[2][3] The Party was founded in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and its first chairman was Román Baldorioty de Castro.
[6] The Party sought to establish an independent government for Puerto Rico under the Spanish colonial system.
It envisioned decentralized control by Spain, and the strongest possible local government.
[7] To provide a voice for the Autonomist Party, Luis Muñoz Rivera, one of its founders, founded the newspaper La Democracia (The Democracy).
In it, he argued for Puerto Rican independence, denounced the injustices of the Spanish regime, and lobbied for the support of one of the main political parties in Spain to fulfill the goals of the Autonomist party.