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Why Did Juan Ponce De Leon?

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Why Did Juan Ponce De Leon?
Juan Ponce de Leon was born in 1474 and lived to 1521. He was a Spanish explorer and one of the conquerors of many lands in the New World. Very little is recorded and known about Juan Ponce de Leon’s early life. Ponce de Leon grew up in Santervás de Campos, a Spanish town located near the town of Placencia. He is reported to have fought in the Spanish campaign is 1492 that drove the the Moors out of Granada. After that, many historians agree on the fact that he then accompanied the prestigious explorer Christopher on his second expedition. Columbus’ fleet then reached the island of Hispaniola, an island in the Caribbean Sea. Then, it is believed that Ponce de Leon returned to Spain before going back to the island of Hispaniola in 1502. Although, …show more content…
Of course with Juan Ponce de Leon being the governor and European “founder” of Puerto Rico, he believed that colonies should be self-governed within the colony. But, while he does believe that new lands should be self governed by who ever discovered the land first, what sets him apart is his ideas that all benefits of the colony should be given back to the “mother country” (In his case, Spain). What this idea means is that all wealth that is obtained from the new land must be given back to the mother country. The “wealth” from the new countries includes slaves, trade routes, and of course gold. Also, Ponce de Leon believes the colony is not fully owned by the governor, but is a part of is and owned by the mother country and the mother country makes the ultimate decisions about the colony. He has these views on self government because he self governed Puerto Rico and he was very successful and brought back great riches to Spain. Juan Ponce de Leon’s views include that the distribution of land should be given to the country that settles there first, and should not be decided through war and the stronger

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