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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly fry So I

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Speaker 1: am the first to admit we have some holes in

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Speaker 1: our archive. Well, covering the entirety of human history is right,

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Speaker 1: not something that can easily be done. No, yes, because

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Speaker 1: the world is enormous and history is basically infinite, we

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Speaker 1: were always going to have holes. But a few of

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Speaker 1: these holes are kind of glaring. Uh. And there's one

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Speaker 1: particularly big square mile hole in the archive, and that

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Speaker 1: is Puerto Rico. So we're gonna make that hole just

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Speaker 1: a little smaller today with Hurricane San Syriaco, which was

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Speaker 1: a massive hurricane that struck the island in I also

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Speaker 1: don't think we've ever done a whole episode just on

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Speaker 1: a hurricane, and since we're right at the start of

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Speaker 1: Atlantic hurricane season, it seems like an appropriate time to

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Speaker 1: do this one. Although there are aspects of this that

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Speaker 1: are uncannily similar to Hurricane Maria, which struck Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: on September, so part of me wishes that we had

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Speaker 1: done this way before. Now. I like that you used

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Speaker 1: the metaphor of us having a hole that needs to

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Speaker 1: be filled in the archive by then covering a topic

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Speaker 1: that obliterates things and creates massive gaps. Yeah, that was

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Speaker 1: not intentional at all. It was accidental, but it is, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, an important and serious topic. Hurricane San Syriaco

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Speaker 1: struck Puerto Rico at a really precarious point in its history.

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Speaker 1: The United States had just taken possession of the island

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Speaker 1: after centuries of its being controlled by Spain. Christopher Columbus

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Speaker 1: had claimed the island for Spain during his second voyage

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Speaker 1: in four and the island's first Spanish settlement followed in

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Speaker 1: fift eight. Then fast forwarding to the United States took

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Speaker 1: possession of Puerto Rico at the end of the Spanish

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Speaker 1: American War. But this precariousness was not only about the

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Speaker 1: fact that Puerto Rico was suddenly part of a completely

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Speaker 1: different colonial empire, which had a different language, a different culture,

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Speaker 1: and a totally different political system from the one before.

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Speaker 1: The forty or so years leading up to the Spanish

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Speaker 1: American War had also been particularly tumultuous. By the middle

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Speaker 1: of the eighteen hundreds, Puerto Rico had a population of

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Speaker 1: more than six hundred and fifty thousand people, and the

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Speaker 1: island had developed its own unique culture. This culture drew

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Speaker 1: from a lot of influences, including Spanish columnists, enslaved Africans,

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Speaker 1: and the indigenous Tino who had lived on the island

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Speaker 1: before the arrival of Spain. And the overwhelming majority of

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Speaker 1: the population was doing agricultural work and living in poverty.

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Speaker 1: The islands sugar and coffee industries were rapidly expanding, which

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Speaker 1: was affecting life all over the island. Sugar and coffee

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Speaker 1: plantations got bigger and bigger, and they crowded out smaller

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Speaker 1: farms that had been growing other crops. Fewer people owned

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Speaker 1: their own land, and people who had been able to

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Speaker 1: subsist on their own crops increasingly came destitute because they

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Speaker 1: no longer had land to grow on. Public health started

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Speaker 1: to suffer and mortality rates started to rise. This was

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Speaker 1: a major shift. In eighteen thirty, less than thirty percent

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Speaker 1: of Puerto Rico's cultivated land was used for export crops.

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Speaker 1: By eighteen sixty two, that had risen to more than

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Speaker 1: fifty the year of Hurricane s and Siriaco. It was

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Speaker 1: approaching as that percentage of land devoted to export crops increased,

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico had to import more and more of its food,

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Speaker 1: and it often had a food deficit, so you can

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Speaker 1: imagine it sort of this way. In the decades leading

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Speaker 1: up to the Spanish American War, both the Spanish government

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Speaker 1: and the island's coffee and sugar planters were approaching Puerto

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Speaker 1: Rico more like a capitalist enterprise meant to grow export crops,

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Speaker 1: unless like a place that was home to a population

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Speaker 1: of human beings who needed to survive there. A previous

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Speaker 1: hurricane had put a sharp focus on the problems with

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Speaker 1: this approach. Hurricane sen Narcisso struck in eighteen sixty seven

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Speaker 1: at the very end of the hurricane season that year.

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Speaker 1: More than two hundred people were killed, and local officials

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Speaker 1: wrote to the Spanish government on the island and to

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Speaker 1: Madrid about the need to invest more money in the

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Speaker 1: island's infrastructure to protect its people and resources. Before the

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Speaker 1: next major hurricane that year, only about three percent of

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Speaker 1: government expenditures had gone to public works and infrastructure, and

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Speaker 1: local leaders were clear that this was not enough to

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Speaker 1: ensure a safe and stable island. As more people started

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Speaker 1: to shift to work that was related to growing and

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Speaker 1: processing and shipping export crops. The people and those jobs

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Speaker 1: started trying to organize starting in the eighteen sixties. There

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Speaker 1: were recurring cycles of labor strikes and unrest in rural areas,

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Speaker 1: and as is usually the case when industries start trying

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Speaker 1: to organize, this whole process was difficult and sometimes violent.

