Original subtitles

these military remnants are evidence of a time

are inhabited by permanent residents:

the main island of puerto rico,

vieques to the southeast,

and culebra, which is famous

for one of the most beautiful stretches of sand in the world.

it's called flamenco beach

northern shore. and lies on culebra's

many travel to puerto rico

just for a chance to camp out on this stunning arc of white sand.

the strange object and it's hard to miss

that lies right in the middle of flamenco beach.

u.s. army tank, it's an abandoned

covered with graffiti.

it didn't end up here by chance.

nor did this one higher up in the hills.

but only three of them

when the u.s. government valued puerto rico

not for its natural beauty and tourism dollars,

but because of its strategic location

on the edge of the caribbean sea,

between europe and south america.

spain had made puerto rico it's one reason that

its military outpost in the new world

more than four centuries ago.

puerto rican island and culebra wasn't the only

used by u.s. forces.

in 1941, at the height of world war ii,

military planners arrived on the nearby island of vieques

and started building this.

it was envisioned as a long sea wall

and local elections.

unlike all the other former spanish colonies

in the caribbean,

puerto rico never gained its independence.

it went directly from being a spanish colony

to a u.s. territory.

today, the u.s. and the puerto rican flag

fly over its capitol building here in san juan,

just as state and u.s. flags do

on nearly every state house across the nation.

but puerto rico is not a state;

it's a territory.

like their fellow citizens in the u.s. virgin islands,

puerto ricans hold u.s. passports,

but are only allowed to vote in presidential primaries

that would connect vieques with puerto rico's mainland

they are not allowed to cast their ballots

for the u.s. president.

that many in puerto rico it's one reason

favor the territory becoming a u.s. state

and why others believe that their beloved puerto rico

should finally be allowed to gain its freedom

as an independent nation.

if it were a state,

puerto rico would be bigger than rhode island,

but smaller than connecticut.

its land covers just over 3,500 square miles.

a single island. and it's not just

this u.s. territory

covers 143 different islands, keys, and atolls.

just 50 feet away.

on april 19, 1999,

a security guard named david sanes rodriguez

was at his post here on top of this hill

in what was part of the military-controlled area

of the island.

he was standing outside, in the twilight,

under a gray sky,

when he heard the whoosh of two 500-pound bombs

rocketing toward him

from somewhere up in the clouds.

the pilot of an fa-18 on a training mission

had made a terrible error

and launched his weapons at the wrong target.

the bombs landed on both sides of sanes rodriguez,

one of them ended with a terrible disaster.

their powerful explosions killed him instantly.

they also injured four others in the nearby tower on the hill.

today, a small cross marks the site

where david sanes rodriguez died.

his death immediately galvanized

the civilian population on vieques,

who protested the navy's presence here

by walking out onto the bombing range

to prevent another disaster.

their years of work finally paid off in 2003.

but up to 9,000 acres of this tropical island

are still littered with munitions,

as well as napalm, mercury, and other toxic materials.

piles of bombshells are still visible from the air.

and that work continued.

seven miles away.

its purpose was to create a protected harbor on one side

for the u.s. and british navies--

one bigger even than pearl harbor.

but two years later,

the great sea wall project was abandoned,

leaving vieques with only a one-mile-long pier

that still reaches out into vieques sound,

over five miles short of its goal.

as rompeolas, or "breakwater." it's known by locals

but the military's plans

also included turning the island of vieques itself

into a massive new training area,

bombing range, and weapons depot,

here on the islands.

to do it, the u.s. government forced many who lived here

off their land.

they gave them just 10 days to vacate

and then razed their homes.

the project fueled an economic boom in vieques,

as hundreds of workers from across puerto rico

flocked here to build giant weapons magazines like these,

for wages of $2.25 a day.

