Puerto Rico , according to its old English name, or Puerto Rico (in Spanish and current English, but also officially in French at the beginning of the 19th century) is a free State associated with the the United States, located in the Caribbean Sea. This one is consisted of the island of Puerto Rico itself, as well as several smaller islands, of which Vieques, Culebra and Isla Mona.

One also meets, in French, name Puerto Rico , but used in a marginal way, the dictionaries making of the references towards Puerto Rico .

History

See also: History of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico would have been discovered for the first time by a European , Christophe Colomb for the Spanish crown , at the time of its second voyage in 1493. It met Amerindians Tainos there.

At the time Napoleonean, France occupied most of the Iberian peninsula, and indirectly took the control of the Spanish colonies in America, and thus had adopted the Spanish name for this island. The name Puerto Rico was gradually replaced by its english language version Puerto Rico , after the Etats war - Linked - Spain.

In 1898, the treated of Paris , signed between the United States of America and Spain, is ratified by the American Senate after a stormy debate. In exchange of 20 million dollars, Spain yields its last possessions of Latin America - Cuba and Puerto Rico, which becomes Puerto Rico -, as well as the Filipino .

In 1945, Luis Muñoz Marín gains the first democratic elections of the history of Puerto Rico, and in 1952, it helps Puerto Rico to obtain a partial autonomy with respect to the United States of America.

In 1974, the Radiotélescope of Arecibo is inaugurated. This telescope is largest of the world, of which the parabola of more than 300 m in diameter, embedded in the ic landscape Karst of the area of Arecibo. To its inauguration, a message was sent towards space bound for possible civilizations Extra-terrestre S.

In July 2000 and June 2007, the special Comité of the Decolonization of UNO required of the United States to allow to engage a process allowing the Porto Rican people to fully exert his inalienable right with self-determination and independence as well as the restitution of the grounds occupied by military bases of Vieques and Ceiba.

The governor of Puerto Rico then decides to remove the official character of the English language, in order to keep only official Spanish. This change will be cancelled by the following governor, to alleviate the situation. However, the Spanish name Puerto Rico remains the only official one henceforth to indicate the territory and the island, and the English name Puerto Rico is in fast phase of obsolescence, even in the United States (on the other hand not yet in France, whereas the Spanish name official and was preferred a long time there with the English name).

Following the assassination in 2005 of an independence leader, the situation is contracted again in spite of the advertisements of George W. Bush.

May 1st 2006, the United States stops the system of loans in Puerto Rico making impossible the payment of the wages of the Porto Rican civils servant. Following these events, UNO via the special Comité of the Decolonization decides to deliberate on the américano-Porto Rican situation the June 12th 2006.

Geography

See also: Geography of Puerto Rico

  • Surface: 9104 km ²

  • Population: : 3994259 hab. (2006)
  • Capital: San Juan (: 434374 inhabitants: 2450292 inhabitants in the metropolitan surface)
  • Languages: The Spanish is the only spoken language but the English remains official because of the bringing together with the the United States
  • Gouverneur: Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (PPD), since January 2nd, 2005.
  • GDP per capita: 22058 USD (2006)
  • Life expectancy: 78,54 years (2007)
  • Religion: 85% Catholic S; 15% évangéliques .

Policy

See also: Political of Puerto Rico

The legal and diplomatic situation of Puerto Rico is complex:

  • not represented with the the United Nations, the island has an Olympic national committee .
  • State free, but associated with the the United States, Puerto Rico does not have any obligation with the American federal tax department (its inhabitants do not pay that local taxes). However, the Oporto-Yankees do not have the right to vote with the presidential election, just like its representatives with the Congrès of the Union do not have a legislative role.
  • the American airline companies regard it as a “international destination”, whereas the planes of the Porto Rican companies must carry a number of American register.

Political parties

  • Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (PIP) - Left independence Porto Rican

  • Partido Popular Democratico (PPD)
  • Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP)

Economy

See also: Saving in Puerto Rico

The economic conditions in Puerto Rico temporarily improved since the Grande depression due to the external investment in expensive industry such as pharmaceutical and the Technologie of petrochemical products . After having been the recipients of the special tax mode of the government of the United States, local Industrie S must compete with those of the areas economically poorer world where the wages are not prone to the legislation of minimum wage of the United States. These last years, of the factories controlled by international capital were delocalized towards countries with more wage low costs, in Latin America and Asia. Puerto Rico is subjected to the laws of the trade and restrictions of the the United States.

Cities

  • San Juan 428.591 inhabitants (is. 2005) and 2,0 million for the agglomeration (San Juan is one of the large metropolises of the Caribbean)
  • Bayamón 222.195 inhabitants (is. 2005)
  • Ponce 182.387 inhabitants (is. 2005)
  • Mayaguez 95.280 inhabitants (is. 2005)
  • Arecibo 101.920 inhabitants (is. 2005)
  • Trujillo Alto 83.184 inhabitants (is. 2005)
  • Yabucoa 43.140 Yabucuenos (is. 2006)
  • Fajardo 40.712 inhabitants (is. 2000)

See also: territorial Organization of Puerto Rico

Demography

See also: Demography of Puerto Rico

Environment

See also: Fauna of Puerto Rico, Flora of Puerto Rico

Culture

See also: Culture of Puerto Rico

Tourism

The island of Porto-Rico is an important tourist destination of the Caribbean, inter alia because of its administrative fastening with the the United States; the formalities of access are the same ones as for those. Moreover, the climate is constant all the year with temperatures about 25-30°C.

The capital San Juan, founded in 1521, is the oldest city of the Western hemisphere and for this reason, has a history and a culture rich person. It is the principal place of attraction of the island, in particular the old city built by the Spaniards. It has many historical buildings (strong, churches, etc) and some interesting museums. The other big city of the island, Pounce, has a completely different atmosphere, much tourist, but more colonial and more middle-class woman, industrial, in particular because of the historical production of cane with sugar in the area for the manufacture of Rhum (it is historically the seat of Seralles, great Oporto-ricaine distilling).

Puerto Rico is also the place of reception of the Radiotélescope of universally known Arecibo.

Puerto Rico has in the east a mountainous wet tropical forest preserved by a national park named El Yunque. Many footpaths are accessible to all, provided that the equipment is adapted (it falls on average 6 m per annum from water on the forest). This park is the place of predilection of one of the symbols of the island, a small very noisy frog called Coquí . There exist also naturally bioluminescent lagoons in three places of the island (Fajardo, Vieques and towards Ponce). The beaches of the island (especially in the north-eastern part and the islands of Culebra and Vieques) are very gravitational for various activities: diving, surfing…

The island is one of the cradles of the Civilization précolombienne Taino. It thus has many vestiges of which most interesting are located at Tibes, close to Ponce, where was open the Center of the indigenous ceremonies (Puerto Rico).

Codes

Puerto Rico has as codes:
  • PR, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (code list country),
  • .pr, according to the List of Internet TLD (Signal level domain),
  • PRI, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-3,
  • PRI, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-3,
  • PURE, according to the Code list country of the CIO,
  • RQ, according to the Code list countries used by NATO, code alpha-2,

See too

Random links:Montazeau | Edouard Stephan | Pachydactylus gaiasensis | The Dam of the bottom | Aase Thorsen