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Speaker 1: Efforts to organize were also hampered by prejudice against rural workers.

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Speaker 1: Both Spain and Puerto Rican elite saw the island's rural

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Speaker 1: labor as lazy and shiftless, so they weren't inclined to

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Speaker 1: negotiate with the labor organizations that were trying to form,

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Speaker 1: and all these changes were really just the beginning. Also,

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Speaker 1: starting in the late eighteen sixties were a series of

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Speaker 1: civil rights and independence movements, some of them were being

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Speaker 1: influenced by similar movements in Cuba. Spanish authorities put down

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Speaker 1: a rebellion in Puerto Rico in September of eighteen sixty eight,

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Speaker 1: but gradually started allowing the island more freedoms starting the

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Speaker 1: next year. In eighteen seventy three, Puerto Rico very briefly

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Speaker 1: became a republic, and it also abolished slavery, but that

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Speaker 1: republic was overthrown in a military coup. Just a year later,

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Speaker 1: on November twenty five, Spain granted Puerto Rico the right

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Speaker 1: to self government. This was in response to a number

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Speaker 1: of pressures, including the Cuban War of Independence, which had

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Speaker 1: started in eighteen So obviously that is a lot of

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Speaker 1: a major change in just a few decades, and this

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Speaker 1: right to self government had its own layer of controversy.

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Speaker 1: Some advocates were satisfied with this level of autonomy, but

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Speaker 1: others wanted true independence regardless. Though this right to self

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Speaker 1: government did not last long at all. The Spanish American

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Speaker 1: War started just six months after it was granted, and

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Speaker 1: then the United States invaded Puerto Rico on July. The

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Speaker 1: invasion of Puerto Rico was part of a much bigger

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Speaker 1: conflict that also included Cuba in the Caribbean and Guam

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Speaker 1: and the Philippines in the Pacific, and initially, the United

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Speaker 1: States had planned to invade Puerto Rico earlier in the

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Speaker 1: war and then use it as a stepping stone to

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Speaker 1: get to the more strategically important target of Cuba, but

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Speaker 1: in the end, the United States largely skipped that step,

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Speaker 1: invading Puerto Rico after Spanish forces in Cuba had actually

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Speaker 1: already surrendered. The US assumed control of Puerto Rico on

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Speaker 1: October eighteenth. When the United States invaded Puerto Rico, Spain's

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Speaker 1: ultimate surrender in the war seemed like a foregone conclusion.

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Speaker 1: In other words, the United States didn't need to invade

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico in order to win the war, but doing

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Speaker 1: so meant that once the United States and Spain sat

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Speaker 1: down to negotiate terms for the end of the war,

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Speaker 1: the United States would already have a Puerto Rican presence,

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Speaker 1: and then that would give the United States a better

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Speaker 1: claim to the island. The Treaty of Paris of formally

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Speaker 1: ended the Spanish American War, and the United States gained

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Speaker 1: control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. The

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Speaker 1: treaty was signed on December tenth, so, after more than

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Speaker 1: four hundred years of being Spanish territory, the last thirty

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Speaker 1: years of which had seen ongoing efforts for self governance

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Speaker 1: and independence, in the blink of an eye, Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: instead belonged to the United States and was placed under

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Speaker 1: the control of the U. S military. This meant that

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico was once again seeing lots of rapid change,

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Speaker 1: and those changes were playing out right before or one

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Speaker 1: of the most catastrophic hurricanes ever to strike the island,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about that after a sponsor break.

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Speaker 1: When the United States officially took possession of Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 1: it established a military government that immediately got to work

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Speaker 1: trying to make major changes on the island. The United

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Speaker 1: States and Spain each had their own system for dealing

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Speaker 1: with colonial territory, and the United States was basically trying

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Speaker 1: to shape Puerto Rico to be more American. That meant

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Speaker 1: a lot of change and a lot of chaos. The

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Speaker 1: United States took control of Puerto Rico in October of eight,

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Speaker 1: and on April two of nineteen hundred, President McKinley signed

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Speaker 1: the Foraker Act, which established a civilian government. Between October

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Speaker 1: eight and May one, nineteen hundred, when the island's first

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Speaker 1: civil governor was inaugurated, there were four different military governors.