♪

for the next 50 years,

the u.s. military and its nato allies

used vieques for exercises and bombing practice.

craters from those bombs can still be seen today

from the air.

coffee.

but in 1960, the communist cuban government

seized control of bacardi's assets.

the family fled and set up shop

in a smaller distillery they already owned

here in san juan.

this art deco tower

headquarters ever since. has been the company's

today, 70 million cases of bacardi rum

are produced here every year

and are one reason puerto rico

is one of the biggest rum producers in the world.

when spanish ships left the harbor of san juan

loaded with rum and sugar,

they also carried another puerto rican crop

that was famous in europe:

it was started by spanish settlers in cuba.

it's still grown on plantations

all across the central mountains here.

the coffee bean,

which originally came from africa,

was brought to the caribbean on european ships in the 1700s.

the lush mountains of puerto rico's interior

proved to have the perfect soil conditions and climate

to grow coffee.

soon, many in europe considered puerto rican coffee

the best in the world.

with a population of about three and a half million people,

puerto rico has to import most of its food.

but agriculture remains a key part

of puerto rico's economy.

the seralles family turned don q into a global brand.

when the u.s. and spain signed the treaty of paris

in december 1898,

puerto rico was handed over to the u.s. government.

ever since. it's been a u.s. territory

under the treaty,

spanish settlers retained their land rights.

one of those former colonial families

used their sugarcane fields and small distillery

to create one of the biggest names in caribbean rum:

don q.

rum, which is made from molasses fermented with yeast,

was one of the many products

produced on plantations across the caribbean.

in the 1930s,

land that once held enormous sugar plantations

they used their rum fortune

to build a private mansion that is now a museum

and visited landmarks. and one of ponce's most famous

as the seralles castle. it's known

80% of the rum that americans drink

is reported to come from puerto rico.

another mansion built by rum barons

lies here in the hills just outside of san juan.

this is the bacardi estate.

by the signature bacardi bat it's easily identifiable

in the bottom of the swimming pool.

the distillery of this world-famous brand

lies across town.

a puerto rican rum. bacardi wasn't originally

of a young troublemaker named benicio del toro.

here in dorado. martin didn't grow up

he was raised in san juan.

a talented singer as a child,

he joined the puerto rican boy band menudo

when he was only 12.

he sang his first solo for the band

here inside the luis ferre center for the performing arts.

the lights dimmed, and martin took the stage alone

for the very first time.

after touring with the band,

he went back and graduated from high school in san juan

and then launched the solo career

that made him a global star.

san juan and its famous beaches were also the stomping ground

and singer ricky martin.

the future hollywood actor

attended this private catholic academy,

and on the weekends,

he and his friends used to entertain tourists nearby,

at the bridge of two brothers.

they paid del toro a dollar

to see him leap from the bridge to the waters below.

he later said this was how he first discovered

that he liked performing.

in 2001, del toro won an oscar

for his supporting role traffic.

he now lives on the u.s. mainland,

and that gives him rights

not afforded to his fellow puerto ricans

have developed ways to grow this fruit year round.

on the south side of the main island

is now home to fields of everything from corn to rice

to bananas.

there are also vast fields of plantains

that are sprayed regularly with insecticides

to protect them from unique tropical insects and diseases.

they thrive on the water from the rivers and streams

that tumble out of the island's mountains.

crop here in puerto rico, but there's no more impressive

from the air,

than mangoes.

this meticulously planted mango orchard

is one of the largest.

mango farmers here

clean-up will take years.

number-one fruit crop. mangoes are puerto rico's

roughly 80% of the mangoes from this orchard

will be exported to europe.

ten percent will end up in grocery stores

all across the lower 48.

sugar, coffee, and fruit

have all made major contributions

to puerto rico's economy.

but the most famous exports of this u.s. territory

are its actors, entertainers, and sports legends.

on the island's northern coast

lies a neighborhood called dorado.

of many famous puerto ricans. it's home to the mansions

they include golf legend chi chi rodriguez...

for good reason.

just south of the coastline.

