Q 01/05

What did the Taíno call Puerto Rico before Europeans arrived?

A) Borikén

B) Quisqueya

C) Guanahaní

D) Xaymaca

Answer · why

A) Borikén

Borikén. The name never died out: 'Boricua', which comes from it, is still the everyday word Puerto Ricans use for themselves.

Q 02/05

Christopher Columbus reached Puerto Rico on 19 November 1493 during which of his voyages?

A) His first voyage

B) His second voyage

C) His third voyage

D) His fourth voyage

Answer · why

B) His second voyage

His second voyage. Unlike the first, it was a colonising fleet rather than a scouting trip: 17 ships and well over a thousand men had sailed from Cádi...

Q 03/05

The lamb on Puerto Rico's coat of arms is the emblem of which saint, the island's original namesake?

A) John the Evangelist

B) John the Baptist

C) James the Great

D) Francis of Assisi

Answer · why

B) John the Baptist

John the Baptist. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista in 1493, and the coat of arms the Spanish crown granted in 1511 still shows the saint's ...

Q 04/05

Which conquistador founded the settlement of Caparra in 1508 and became Puerto Rico's first governor?

A) Hernán Cortés

B) Diego Velázquez

C) Nicolás de Ovando

D) Juan Ponce de León

Answer · why

D) Juan Ponce de León

Juan Ponce de León. He lost the governorship in 1511, when Columbus's son Diego won it in court; two years later he sailed north and landed in Florida...

Q 05/05

San Juan, founded in 1521, is the oldest European-founded city under the US flag, decades older than which Florida rival?

A) Key West

B) St. Augustine

C) Tallahassee

D) Jacksonville

Answer · why

B) St. Augustine

St. Augustine, founded in 1565, calls itself the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States, but by then San Juan had alrea...