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Speaker 1: These governors implemented all kinds of new policies, some of

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Speaker 1: which were effective and some of which were not. Coffee

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Speaker 1: and sugar plantations were really struggling because of the war

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Speaker 1: and because of other economic issues, so they implemented a

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Speaker 1: moratorium on foreclosures. This was to try to protect that

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Speaker 1: part of the economy, but this had an unintended side

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Speaker 1: effect of causing a credit freeze within the agriculture sector,

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Speaker 1: which led to its own economic problems. Military governors also

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Speaker 1: declared an eight hour work day, bandcock fighting, and implemented

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Speaker 1: a compulsory public education system as well as a new

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Speaker 1: judicial system. They established a weather bureau and began a

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Speaker 1: whole collection of surveys, audits, and inventories to figure out

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Speaker 1: what exactly the United States had come into possession of.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of this work continued to go on

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Speaker 1: in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. As I was

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Speaker 1: reading reports of the military governor in the in the

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Speaker 1: hurricanes immediate aftermath, there would be some that would be

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Speaker 1: pages of documents of how the new legal system was

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Speaker 1: going to work, and I was like, people are starving

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Speaker 1: right now, this is maybe not the time to be outlining.

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Speaker 1: I mean that that's important too, but maybe the food

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Speaker 1: distribution should be a bigger priority. It's almost such a

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Speaker 1: disconnect that you have to surmise that someone was like

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Speaker 1: in shock and just going I don't know, can I

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Speaker 1: make sense of something, even if it's not going to

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Speaker 1: help in any way. So all of this had been

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Speaker 1: going on for less than a year when Hurricane San

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Speaker 1: Syriaco struck, so Hurricane San Syriaco was a cape there

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Speaker 1: to a hurricane. This is a term used to describe

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Speaker 1: hurricanes that developed off the coast of Africa near the

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Speaker 1: Cape Verde Islands. They strengthen into hurricanes before they ever

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Speaker 1: get to the Caribbean. They're a lot more common later

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Speaker 1: on in the Atlantic hurricane season, and these storms move

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Speaker 1: over a lot of warm ocean before they ever pass

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Speaker 1: over in a land, so they tend to be very large,

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Speaker 1: powerful and long lived storms. Hurricane San Syriaco began as

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Speaker 1: a tropical storm southwest of the Cape Verde Islands on

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Speaker 1: August two. Eight. By August five, it had strengthened into

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Speaker 1: a Category one hurricane. On the seventh, it passed over Guadalupe,

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Speaker 1: southeast of Puerto Rico. Weather officials there reported wind speeds

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Speaker 1: of one twenty miles per hour it's about one kilometers

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Speaker 1: per hour, and that made it a Category three hurricane.

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Speaker 1: The hurricane struck Puerto Rico on August eight, the feast

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Speaker 1: day of Roman Catholic Saint Cyriacus. The United States wasn't

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Speaker 1: actually naming hurricanes at this point, but in Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: they were named for the Saints feast day that they

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Speaker 1: made landfall on. Hurricane San Syriaco moved from the southwest

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Speaker 1: corner of the island to the northeast, with the eye

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Speaker 1: roughly moving over the center of the island. The entire

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Speaker 1: island was affected. Most sources describe Hurricane San Syriaco as

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Speaker 1: a category for hurricane. When it struck Puerto Rico, some

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Speaker 1: parts of the island reported twenty three inches of rainfall

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Speaker 1: in twenty four hours. Rivers flooded, passing their previous high

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Speaker 1: water marks. It took roughly six hours for the eye

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Speaker 1: to pass over the whole island, and the rain persisted

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Speaker 1: long after the hurricane was gone. The island recorded twenty

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Speaker 1: eight consecutive days of rainfall. This was the height of

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Speaker 1: hurricane season and Puerto Rico was used to experiencing hurricanes

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Speaker 1: and tropical storms, but the island had gone more than

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Speaker 1: ten years without seeing a major hurricane. The most recent

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Speaker 1: one had been Hurricane San Felipe in eight seventy six,

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Speaker 1: and that was nothing in comparison to San Seriaco. This

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Speaker 1: was the worst catastrophe in Puerto Rican history up until

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Speaker 1: this point. The island's electrical grid was destroyed, along with

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Speaker 1: the telephone and telegraph system. Some of the wooden structures

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Speaker 1: and other buildings in more urban areas survived the storm,

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Speaker 1: but in more rural areas most homes were built from

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Speaker 1: mud with thatched roofs. These structures were completely washed away.

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Speaker 1: The trees that would have provided the thatch were also uprooted,

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Speaker 1: which meant that there wasn't any roofing material available to rebuild.

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Speaker 1: Most of the islands cultivated crops were destroyed, including about

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Speaker 1: half of the sugar crop and almost all of the

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Speaker 1: coffee crop. This was just before the coffee harvest, and

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Speaker 1: not only were the coffee plants themselves destroyed, but the

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Speaker 1: shade trees that sheltered them were uprooted as well. It

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Speaker 1: takes about five years for new coffee plants to produce fruit,

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Speaker 1: so this is a catastrophic blow to the coffee industry,

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Speaker 1: and most of the food crops were destroyed as well.