karst is eroded limestone

that was created millions of years ago,

when shifting tectonic plates

started pushing up the ocean floor.

over time, the remains of coral,

as well as the bones of fish and other sea creatures,

fused together to create a vast bed of limestone rock.

then, over time,

rain and weather eroded and sculpted that rock

into the forms we see today.

from the air,

this region almost looks like a vast burial ground for giants.

geologists call these dramatic peaks "mogotes."

very few puerto ricans live here among these otherworldly hills,

along the northwest edge of puerto rico,

deep below the earth,

rivers actually wind through the limestone,

constantly eroding the porous rock above.

cave system under these hills, they've created an amazing

known as the river camuy cave park.

but as the eroded rock moves and shifts,

it can also trigger massive sinkholes without warning.

this one, called the tri-town sinkhole,

is 650 feet wide.

living in this region can be risky.

this giant karst cave,

part of the cave park,

is a popular site for visitors to puerto rico,

but it extends right under a road

swimmers and surfers here

is more than 8,400 meters below the surface,

which makes it the deepest spot in the atlantic ocean.

because of the puerto rico trench,

swells from the atlantic have little to stop them

as they head toward land here

and are perfect for surfing.

when surfers here ride the waves,

they have to be careful of the coral reefs

that lie just offshore.

stunning blue waters beneath the island's

are beds of elkhorn coral,

which were named after their sharp elk-like horns.

elkhorn is the one of the first two types of coral in the world

to be placed on the endangered species list.

and even houses.

are forbidden to take pieces of coral

from the reefs along puerto rico's coast.

but scientists say that global warming

is ultimately the greatest threat to the species.

coral may be just one of puerto rico's natural wonders,

a leading role but it's also played

in the creation of one of the most dramatic landscapes

in the caribbean--

a forbidding region of towering hills,

rocky cliffs,

caves,

and sinkholes.

it's known as the karst region

and covers hundreds of square miles

and provides a spectacular view

and even to search for signs of extraterrestrial life.

but moviegoers might recognize this giant dish

from the james bond film goldeneye.

in the movie, the observatory was a stand-in

for a secret russian satellite base in cuba.

at the end of the film,

pierce brosnan ends up in hand-to-hand combat

in the structure high above

a former british agent, with the film's villain,

who bond ends up dropping to his death,

onto the dish below.

today, workers ride an aerial tramway

to get to the receiver.

400 feet above the reflector it's suspended more than

to study pulsars and planets,

most unique places-- of one of puerto rico's

a modern scientific facility

wedged into a primordial landscape.

of these caribbean lands, there's no end to the wonder

with their historic towns,

pulsing cities,

and sunlit shores.

they may lie more than a thousand miles

from the u.s. mainland,

but puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands

have always been an essential part

of the story of america.

♪

♪

after the town of arecibo, nearby.

in 1958,

an engineering professor at cornell named bill gordon

came up with an audacious proposal.

he knew that the pentagon

wanted to build a 1,000-foot-wide telescope

to study the upper atmosphere

as part of its ballistic missile program.

gordon suggested

curved reflector building the massive telescope's

right inside one of the sinkholes.

the pentagon loved the idea.

and soon, puerto rico was home

single-aperture radio telescope. to the world's largest

it was named the arecibo observatory,

the floor of the trench

what makes the karst region

a perfect location for this facility

is that it lies close to the equator,

which means scientists here have a clear view

of all the planets in the solar system.

the reflector is made up of 40,000 thin aluminum panels

that can be adjusted individually

to provide the receiver above with precision data.

the receiver is suspended on cables

strung from three giant support towers.

today, the arecibo observatory

is operated by cornell university

and the national science foundation.

researchers from around the world come here

scours the coast,

under the treaty of paris.

the only historic building left here

is mona island lighthouse.

it was designed by a spanish engineer,

but constructed in france,

with a light so powerful, it could be seen 22 miles away.

today the lighthouse is no longer in use

and stands alone on an island that's now a nature reserve.

