
Britain loses Gibralter and is given Puerto Rico as a consolation prize. The Gibraltarians immigrate in masse because the Spanish crown does not trust them. Napoleonic wars?
 
7 years war--
Pitt remains Prime Minister - England concentrates on the Colonies- Caribbean - takes Cuba and PR + Philippines.
1763 --
treaty gives Florida and PR to Britain in return for returning Cuba & the Philippines to Spain.
 
With a POD after 1492 it shouldn't be that hard.
For example England gets involved in the Dutch war of independence (queen Elizabeth accepts the offer to become the Dutch queen or maybe just supporting fellow protestants in need) and capture Puerto Rico.

Cromwell capture Puerto Rico instead of Jamaica

In a random war against the Spainish (I believe there are enough to choose from) the English/British conquer Puerto Rico.
 
When the Spanish Armada invades,Britan turns it into full fleged war. The British use thier colonies to take Spanish Florida and Cuba. During the peace treaty,they get P.R.
 
You could have the Spaniards seeing that they were about to lose the Spanish American war rushing to sell PR. before the US invades it. Or even if the US had invaded it they made sure to sell it to the UK. in 1898.

Not sure but I think the Spaniards did not expect the US to invade PR.. The Spanish American war was supposedly about Cuba. Fighting was going on in Cuba while nothing was really happening in PR..
 
Thomas Gage is killed in the attack on Santo Domingo in 1650s. Instead of taking Jamacia as they did in the OTL, the survivors move on Puerto Rico. The island is taked and follows a similar path as Jamacia. But with less piracy and privateering. One ripple is that Port Royal would never have been founded not would Rastafarian Music, English Voodoo or the like.
 
Your challenge, should you accept it, is to have Puerto Rico become an English/British colony with a POD no earlier than 1492 and no later than the cutoff date for this board. Thus, there are many possibilities for this to happen. Spanish should remain as a language spoken in Puerto Rico, even if, as with French in Canada, it has diverged greatly from the Spanish spoken in Spain and in Latin America.

Interesting challenge, but I have to wonder about the status of Spanish on the island following and English or British takeover:

1. Unlike the French in Canada, I doubt the Spaniards in Puerto Rico will enjoy any special benefits since the island itself is small and the population doesn't even begin to approach that of the French in Canada. Puerto Rico has about 3.8 million people now and in the 1860 the population was about 583,000. The further back you go, the less likely it is that the Spanish would be retained as the main language. In 1765 the population was 44,883. And between 1492 and 1807 there would be the matter of the slave trade to the island by the British and future British settlers who would bring their language with them and require that their slaves are able to converse in the English creole that developed in the British colonies.

2. Unlike the Boers in South Africa, the Spaniards have nowhere else to go. So no Spanish trek to some other part of the island. If the Spanish leave then they leave for Cuba and Santo Domingo and take the Spanish language with them.


Checkmate113 said:
It wouldn't be called Puerto Rico then would it?

Yes and No. If it was called Puerto Rico around the time of the English/British conquest there is no reason why the English/British would change the name. They didn't change the name of "Montreal" to "Mount Royal" nor change the name of "Trinidad" to "Trinity" or "Tobago" to "Tobacco". But the name used depends on when the English/British take it - if the island was taken between 1492 and the 1520s then it would be called San Juan (and it's capital would be called Puerto Rico - possibly though there would be a change of the name for the capital to honour some English monarch or royalty). If it was taken after the 1520s then the island would be called Puerto Rico (and it's capital would be called San Juan).
 
Current Population of PR. is around 3.95 million. But that includes foreigners. Just native it would be around 3.7 million. And that does not include the PRicans in the US and other places. Thats why many say there are really 8 million PRicans.

For example, as this new century began, the growth of the Puerto Rican population in the United States (outside of Puerto Rico) was such there has been much speculation about its size relative to that of Puerto Rico. According to the latest figures available from the Census Bureau (unpublished data from their Current Population Survey [CPS]), the Stateside Puerto Rican population in 2003 was estimated at 3,855,608. (Census Bureau 2003)
On the other hand, in 2003, the Census Bureau estimated that the total population of Puerto Rico was 3,878,532. The 2000 Census count found that the Puerto Rican portion of the Island’s population was 95.1 percent of the total (other Latinos made up another 3.4 percent, and non-Latinos made up an additional 1.2 percent). (Census Bureau 2001: 4) By applying this percentage, we estimate that in 2003 the Island’s population that identified itself as Puerto Rican was 3,692,362. If the CPS estimate is correct for the Stateside Puerto Rican population, then by 2003 the Puerto Rican population in the U.S, for the first time, exceeded that on the Island — It did so by 163,246 persons, making it 4.4 percent larger.
 
Top