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Speaker 1: San Juan, the island's capital and largest city, is on

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Speaker 1: the more northeastern coast of the island, and the hurricanes

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Speaker 1: I passed well to the southwest of it, somewhat sparing

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Speaker 1: the city. But the second biggest city, of Ponce, is

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Speaker 1: on the north southwestern coast of the island, and it

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Speaker 1: was hit really hard. More than five hundred people drowned

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Speaker 1: in the city of Ponce alone, But the municipality that

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Speaker 1: faced the greatest losses was Utowado, in the mountainous center

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Speaker 1: of the island, which was the seat of the coffee industry.

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Speaker 1: About three thousand four people died in flooding or building

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Speaker 1: collapses on the day of the hurricane. This was more

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Speaker 1: than three times the recorded deaths of any prior hurricane

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Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico. Even so, that number is probably a

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Speaker 1: lot lower than the actual death toll, since disease and

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Speaker 1: hunger related illnesses spread in the wake of a storm

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Speaker 1: like this. By the time the hurricane passed, more than

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand people were left homeless and destitute.

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Speaker 1: That was more than a quarter of the island's population.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people saw this as a divine retribution,

247
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Speaker 1: but against whom really depended on your point of view.

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Speaker 1: Here's how this was described in the September issue of

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Speaker 1: the Bulletin Mercantile de Puerto Rico quote, the eighth day

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00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:46,360
Speaker 1: of August will be a day of terrible memory form

251
00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:49,600
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. Before the island had recovered from the state

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00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:53,080
Speaker 1: of perturbation and turmoil in which the Spanish American War

253
00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:56,280
Speaker 1: left it, and when all its efforts to reconquer its

254
00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:00,760
Speaker 1: previous normality and prosperity were successively and fatally ailing. And

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Speaker 1: extremely violent hurricane hammered the island, intensifying the measure of

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Speaker 1: its pains, immersing it in the most horrendous ruin, and

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00:15:09,040 --> 00:15:12,760
Speaker 1: destroying the last hope for its salvation and welfare. There

258
00:15:12,760 --> 00:15:16,640
Speaker 1: only remains of this antillian isle, once so celebrated for

259
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:20,440
Speaker 1: its beauty and fit undity. Heaps of rubble spread everywhere,

260
00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:24,400
Speaker 1: which represent a history full of tears, death, and misfortune

261
00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:28,640
Speaker 1: for its inhabitants. After passing over Puerto Rico, Hurricane San

262
00:15:28,720 --> 00:15:32,880
Speaker 1: Syriaco continued through the Caribbean, passing over other islands and

263
00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:36,920
Speaker 1: reaching the Bahamas as a Category three hurricane on August twelve.

264
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Speaker 1: From there, the storm roughly followed the North American coastline

265
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:44,680
Speaker 1: from Florida to the North Carolina's The eye stayed well

266
00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:48,440
Speaker 1: off shore until the storm shifted north and then northwest,

267
00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:52,080
Speaker 1: striking the North Carolina Outer Banks as a Category three

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Speaker 1: hurricane on August seventeen. If you look at a map

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Speaker 1: of this, it really looks like it was just safely

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Speaker 1: headed out to see and then went, oh, you know what.

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Speaker 1: The or Banks looked like a good target, and the

272
00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:06,880
Speaker 1: Outer Banks saw extensive flooding, especially on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.

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00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 1: Most of the structures were destroyed. On the island of

274
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Speaker 1: Shackelford Banks, its whole population relocated, and today the island

275
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,920
Speaker 1: is undeveloped and home to wild horses. Water contamination, drowned

276
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,240
Speaker 1: farm animals, and unearthed cemeteries were all a major problem

277
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:25,040
Speaker 1: in the Outer Banks, along with the destruction of fishing

278
00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:29,320
Speaker 1: equipment and multiple fishing communities. At least seven ships were

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00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:33,560
Speaker 1: lost to Hurricane San Serriaco, including the sixty three ton

280
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Speaker 1: cargo ship Priscilla, which wrecked off the North Carolina coast

281
00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:40,360
Speaker 1: on the night of the six From the Outer Banks,

282
00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:43,960
Speaker 1: the storm returned to sea, following the North American coastline

283
00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:48,440
Speaker 1: until August, when it turned east and eventually dissipated off

284
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,440
Speaker 1: the coast of Ireland. On September four. Its remains hit

285
00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:56,320
Speaker 1: France on September nine. It is still the longest lived

286
00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,000
Speaker 1: storm ever tracked in the Atlantic. Obviously, this was a destructive,

287
00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,720
Speaker 1: of and deadly storm everywhere that it hit that was populated.