but since mona island lies just about halfway

between puerto rico and the dominican republic,

for illegal immigration it's become a flashpoint

from cuba, haiti,

and other nations in central and south america.

a team of u.s. customs and border protection agents

when the spanish had to give up the islands of puerto rico

searching for the boats of human smugglers.

much of mona island

is ringed by towering limestone cliffs and caves,

which is why traffickers here

have been known to force migrants to swim to shore.

many have drowned

trying to reach this small stretch of beach.

patrolling mona

and its smaller sister island, monito,

is one of the many challenges

for u.s. customs and border protection agents

stationed in puerto rico.

but the biggest is trying to catch drug runners

in the vast endless sea that surrounds this u.s. territory.

in honor of the watchman

by 2003, almost 18,000 acres of this former military land

had been turned into the vieques national wildlife refuge.

not far from the piles of bombshells,

stingrays now glide unthreatened

in the protected shallows along the vieques coast.

on the western edge of the island,

former munitions bunkers

are being reclaimed by the puerto rican jungle.

southern shore and along the island's

herds of wild horses roam free,

right next to the beachgoers,

who are happy to be reclaiming their piece of paradise.

in 2003, rompeolas was renamed

the port of liberty david sanes rodriguez

these days, rising quantities of south american cocaine

whose death led to the navy's withdrawal.

bombers no longer drop their ordnance

on the beaches of vieques.

but these days,

teams from u.s. customs and border protection

use black hawk helicopters

to scour remote stretches of puerto rico's coast,

since drug smuggling and human trafficking

are on the rise

in the waters that surround this u.s. territory.

40 miles west of the main island of puerto rico

lies one of its great treasures.

known as la mona. it's a flat kidney-shaped island

it became u.s. territory in 1898,

but that's not the case

but it was recently discovered that a drug gang here

was using la perla as a distribution hub

for at least $20 million worth of south american narcotics.

san juan faces many of the same urban issues

that u.s. cities do today,

all across the nation.

but outside san juan, there's a place in puerto rico

with a landscape unlike any in the lower 48--

strange limestone hills

that cradle one of the largest telescopes in the world.

along the southern shores of puerto rico,

the waters are relatively calm.

the virgin islands act as a barrier

that keeps big ocean swells at bay.

since they weren't allowed to live inside the city's walls.

northern atlantic coast, on puerto rico's

which is famous for its wilder waves and weather.

of puerto rico it's why the northwest corner

is a surfer's paradise.

this is the most famous surfing spot in puerto rico.

it's known as rincon.

waves here can reach 20 feet,

which is what makes surfers flock here

from around the world.

a big part of what makes the north coast of puerto rico

a surfer's paradise

is what lies deep underwater,

75 miles offshore.

as the puerto rico trench. it's a long chasm known

one of the most heavily monitored ports in america.

are loaded on speedboats in venezuela.

smugglers then fan out across the caribbean.

some of these vessels can take just a few hours

to reach the waters of puerto rico.

once the drugs hit shore,

most are then repackaged and smuggled onward

to the u.s. mainland and other countries around the world.

out here, spotting the tiny boat of a drug smuggler

can be next to impossible,

even with high-tech gear.

cargo ships are also carefully monitored

for suspicious activity.

and when those ships reach the harbor of san juan,

their cargo passes through

and the short-lived spanish-american war was over.

just south of the city, san juan's port,

is equipped with enough high-tech scanners

to x-ray every single cargo container

that arrives in puerto rico.

but some of the drugs stay right here on the main island.

in 2011, puerto rico law enforcement agents

discovered that a major narcotics ring

was located right next to the highest offices in the land.

capitol building close to puerto rico's

and tucked under san juan's old city walls

is the notorious community of la perla.

in the 19th century,

la perla was home to the city's slaughterhouses.

slaves also lived here,

in the 1600s, the only way to get in or out of the city

of the oldest city on u.s. land.

