Some sources claim that
Christopher Columbus was the first European to arrive at the island during his
second voyage on November 19, 1493. It is believed that the island was populated by
Carib Indians during the
colonization. After
Agüeybaná and Agüeybaná II led the
Taíno rebellion of 1511,
Taíno Indians from the main island sought refuge on Culebra and allied with Caribs to launch occasional attacks at the island estates. After that, the island was left abandoned for centuries. During the era of Spanish commerce through the Americas, it was used as a refuge for
pirates, as well as local fishermen and sailors. Appropriating the unearned title of "Captain", he began a decades-long isolated sojourn on Culebra as enforcer of Spanish interests. In October 1871, however, Stevens was found dead outside his hut, his body viciously hacked apart. His heart and entrails had been placed in clay pots, in an apparent religious ritual to curse his soul. Spanish police from Vieques tracked down
Tortolan foragers on Culebra who were suspected of the vicious murder. Eventually 21 of them were sentenced to forced labor on sugar plantations in
Vieques as punishment. The affair caused an international incident, and, to satisfy demands from the
British ambassador in
Madrid, the Tortolans were finally freed by the Spanish Governor of Puerto Rico in July 1874. These events caused the government of
Switzerland in June 1876 to recall an expedition destined for Culebra to establish a warm-weather sanatorium there. Fearing further foreign encroachments, the Spanish government decided to populate Culebra with its own subjects. Culebra was then settled by Cayetano Escudero Sanz on October 27, 1880, when he completed his survey of the island that included subdivisions into usable lots. The Spanish government offered these parcels of land to anyone who would move to the island. The first settlers depended on rain for drinking water, as the island has no natural streams.
Subsistence farming and
cattle raising were established and a cistern was built for common use at one end of a natural harbor or
Ensenada Honda in Spanish. This first settlement was called
San Ildefonso, to honor the Bishop of
Toledo, officially
San Ildefonso de la Culebra. Two years later, on September 25, 1882, construction of the
Culebrita lighthouse began. It was completed on February 25, 1886, which made it the oldest operating lighthouse in the
Caribbean until 1975, when the
U.S. Navy and
Coast Guard finally closed the facility. Puerto Rico was ceded by
Spain in the aftermath of the
Spanish–American War under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris of 1898 and became a territory of the
United States. In 1899, the
United States Department of War conducted a
census of Puerto Rico finding that the population of Culebra was 704. In 1902, Culebra was integrated as a part of
Vieques. One year later, on June 26,
President Theodore Roosevelt established the Culebra Naval Reservation. A bird refuge was established on February 27, 1909. A new church was built with materials taken from San Ildefonso and a customs office was constructed. Pedro Márquez (1850–1920) was appointed the first mayor under U.S. rule in 1905, replacing Leopoldo Padrón, the Special Delegate appointed for the transition from Spanish rule. Pedro Márquez was succeeded as mayor in 1912 by his son, Alejandro Márquez Laureano (1912–1914) who erected the first docks for the new town and installed electric lighting on the town's streets. He was succeeded as mayor in 1914 by Claro C. Feliciano, the first mayor who had been born in Culebra. With the agreement reached with a new
Cuban government to lease
Guantanamo Bay as a naval base, in 1911 the U.S. reduced the size of its forces on Culebra and turned the installation to training purposes. In 1924, the U.S. Navy began annual maneuvers on Culebra taking advantage of its deep-sea waters to practice coordinating amphibious landings on its beaches. In 1939, the
U.S. Navy began to use the Culebra Archipelago as a gunnery and bombing practice site. This was done in preparation for the United States' involvement in
World War II. In 1971 the people of Culebra began protests, known as the
Navy-Culebra protests, for the removal of the U.S. Navy from Culebra. Four years later, in 1975, the use of Culebra as a gunnery range ceased and all operations were moved to
Vieques. Culebra was declared an independent island municipality in 1917. The first democratically elected government was put into place in 1960. Prior to this, the government of Puerto Rico appointed delegates to administer the island. On September 20, 2017,
Hurricane Maria struck the island of Puerto Rico. In Culebra, where
Hurricane Irma had caused major damages a week prior, Hurricane Maria caused more destruction. ==Geography==