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00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,440
Speaker 1: The aftermath was particularly devastating in Puerto Rico, and we

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00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:17,159
Speaker 1: will get to that after a sponsor break. As is

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00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,320
Speaker 1: often the case in natural disasters, people described the immediate

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00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:24,959
Speaker 1: aftermath of Hurricane San Serriaco is something of a honeymoon period.

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00:17:25,480 --> 00:17:28,320
Speaker 1: The wealthiest people, who lived mostly in the cities, tried

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00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:30,760
Speaker 1: to help out with their nations of food and offers

294
00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:33,680
Speaker 1: of shelter wherever they could. There was a general sense

295
00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,440
Speaker 1: of people pulling together. The military governor at this point

296
00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:42,119
Speaker 1: was Major General George Whitefield Davis. His administration established an

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00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:46,640
Speaker 1: advisory board, which included Puerto Rican civilians, to make recommendations

298
00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:50,560
Speaker 1: on hurricane relief. Davis also ordered for food crops to

299
00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,240
Speaker 1: be planted immediately to try to replenish the island's food supply.

300
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:57,600
Speaker 1: Although the military government made a lot of the decisions

301
00:17:57,680 --> 00:17:59,960
Speaker 1: on what was to be done, those decisions were off

302
00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,600
Speaker 1: and carried out by municipal councils known as Ayuntamantos, and

303
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:07,360
Speaker 1: since there was a lot of variation and how efficient

304
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,879
Speaker 1: and capable all these various municipal councils were, there was

305
00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:14,000
Speaker 1: also a lot of variation and how things actually went

306
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:18,080
Speaker 1: at the local level. The military government also created twelve

307
00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:21,800
Speaker 1: inspection zones, following the same lines that had already been

308
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:26,000
Speaker 1: used to divide the island into administrative districts. Eventually, some

309
00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,280
Speaker 1: of these zones were subdivided for logistical reasons, making the

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00:18:29,320 --> 00:18:33,640
Speaker 1: total seventeen military officers were sent into all of these

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00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,560
Speaker 1: zones to assess the damage and make appeals for food

312
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:40,280
Speaker 1: and other relief. Davis and many of his officers also

313
00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:44,240
Speaker 1: put some of their salaries towards the relief effort, but

314
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 1: this initial period of cooperation wasn't nearly enough to offset

315
00:18:47,800 --> 00:18:51,000
Speaker 1: the scope at the damage. Municipal governments and other local

316
00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:54,239
Speaker 1: officials in these districts were quickly overwhelmed, and often they

317
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,200
Speaker 1: just didn't have any food or other contribution to offer.

318
00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:00,680
Speaker 1: Since Puerto Rico's food was mostly import it, and since

319
00:19:00,680 --> 00:19:03,160
Speaker 1: it had already been prone to food deficits, there wasn't

320
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,560
Speaker 1: much of a stored surplus to provide some people who

321
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:09,359
Speaker 1: now had nothing food distribution was also really difficult because

322
00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:14,160
Speaker 1: of the colossal damage to the already shaky infrastructure. However,

323
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 1: the military government in Puerto Rico and the Greater U.

324
00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,280
Speaker 1: S Government both had a vested interest in seeming benevolent

325
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:25,600
Speaker 1: and organized to the people of its new Puerto Rican territory,

326
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:28,240
Speaker 1: so Davis asked for the federal government to call on

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00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,920
Speaker 1: its citizens to provide aid. Puerto Ricans were not US

328
00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:34,960
Speaker 1: citizens at this point. That would not happen until nineteen seventeen.

329
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 1: Secretary of War Elihu Root was quoted in the New

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00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:41,479
Speaker 1: York Times on August twelfth, quote, under these conditions, the

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Speaker 1: President deems that an appeal should be made to the

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00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:48,400
Speaker 1: humanity of the American people is an appeal to their patriotism.

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Speaker 1: Also for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico have freely and

334
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,760
Speaker 1: gladly submitted themselves to the guardianship of the United States,

335
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:58,359
Speaker 1: and have voluntarily surrendered the protection of Spain to which

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00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,800
Speaker 1: they were formerly entitled. Confinitely, relying upon the more generous

337
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,520
Speaker 1: and beneficent treatment at our hands, the highest considerations of

338
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,560
Speaker 1: honor and good faith unite with the promptings of humanity

339
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:12,560
Speaker 1: to require from the United States a generous response to

340
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:16,760
Speaker 1: the demand of Puerto Rican distress. There were other appeals

341
00:20:16,760 --> 00:20:20,199
Speaker 1: for aid as well, with numerous elected officials asking for

342
00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 1: their constituents to contribute. One of these came from Theodore Roosevelt,

343
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,639
Speaker 1: who was then the governor of New York. The State

344
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:31,200
Speaker 1: Merchants Association in New York also became the central collection

345
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: point for donations, which were then shipped to Puerto Rico.