the spanish moved the capital here to san juan in 1521.

one of their first major buildings

was the san jose church.

it was built by dominican friars.

church in the americas. today, it's the second oldest

of silver and gold spain's fortunes

from the caribbean and central and south america

quickly grew.

but so, too, did the struggle between european nations

to control puerto rico,

since its harbor was perfectly positioned on trade routes

to and from the new world.

is "the walled city," one of old san juan's nicknames

thanks to the massive defenses that surround it.

their passengers eagerly flood the streets

was to pass through one of a series of towering gates.

only one is still standing.

it's known as puerta san juan.

gates like this one

helped the spanish track and control trade.

but every night,

heavy doors were locked puerta san juan's

to protect the city and its residents from invaders.

the spanish believed there were enemies on all sides.

native people might attack them by land,

while european powers might try to invade them by sea.

in order to defend old san juan, which lies on an island,

the spanish ended up building four different forts.

the very first spanish fort here was completed in 1540

of the house where he lived.

it was the first documented armed conflict

between europeans and native people in the caribbean

and foreshadowed the fate that these tribes would suffer

at the hands of european powers.

after sailing through the virgin islands,

columbus landed on nearby puerto rico.

he gave it the name san juan bautista,

which is how the puerto rican capital, san juan, got its name.

but 15 years went by

before spain established a permanent settlement here.

in 1508, explorer juan ponce de leon

chose an inland spot for that settlement

that is known as caparra.

in 1936, archaeologists uncovered the foundation

and is known as la fortaleza.

the taino had welcomed the spanish,

but they were soon treated as slaves.

the better-armed spaniards

forced them to labor in the hills of own their island

in search of gold.

any taino who rebelled were brutally tortured or executed.

many others died from european diseases.

the gold the taino mined

was why the island came to be known as puerto rico,

which means "rich port" in spanish.

today, tourism, not gold,

is an important part of puerto rico's economy.

after giant cruise ships like these

pull up to the docks of san juan,

in the virgin islands,

they are such an iconic symbol of puerto rico today

that they were chosen for an image

on the puerto rican license plate.

thanks to its forts,

spain was able to maintain control of puerto rico,

but it wasn't long

before other colonial powers were moving in

on the nearby virgin islands.

when christopher columbus

first navigated the islands of the caribbean,

he was so awestruck by their beauty

that he named them "the virgins,"

in reference to a famous catholic legend.

the spanish were never really interested

were positioned strategically around the fort.

but other european powers were soon vying

to establish settlements here.

they wanted the islands to grow lucrative crops like sugarcane,

which was practically the next best thing to gold at the time.

but it was the danish who finally succeeded

in taking control of the island of st. thomas

in 1666.

they soon set about building a fortified tower

known as skytsborg, or sky tower,

in order to keep an eye on enemy ships offshore.

st. thomas was soon the heart of denmark's virgin islands colony,

which they called the danish west indies.

skytsborg now lies on the grounds of a hotel,

but it still looks out

so england could get its hands on their gold.

but its location inside the harbor

made it vulnerable.

a spanish historian at the time wrote

that "only blind men could have chosen the site for this fort."

so, in 1539, the spanish began building even larger defenses

that would become the jewel in puerto rico's crown:

as el morro. it's a fort known simply

even before it was completed,

el morro suffered multiple attacks.

on the night of november 23, 1595,

a british privateer named sir francis drake

and 1,500 of his men

launched an assault on san juan.

drake wanted to burn spanish ships in the harbor

that killed one spaniard and one caribbean native.

but he and his men were forced to retreat empty-handed,

except for a few spanish prisoners.

more attacks on san juan followed

by the english, dutch, and french,

and so the spanish kept increasing el morro's defenses,

turning it into the massive triangular fortification

it is today.

it was given thick walls to stop cannonballs,

and ramps,

so that troops, guns, and cannons

could be put in place quickly to fend off attack

and fire back.

to keep an eye out for invaders,

sentry boxes, or garritas, like this one,

dramatic cliffs rising out of the sea,

where dramatic cliffs are carved by the ravages of the sea...

mountains touch the sky...

and a landscape of giant sinkholes

happens to be the perfect place to study the universe.

these are the fascinating tropical lands

of the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico.

