Legend
stripes=fortifications
red=port functions
green=mixed use, Spanish residedtial
purple=slums
orange=slave quarters
black=central plaza
World Urbanization Homepage
1521-1600
The initial growth of San Juan was slow for many reasons. The primary factors that pulled Spanish Conquistadors were mineral, agricultural, and slave wealth--all industries that caused change in rural areas and established native settlements. The settlement served primarily as a break in transportation for goods on their way to Spain from inland Puerto Rico. Trade by sea was very restricted during this time-- due to a Spanish fear of piracy, they denied coastwise shipping in 1560 and kept Sevilla as the only available port in Spain.
The colony had a legitimate fear of attack during this period, and erected La Fortaleze (1540), El Morro (1550s), and El Boqueron (1580) to defend the community. La Fortaleza, the first defense cite built, was in the southwest quadrant of the city and provided the governor protection while leaving the port open to invasion. In response to the vulnerability of the port, the Spanish government built El Morro on the tip of the peninsula to protect the entrance to the harbor and therefore the port functions. To complete the fortification process, El Boqueron was constructed on the southeastern tip of the peninsula to seperate the town of San Juan from the mainland in the case of an invasion.
By 1600, the walls on the eastern edge of the city were complete, leaving the only unprotected area the northern central zone of the city, which was inhabited primarily by squatters and slaves. The rest of the town followed the planning guidelines of the Spanish government's "Law of the Indies", which among other things required that the town build a central plaza in close proximity to the port, lay out the streets in a symmetrical manner, and create barriers between the colonial and native populations.