346
00:20:34,840 --> 00:20:37,639
Speaker 1: In Puerto Rico, a charity board was established with a

347
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,800
Speaker 1: central office in San Juan. It was under the control

348
00:20:40,880 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 1: of Major John van Hoff and there were clergy and

349
00:20:43,359 --> 00:20:46,600
Speaker 1: medical personnel on the board. The Charity Board asked for

350
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:50,040
Speaker 1: each of Puerto Rico's municipalities to establish its own committee,

351
00:20:50,119 --> 00:20:54,000
Speaker 1: led by three quote people of respectability. For the first

352
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,840
Speaker 1: few days after the hurricane, the military government distributed ration

353
00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,320
Speaker 1: cards which authorized the bearer to collect a weekly allotment

354
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:05,640
Speaker 1: of beans, rice, and dried codfish or bacon for their household.

355
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,119
Speaker 1: But on August nineteen, the Department of Puerto Rico issued

356
00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:12,960
Speaker 1: General Order one twenty four, which began quote, it having

357
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 1: been brought to the attention of the Department Commander that

358
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:19,760
Speaker 1: idle able bodied men are refusing to work at fair wages.

359
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,119
Speaker 1: It is hereby ordered that no such man who so

360
00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:26,760
Speaker 1: refuses will be permitted to draw food for himself or

361
00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:29,560
Speaker 1: his family. So, as we mentioned earlier in the show,

362
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,960
Speaker 1: the rural population of Puerto Rico, particularly its most impoverished residents,

363
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,479
Speaker 1: faced a lot of discrimination and prejudice. This had been

364
00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:38,920
Speaker 1: true under Spanish rule, it was still true under the

365
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,520
Speaker 1: American military government, and it was also true among the

366
00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 1: Puerto Rican upper class. Basically, everyone of means thought everyone

367
00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:49,960
Speaker 1: else in Puerto Rico was lazy, ignorant, and dishonest and

368
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,360
Speaker 1: didn't care about their own poverty or social conditions. There

369
00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:56,399
Speaker 1: was a lot of concern that giving people free food

370
00:21:56,480 --> 00:22:00,360
Speaker 1: would make them lazier and totally dependent on handouts. So

371
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,920
Speaker 1: it's very likely that a lot of the people who

372
00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,760
Speaker 1: were described in this statement as refusing to work for

373
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,119
Speaker 1: fair wages could not find work or had some reason

374
00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: why they could not work. So a new system evolved

375
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 1: in which aid went to the planters rather than directly

376
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico's poor. Planters put in a requisition for

377
00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 1: laborers to work on their coffee and sugar plantations, and

378
00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,720
Speaker 1: then the laborers who were hired for those positions had

379
00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 1: to present a work card documenting their labor in order

380
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:35,080
Speaker 1: to receive food. This unsurprisingly led to a lot of problems.

381
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:38,840
Speaker 1: Although thirty two million pounds of food were distributed to

382
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,639
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventeen thousand people over the span of

383
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,399
Speaker 1: ten months, the only people who were able to get

384
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:46,399
Speaker 1: it were the ones who were able to find work,

385
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:49,800
Speaker 1: and this wasn't necessarily easy to do given the massive

386
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: destruction of the coffee and sugar industries. That also led

387
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,560
Speaker 1: to people accepting lower wages than they had gotten before

388
00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:01,159
Speaker 1: the hurricane struck just it could do the work that

389
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:05,000
Speaker 1: was required to get the food. Compounding all of this

390
00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,320
Speaker 1: was an assumption among the wealthier people that the rural

391
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: population was exaggerating how dire the situation was. The prevailing

392
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 1: reasoning was that the rural people were used to being poor,

393
00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: so they should be able to manage without so much help.

394
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:23,080
Speaker 1: There were apparently several people that propose various bond referenda

395
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,639
Speaker 1: to fund rebuilding of public works, employing people to do so,

396
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:32,239
Speaker 1: and I kept finding like the proposals, and I was like,

397
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 1: did you ever do that? Though? Because there's a lot

398
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:40,880
Speaker 1: to the rebuilding effort besides just distributing food to people anyway,

399
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 1: the whole thing was a complicated mess and led to

400
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 1: a lot of people not being able to get the

401
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:49,199
Speaker 1: aid that they needed. And then another aspect of the

402
00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,720
Speaker 1: relief program was a tax moratorium. Because of the war

403
00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:55,960
Speaker 1: and a previous economic crisis, a lot of people had

404
00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 1: not paid their taxes for the prior year, and wealthy planters,

405
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:03,439
Speaker 1: local officials, and other prominent people started to petition for

406
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,320
Speaker 1: a moratorium on taxes for both the prior and current

407
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:09,440
Speaker 1: tax years. There was a lot of back and forth

408
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 1: over all of this. The vast majority of petitions that

409
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,119
Speaker 1: came in for tax relief were from wealthy planters, but