♪

♪

♪

when humans first reached

what are now the u.s. territories

in the caribbean

as many as 5,000 years ago,

this is what they would have seen:

of these two caribbean lands, there's no end to the surprises

stunning islands of all shapes and sizes,

dazzling beaches,

and towering mountains...

all under dramatic caribbean skies.

it was as wild and beautiful a land

as any on earth,

untouched by human hands.

little is known about the first people

to discover the islands of the caribbean.

but we know much more about those who followed

and were here when europeans first arrived

in the 15th century.

they were members of the arawak culture

who lived along the orinoco river

to exploit the riches of the new world...

that share the same dramatic caribbean skies...

with a stunning harbor named after a danish queen...

famous arcs of white sand...

and shimmering blue waters.

puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands

are a tropical paradise.

but they've also been called america's third border,

with miles of tough coast to guard...

waters where smugglers thrive...

and one of the most heavily protected ports in the nation.

they've played leading roles

in one of the darkest periods in human history...

when slave ships loomed on the horizon...

brutal colonial powers built massive fortifications

in what's now venezuela.

and enslaved african men and women

fled to the top of a towering bluff

to make their daring bid for freedom.

puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands

may be a thousand miles from the u.s. mainland,

the people but that's never stopped

of these caribbean territories

from making their mark on history.

it was here where a king of latin pop

took the stage alone for the very first time...

where refugees from communist cuba

are known for one of the biggest names in rum...

and where a hurricane turned a talented swimmer

into a future nba star.

from one of their gods, wouldn't come

its highest reaches are often completely covered in clouds.

after all that moisture

makes its way down through the canopy to the forest floor,

it creates the dazzling rivers and waterfalls

for which el yunque is famous.

♪

the taino believed that a benevolent god called yocahu

dwelled on el yunque's peak.

they often prayed for his protection

from the more ominous spirit that controlled the winds.

his name, "jurakan,"

is the origin of the english word "hurricane."

but little did the taino know

that the greatest threat to their existence

it rains three times a day here on average.

but from european colonial powers.

on november 14, 1493,

the native people living on the island of st. croix

awoke to find 17 strange masted vessels looming on the horizon.

it was a massive flotilla of spanish ships,

commanded by christopher columbus.

it was here, near the entrance to salt river bay,

first set foot that columbus's party

on what would later become u.s. soil.

that small stretch of sand

is now known as columbus landing beach.

two dozen spanish sailors paddled up the salt river

to explore the island of st. croix,

but ended up in a deadly skirmish

they made ceremonial stone and clay figures, called cemis,

it was roughly about 400 b.c.

that they started voyaging up and across the islands

that are known as the lesser antilles,

which arc across the caribbean sea.

they include the u.s. virgin islands.

eventually, these groups also fanned out further,

across the islands of the greater antilles,

and what are now puerto rico, the dominican republic,

haiti, jamaica, and cuba.

over millennia,

the various peoples who settled the islands of the caribbean

developed a complex, shared culture.

they called themselves the taino,

which means "the good people" in their language.

large deepwater harbor over st. thomas's

of the many gods and spirits they worshipped.

this is a giant version

of what one of these ritual objects looks like.

it's a museum of taino culture

here in the puerto rican town of jayuya.

the taino's spiritual life

was deeply connected to the natural world around them.

and in puerto rico, there was no place as powerful

as a lush mountainous forest that's known today el yunque.

it's the only rainforest

in the u.s. national forest system.

el yunque lies on the eastern side of puerto rico

and gets hit hard by rain-laden tradewinds

from the atlantic ocean.

