Old San Juan
Title
Old San Juan
Description
As the Spanish colonial endeavour to the New World began, so did the spread of Spanish culture, power, and influence on these new lands. As the Spaniards arrived at the Caribbean, their main objectives included carrying the Spanish flag into new parts of the world, evangelizing the local population, establishing settlements, and benefitting from local resources to aid the growth of the empire ("Juan Ponce de León").
The building in the picture is one of many at the area of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, known as "Old San Juan". The settlement was founded in 1508 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Léon. It is oldest urban colonial settlement within Puerto Rico. In the New World, Old San Juan is the second oldest urban settlement ("Old San Juan").
As the Spanish colonizers established themselves in the New World, they brought their cultural and artistic visions with them. The Old San Juan district, naturally, contains elements of Spanish urban architecture. While one of the prime examples of Spanish colonial architecture would be the Catholic cathedrals or churches, the built space in which people lived was just as important to discovering the relationship and parallels between colonial life and life in mainland Spain. During the establishment of the colony, the colonizers had to deal with issues surrounding their health, being in a completely foreign land, lack of Old World food, and pressure from the crown to make the colonial effort profitable. Almost all of the colonizers were men. Entering into relationships with indigenous women created complications with the colonized society, not just with the crown, but also internally. Wiesner-Hanks describes the complications within the society in her chapter about the new world: "Spanish and Portuguese authorities, and the Catholic Church, were forced to develop policies and institutions to regulate a society very different from the one they had envisioned." (Wiesner-Hanks 267).
References:
"Juan Ponce De León." Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/.
"Old San Juan, Puerto Rico." Puerto Rico Tourism: San Juan. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://sanjuanpuertorico.com/old-san-juan/.
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Early Modern Europe 1450-1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016: 263-267
The building in the picture is one of many at the area of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital, known as "Old San Juan". The settlement was founded in 1508 by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Léon. It is oldest urban colonial settlement within Puerto Rico. In the New World, Old San Juan is the second oldest urban settlement ("Old San Juan").
As the Spanish colonizers established themselves in the New World, they brought their cultural and artistic visions with them. The Old San Juan district, naturally, contains elements of Spanish urban architecture. While one of the prime examples of Spanish colonial architecture would be the Catholic cathedrals or churches, the built space in which people lived was just as important to discovering the relationship and parallels between colonial life and life in mainland Spain. During the establishment of the colony, the colonizers had to deal with issues surrounding their health, being in a completely foreign land, lack of Old World food, and pressure from the crown to make the colonial effort profitable. Almost all of the colonizers were men. Entering into relationships with indigenous women created complications with the colonized society, not just with the crown, but also internally. Wiesner-Hanks describes the complications within the society in her chapter about the new world: "Spanish and Portuguese authorities, and the Catholic Church, were forced to develop policies and institutions to regulate a society very different from the one they had envisioned." (Wiesner-Hanks 267).
References:
"Juan Ponce De León." Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/.
"Old San Juan, Puerto Rico." Puerto Rico Tourism: San Juan. Accessed November 18, 2018. https://sanjuanpuertorico.com/old-san-juan/.
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. Early Modern Europe 1450-1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016: 263-267
Creator
Unknown
Source
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Spanish_Colonial_architecture_of_Old_San_Juan%2C_Puerto_Rico.JPG
Date
Early 16th Century
Contributor
Kaan Taskintuna
Rights
(CC BY-SA 4.0), Free to share with appropriate credit
Original Format
Photograph
Citation
Unknown, “Old San Juan,” HIST 139 - Early Modern Europe, accessed April 26, 2026, https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/82.