410
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:19,720
Speaker 1: the hurricane had impacted people all over the economic spectrum,

411
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 1: not just the wealthy. Some officials recommended a program in

412
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: which only people who could prove that they had suffered

413
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: a loss could get tax relief, but others pointed out

414
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,800
Speaker 1: that figuring out which claims were legitimate and which weren't

415
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: would be a colossal and expensive effort considering the scope

416
00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: of the damage and the end The military government suspended

417
00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 1: taxes on August, but this was temporary, and by nineteen

418
00:24:45,080 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: o two the government was still owed almost three hundred

419
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:52,119
Speaker 1: million pasos and unpaid taxes. Most of those taxes that

420
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:55,200
Speaker 1: were still owed were owed by large planters whose crops

421
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:59,200
Speaker 1: had been destroyed by the hurricane. This tax relief certainly

422
00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,320
Speaker 1: may have helped both workers and planters in the immediate

423
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: aftermath of the hurricane, but it also meant that there

424
00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: was no money to fund projects and services that had

425
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: previously relied on taxation. So while the relief effort focused

426
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 1: on food distribution, there was far less tax revenue to

427
00:25:16,680 --> 00:25:20,440
Speaker 1: fund other parts of the rebuilding effort. Although Congress did

428
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: not pass a relief bill, it did return two million

429
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,280
Speaker 1: dollars and tax revenues on products that had come into

430
00:25:26,320 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 1: the continental United States from Puerto Rico since the occupation.

431
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: This was a tiny amount of money compared to the

432
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,679
Speaker 1: scope of the damage that total damages were valued at

433
00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: an estimated twenty million dollars, and also planters wanted this

434
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 1: returned tax money to go into agricultural investment instead of

435
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 1: into rebuilding efforts. All of this had an ongoing and

436
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 1: long lasting effect on the island of Puerto Rico. In

437
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 1: its coffee exports were only ten percent of what they

438
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 1: had been on average in the five years before the

439
00:25:58,680 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: Spanish American War, and the coffee industry never really recovered.

440
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,360
Speaker 1: In addition to that five year growing time before new

441
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:09,840
Speaker 1: plants would bear fruit, the Puerto Rican coffee industry couldn't

442
00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,640
Speaker 1: really compete with Brazil or Central America, which were producing

443
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: cheaper coffee at a much lower labor cost. This was

444
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,800
Speaker 1: economically devastating for the island's mountainous interior, which was conducive

445
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: to growing coffee, but not too many other crops. The

446
00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,920
Speaker 1: sugar industry recovered more quickly. Its crop was only about

447
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 1: a third of normal size. The hurricane also destroyed a

448
00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 1: number of the industry's older haciendas, which had to be

449
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:39,960
Speaker 1: replaced with more modern sugar processing facilities. The hurricane and

450
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,560
Speaker 1: flooding also kind of ironically wound up enriching the soil

451
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,919
Speaker 1: in sugar growing areas, so as the coffee industry in

452
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico declined, the sugar industry grew. However, at the

453
00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:53,800
Speaker 1: same time, at least five thousand people left the island

454
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,280
Speaker 1: after the hurricane to work as laborers elsewhere, including in

455
00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: Hawaii's sugar industry. This ship if from coffee to sugar,

456
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: accelerated in nine hundred after the passage of the Foraker Act.

457
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: The Act described Puerto Rico, which it spelled p O

458
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: r t O, as an quote unorganized territory of the

459
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: United States, with its citizens being citizens of Puerto Rico

460
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,320
Speaker 1: against spelled in correctly. The Foraker Act also specified that

461
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,160
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico was subject to fient tariff on goods going

462
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,000
Speaker 1: to the United States and vice versa. That in one

463
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,080
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico became a customs area of the United States

464
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: in terms of international trade, so Puerto Rico could ship

465
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 1: sugar and tobacco into the United States without a tariff,

466
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,720
Speaker 1: but coffee wasn't produced on the continent, so it wasn't

467
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:46,879
Speaker 1: protected from the tariff. Before the Spanish American War, the

468
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 1: coffee industry had also been sending most of its products

469
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:52,760
Speaker 1: to Cuba and Spain, and now that Puerto Rico wasn't

470
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:56,359
Speaker 1: Spanish territory, it was subject to high tariffs on those

471
00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: exports as well. All of this had a major economic

472
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,959
Speaker 1: impact on the island. Before the hurricane, coffee had been

473
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:08,160
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico's biggest export, but by coffee was only ten

474
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: percent of Puerto Rico's exports and sugar was six The

475
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,399
Speaker 1: amount of land devoted to farming sugar also roughly doubled

476
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,399
Speaker 1: during that time, while the land used for coffee was

477
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:23,040
Speaker 1: roughly halved. The collapse of the coffee industry caused a