of this u.s. territory.

with plans of competing in the 1992 olympics.

but in 1989,

the only olympic-sized swimming pool on the island

for him to train in

was ripped to pieces by hurricane hugo.

with no place left to swim,

duncan took up basketball instead.

in 1997,

he was the number-one draft pick of the san antonio spurs

and was awarded mvp in 2002.

many consider him to be the best power forward

the nba has ever known.

the island of st. croix

is the largest of the three main u.s. virgin islands.

of all 104,000 residents it's also home to nearly half

as a teenager, he was a top freestyle swimmer

most of the others live on the island of st. thomas,

which is one reason

the hills above the historic harbor of charlotte amalie

are packed with homes, hotels, and million-dollar mansions.

but the last of the big three u.s. virgin islands, st. john,

is largely uninhabited.

when laurance spelman rockefeller,

a son of john d. rockefeller,

visited the virgin islands in 1956,

he was so awestruck by the beauty of st. john

that he purchased 5,000 acres of the island.

he then donated them to the u.s. government

to create the new virgin islands national park.

it has since grown to nearly 13,000 acres

and drive them away by mocking them.

of those who live in the u.s. virgin islands

are of african descent.

and age-old african traditions are still alive

on the streets of one of st. croix's main towns,

christiansted.

on special festival days,

hundreds gather in the streets.

they eagerly await the arrival

of famous figures known as moko jumbies.

this tradition of stilt dancing

is believed to have originated in west africa

and has been practiced here for more than 200 years.

the reason moko jumbies are tall

is so they can reach up to the evil spirits above

and includes reefs and smaller islands

some still believe today

that moko jumbies have supernatural powers.

and every year on st. croix,

new dancers are trained in this age-old art form.

on big festival days,

moko jumbies transform this former danish colonial city

into a party town

that blends traditions from africa, europe,

and the islands themselves.

it was also here in christiansted

that nba legend tim duncan first started shooting hoops,

before he left st. croix and went pro.

duncan was born here on the island,

as a basketball player. but he didn't start out

from the north,

just a few months after a deadly strike

on u.s. forces in cuba.

at the time, puerto rico and the island of cuba

were still under spanish control.

in february 1898,

a u.s. battleship maine

was mysteriously torpedoed in the harbor of havana,

killing 266 men on board.

the u.s. declared war on spain

and a few months later sent a naval fleet south

to flush the spanish out of puerto rico, too.

by 8:45 a.m. on july 25, 1898,

the u.s. invasion of puerto rico had begun.

the spanish were expecting the americans to attack

and seize it from spain

which is why general nelson miles

started his invasion here in the south.

when the u.s. forces landed on the beach at guanica,

they came under fire.

four spaniards died,

but there were no american casualties.

general miles quickly moved on to ponce,

which was the largest city in puerto rico at the time.

spanish scouts first spotted the u.s. forces

from a lookout tower on this hill,

where the giant watchman cross now stands.

it was here in historic ponce

that general miles established the first u.s. headquarters.

but soon the spanish surrendered,

but there are very different stories

along st. john's coast.

with so much of the island protected,

there are only about 4,000 permanent residents

on st. john today.

most of it remains wild.

like st. thomas,

st. john was created by volcanic eruptions

deep under the sea.

with stunning reefs and uninhabited shores,

many come here to float across

the ancient volcanic sea bed of the lesser antilles

and peer down on the colorful creatures that call it home.

the u.s. virgin islands share the same blue waters

with their u.s. neighbor, puerto rico.

today, the vast majority

about how these caribbean territories

came to be part of the united states.

to get the virgin islands,

the u.s. sent denmark $25 million,

which would probably be worth

about half a billion dollars today.

but getting its hands on puerto rico

took a military invasion, with thousands of troops,

during america's war with spain.

in late july 1898,

more than 3,000 u.s. troops

arrived here at the mouth of a quiet bay

on the southern coast of puerto rico.

