Colonization – ILI 5

President Woodrow Wilson signs the Jones-Shafroth Act, making Puerto Rico a U.S. territory

President Woodrow Wilson signed the Jones-Shafroth Act (1917) on March 2, 1917, giving Puerto Ricans U.S. statutory citizenship. This act also separated Puerto Rico’s government into Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches, and endowed Puerto Ricans with a bill of rights. Additionally, the act established an insular bicameral legislature with 19 elected Senate members and 39 elected House of Representative members. It also stated that Puerto Rico’s Governor and the U.S. Executive branch possessed authorization to veto or override any law enacted by that legislature. Citizenship under the Jones-Shafroth Act (1917) resulted in mass migration to the U.S. mainland; mostly to New York State. Approximately..Read More

close up of protesters in Puerto Rico holding the now-iconic black and white Puerto Rican flag of resistence

Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló Resigns After Massive Protests

Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans filled miles of a major highway in San Juan in protest against Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló, who has resisted persistent calls for his resignation, in what appeared to be one of the largest demonstrations the island has seen. The protests arose in response to the leak of Telegram app messages in which Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and his inner circle make light of the casualties caused by Hurricane Maria and disparage political opponents using vulgar, homophobic, and sexist language. They began July 11 and subsided around July 24, 2019. Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló of Puerto Rico..Read More

Image is of a drawing with a person standing and their face turned upwards. In one hand, they are holding a basket with plants standing straight up out of it.

Pueblo Revolt

The first and largest Indigenous uprising in so called North America. “The Pueblo people orchestrated the unthinkable: a pan-Indian uprising successfully expelling the Spanish occupiers from the entire Rio Grande region leading to an indigenous cultural and social renaissance.” Learn more from A Brief History of The Pueblo Revolt and the animation Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande

Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn

Dogeaters, a novel by author Jessica Hagedorn, was published in March 1990. Winner of an American Book Award and nominated for the National Book Award, it became one of the best-known published creative works by a Filipina American. The title refers to a derogatory stereotype about Filipinos, and the novel centers on the lives of several characters from different social classes in Manila in the 1950s. The novel’s surrealist style underscores the maddening contradictions of life in a country where false appearances and abuse of power in politics, mass media, celebrity pop culture, religion, and family relationships overshadow reality and..Read More

Old black and white photograph of Queen Liliʻuokalani. It is an official photograph and she is in formal dress.

Illegal Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom

In the nineteenth century, the Hawaiian Kingdom existed as an independent country recognized as such by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and various other countries, including by exchanges of diplomatic or consular representatives and the conclusion of treaties. As an independent county, the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into extensive treaty relations with a variety of States establishing diplomatic relations and trade agreements. By 1893, the Hawaiian Kingdom maintained over ninety Legations and Consulates throughout the world. In the United States of America, the Hawaiian Kingdom manned a diplomatic post called a legation in Washington, D.C., which served in..Read More

Engraving showing the arrival of a ship and enslaved Africans to the British colony of Virginia.

A Portuguese ship, the São João Bautista brought captive Africans from Angola to the American colonies.

Sometime in 1619 enslaved Africans arrive near Point Comfort, a coastal port in the British colony of Virginia from the Portuguese colony port city of Luanda, the present day capital of Angola. Over 20 captives were unloaded from the hull of the São João Bautista. America had not become herself, yet lit the spark for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and further set the stage for slavery, oppression and persecution across her history.

1811 Slave Revolt Louisiana German Coast – Jan 8-10

The 1811 German Coast uprising was a revolt of black slaves in parts of the Territory of Orleans on January 8–10, 1811. The uprising occurred on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Learn more: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/louisianas-slave-revolt/

Category: Colonization