478
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,840
Speaker 1: major economic crisis in the island's interior. All of these changes,

479
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: plus using the planters to distribute relief to the workers,

480
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: made the planters much more powerful on the island of

481
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,280
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, and the island became even more dependent on

482
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: imports for necessities like food, while putting more and more

483
00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:44,680
Speaker 1: of its labor towards manufacturing exports. All of this set

484
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 1: the stage for the way that Puerto Rico developed as

485
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 1: a territory after this point. The hurricane and the relief

486
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: effort also played a part in the Foraker Act, which

487
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 1: Congress began working on in January of nineteen hundred. This

488
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 1: was just five months after the hurricane, only halfway through

489
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,600
Speaker 1: the ten months of food distribution. Much of the island

490
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,480
Speaker 1: was still destroyed when that Act was drafted. All of

491
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:10,239
Speaker 1: this contributed to the decision to make Puerto Rico an

492
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: unincorporated territory rather than making Puerto Rico an independent nation.

493
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico's relationship to the United States has continued to

494
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: evolve in the decades since then, but at this point

495
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 1: it's the only former Spanish possession in the Americas that

496
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,760
Speaker 1: has not become independent. Also, the week that we are

497
00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: recording this episode is the same week that that study

498
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: was released that the death hole in Hurricane Mario was

499
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: actually thousands of people more than originally reported. And one

500
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 1: of the things that keeps coming up in reporting of

501
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,960
Speaker 1: that study is the same prejudices that we were talking

502
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: about affecting the way that aid was distributed here, affecting

503
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: the way that aid was distributed in Hurricane Maria, and

504
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: the way the people were talked about in Puerto Rico

505
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 1: during Hurricane Maria. So somehow we have not learned anything

506
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: in a hundred and twenty years. Do you have a

507
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: listener mail? It's less of a bummer maybe, Yeah, I

508
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: knew it's from Liz Liza's Hi, Tracy and Holly. I've

509
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 1: been listening for a few years, and I am happy

510
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: to finally have a reason to write to you. I

511
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: was a few episodes behind, but then I saw you

512
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 1: posted an episode about Prague just before my trip there.

513
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: I knew I had to skip ahead. I listened on

514
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,120
Speaker 1: my drive to the airport. I visited the site of

515
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: one of the definistrations in the old town hall, and

516
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: surprisingly they provided basically no information about why it happened.

517
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,440
Speaker 1: I would have had no idea for your podcasts, so

518
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: thanks for providing an excellent introduction to some check history

519
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: at the perfect time. I've attached some photos of the

520
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,480
Speaker 1: room where it happened, as well as the official information guide.

521
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 1: I also visited Prague Castle where the other definistration occurred.

522
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 1: They did have signs marking the fourth anniversary and explaining

523
00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:53,160
Speaker 1: the historical context. They also vigorously disputed the minor myth,

524
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: which unfortunately other historical sites here repeated as fact. I

525
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: have established photos from the castle as well. The definistrations

526
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,480
Speaker 1: occurred from the far left window in the middle row,

527
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: and then there's obelisks that mark where the victims landed.

528
00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 1: Thanks again for everything you do keep my commute interesting

529
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: and educational. Liz and Liz sent several pictures, as this

530
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: email suggests, Thank you so much. Liz. I heard from

531
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: a couple of people that were, like historians now recognize

532
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: that the manure thing didn't happen at all, and like

533
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 1: I wasn't able to find any historians that really said that. Um,

534
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 1: multiple sources that were using that episode say that the

535
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: people that were throwing out the window definitely landed in manure.

536
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,160
Speaker 1: So apparently there is some debate about where the the

537
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: manure thing. Maybe there was manure, but it didn't really help.

538
00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: It did not provide the soft landing. I mean, it

539
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,480
Speaker 1: seems like it would be a gross landing. There's no

540
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: way around that. So, uh, it's we do know that

541
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: they were turning out the window and that they were

542
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:59,440
Speaker 1: not seriously harmed the manure thing. Apparently some debate. So

543
00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:01,160
Speaker 1: if you would like to write to us about this

544
00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: or any other podcast, Where History podcast at how stuff

545
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 1: Works dot com and then we're at missing History all

546
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,480
Speaker 1: over social media that is our name on Facebook and

547
00:32:08,520 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest. If you come to our website,

548
00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:14,440
Speaker 1: which is missing history dot com, you will find show

549
00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:16,400
Speaker 1: notes for all the episodes that Holly and I have

550
00:32:16,520 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: ever worked on. You will also find a searchable archive

551
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: all the episodes we have ever done. So we can

552
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:23,560
Speaker 1: do all of that and a whole lot more. If

553
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: you come to missing history dot com and you can

554
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 1: subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Play wherever

555
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:36,960
Speaker 1: else you find podcasts For more on this and thousands

556
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: of other topics, is it how stuff Works dot com