they were preparing to invade the island

when they did, they were labeled "maroons,"

these stone ruins are what remain

of the whim sugar plantation,

which was first established in the early 1700s.

this is the great house, where the owners lived.

it's surrounded by a dry moat,

which helped keep the house and those inside cool.

but all around the house,

enslaved africans spent their days

in the hot caribbean sun,

growing and harvesting sugarcane

and running the mill

that turned it into a variety of products for export.

many slaves on plantations across the region

tried to escape.

one of the biggest lay on the island of st. croix.

after a spanish word that means "untamed."

one place that escaped slaves fled to

was the dramatic northwest coast of st. croix--

a place known today as hams bluff.

they hid out in the rugged terrain

of this still very wild corner of the island.

from the top of the bluff,

where the old hams light now stands,

the african men and women

are said to have tried to hail passing ships,

hoping that they would carry them to freedom.

bounties were paid for escaped slaves

caught dead or alive,

and armed militias conducted regular hunts,

left the african coast for the caribbean.

and the thriving port town

that the danish named after their queen,

charlotte amalie.

in 1673,

a danish ship arrived in the harbor of charlotte amalie

carrying 103 enslaved african men and women.

they were the first of more than 100,000 enslaved people

who were taken from their villages in west africa

and shipped to the danish virgin islands.

these human lives became a key piece

of an elaborate international economic system

known as the transatlantic slave trade.

between the late 1600s and the 1800s,

roughly 450 danish slave ships

trudging across the hills here at hams bluff

when they finally arrived in the virgin islands

about three months later,

roughly 13% of the enslaved africans on board

had already died or gone missing.

often, the captains and crew

simply tossed the bodies of the dead and sick overboard.

as the ships wound their way through the virgin islands,

very few if any of the enslaved passengers

would have seen the landforms they passed by.

their entire journeys were spent below deck,

chained to narrow bunks.

after arriving at the docks of charlotte amalie,

the enslaved african men and women were sold at auction

and then sent on to plantations across the danish west indies.

won their freedom by laying siege

on the southernmost corner of the island.

then, they flung themselves off the edge,

down to the rocks and sea below,

preferring suicide to capture.

others were promised forgiveness if they surrendered

but were then brutally executed once they were in custody.

following the revolt,

the danish imposed even tighter restrictions on slaves.

almost 60 years later, in 1792,

denmark announced that it would soon be illegal

for danish ships to participate in the slave trade--

slavery itself. but it didn't ban

it wasn't until 1848

that slaves in what are now the u.s. virgin islands

known as ram's head,

to the danish fort in frederiksted,

here on the west side of the island of st. croix.

today, in the center of frederiksted

lies emancipation park,

to honor that historic day and the unimaginable suffering

that enslaved africans across the caribbean

endured for 175 years.

without slave labor,

the economy of the danish west indies crashed.

the u.s. congress was fearful

that the islands might fall into germany's hands

during world war i.

so the u.s. decided to buy them from the danish government

in 1917 for $25 million.

it was here that about 14 slaves arrived with knives

to flush out the maroons

and deliver them back to the plantations they had fled.

danish law allowed for the brutal punishment

of escaped slaves.

they could be burned alive, hanged, whipped,

or have their ears amputated.

by november 1733,

a group of slaves had had enough

and decided to revolt.

their now-famous rebellion

happened on the eastern side of the island of st. john

in a danish stockade known as fortsberg.

the crumbling remains of that fort

can still be seen from the air.

they are two different u.s. territories

hidden in bundles of wood.

they killed several danish soldiers in the garrison

and then fired cannon shots from the ramparts

to signal the others that the revolt was on.

for the next six months,

west african slaves controlled st. john

and its more than 100 plantations.

but eventually,

200 french soldiers from the island of martinique

came to the aid of the danish.

they landed on st. john

and hunted down those responsible for the raid.

some of the slaves

are said to have fled up to the top of this cliff,