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In April 1898 the United States declared war on Spain. On July 25, 1898, 16,000 U.S. troops invaded Puerto Rico at Guánica, asserting that they were liberating the inhabitants from Spanish colonial rule, which had recently granted the island's government limited autonomy. U.S. landing site.
On October 18, 1898, American troops fighting in the Spanish-American War raised the United States flag on the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico formalizing U.S. control of the former Spanish colony. The American flag floated upon most public buildings, this marked the end of four centuries of Spanish Imperial occupation and the beginning of U.S. sovereignty at the dawn of what has been called the American Century y. General Nelson A. Miles had landed approximately 3,500 U.S. troops on the island on July 25. In 1917, Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States and its people became citizens. Migration from rural areas to metropolitan regions increased significantly during the twentieth century as the agriculture industry on the island economy.

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Puerto Rico was considered strategically important to the United States before its acquisition in 1898. Puerto Rico was an essential component of the Monroe Doctrine, which in 1823 declared domination for the United States in the Western Hemisphere. The United States wished to compete economically with European powers. At the time Latin America was the most viable avenue for development from an economic standpoint. Puerto Rico was central to gaining access to Latin American markets. For Republicans, a coaling station and naval base in Puerto Rico were critical for protecting commercial interests in the region. This included the production of sugar and other agricultural products. Sovereignty over Puerto Rico allowed the United States to establish a military stronghold and gain control over industries in the region. When the  United States invaded Puerto Rico and achieved its goal in 1898, Spain handed the island to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. On April 2, 1900, President McKinley approved and signed the Foraker Act. This act stated that Puerto Rico was declared an "unorganized territory" of the United States with limited self-government. The Foraker Act changed the way of life on the island. It established a type of pseudo-government or false government that gave Puerto Ricans a role in their affairs.

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Although Puerto Rico had just begun its experiment with self-government granted by the Spanish rulers in 1897, its citizens initially greeted the transfer of ultimate authority from Spain to the United States in 1898 with much enthusiasm because of the promise of the expansion of American democratic values and economic development. However, while the transfer led to dramatic socioeconomic transformation, Puerto Ricans' dreams of political and economic development faded during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The promises of self-government and better conditions for Puerto Rico had to wait almost fifty years. Puerto Rico's future status has remained a topic of discussion for centuries. Instead of experiencing insurrection like  Cuba and the Philippines, Puerto Rico has remained a United States commonwealth. In a recent study, less than half of Puerto Ricans expressed a willingness to modify the country's relationship with the United States. Among the minority who desired a change, 61% preferred statehood, 34% to become a protectorate, and 5% favored complete independence.

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                                                  (Political Cartoons)

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                                                  (Political Cartoons)

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The cartoon illustrates the anti-imperialist sentiment of the time period. The image depicts  Uncle Sam as a self-righteous diner pondering and deciding which country to consume and take over first, as U.S. President William McKinley waits on him.The caption states, “Well, I hardly know which to take first!” while Uncle Sam has a large grin on his face. The cartoon portrays the US attitude of superiority and selfishness by showing that they wanted to take all the options provided and that there was no competition.

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This Political cartoon shows the aftermath of the Spanish American War. Uncle Sam is seen balancing his new possessions, which are depicted and portrayed as savage and wild children. The figures are identified as Puerto Rico,Hawaii,Cuba,Ladrones and the Phillippines.The captions reads "It's really most extraordinary what training will do. Why, only the other day I thought that man unable to support himself."The images purpose was to show other nations what the United States had acquired and essentially “won.”

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The outcome of the Spanish-American War had consequences for several of Spain's former colonies. The United States annexed Puerto Rico.This political cartoon from shortly before the conclusion of the war in 1898 reflects the pro-expansionist view, contrasting the benefits derived from American involvement by Puerto Rico.Which is represented by a shiny brand new outfit marked "Annexation Suit from Your Uncle Sam.”and Cuba portrayed clutching bread and waving the flag of independence. The uncertain status of the Philippines was depicted as  a "savage" child. All three nations were depicted as children, dependent on the support and efforts of the “famous hero” Uncle Sam.

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Although Puerto Rico had just begun its experiment with self-government granted by the Spanish rulers in 1897, its citizens initially greeted the transfer of ultimate authority from Spain to the United States in 1898 with much enthusiasm because of the promise of the expansion of American democratic values and economic development. However, while the transfer led to dramatic socioeconomic transformation, Puerto Ricans' dreams of political and economic development faded during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The promises of self-government and better conditions for Puerto Rico had to wait almost fifty years.

In the first years of U.S. military occupation, political and economic power centered in San Juan and all former Spanish administrative bodies were dismantled. Most local landowners lost their economic power to North American companies which came to own the principal centers of sugarcane production. Following two years of U.S. military occupation (1898-1900), a civilian government was established in 1900 by the Foraker Law (April 12, 1900) imposing trade tariffs, denying American citizenship, and creating a local government led by a governor, an Executive Council, and a judiciary appointed by the president of the United States. Nevertheless, local politics flourished as Puerto Ricans were given the right to elect the lower chamber of the legislature. In that forum, the local elite continued their demands for a more open and democratic political arrangement between Puerto Rico and the United States. Thus began Puerto Rico's political struggle for a definition of its status, a struggle that has lasted into the twenty-first century. And thus the national political parties came to divide around three fundamental alternatives: statehood, self-government, and independence.

"The Star Spangled Banner - Puerto Rico's Flag." [Detail] A little journey to Puerto Rico; for intermediate and upper grades. General Collections, Library of Congress.

In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Jones Act, which brought Puerto Rico the first significant political changes under U.S. colonial rule. With this law, Congress established a popularly elected legislative branch (a Senate and a House of Representatives) and extended American citizenship to Puerto Rican citizens. At about the same time, the island's economy experienced its first radical change. Although it continued to have an agrarian base centered in sugar production, it changed from a mercantilist system under Spain to a capitalist system under the United States.

Increasing American investments in the sugar and tobacco industries led to unprecedented economic growth but failed to bring social change. Poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, and disease permeated the population. Such social stresses induced a wave of low-income Puerto Rican workers to migrate to the United States, particularly during the 1930s when unemployment on the island was approximately 65 percent.

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Puerto Rico and the United States | In Search of a National Identity: Nineteeth and Early-Twentieth-Century Puerto Rico | Articles and Essays | Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age: Nineteenth- and Early-Twentieth-Century Perspectives | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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Although Puerto Rico had just begun its experiment with self-government granted by the Spanish rulers in 1897, its citizens initially greeted the transfer of ultimate authority from Spain to the United States in 1898 with much enthusiasm because of the promise of the expansion of American democratic values and economic development.

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American expansionism as well as the ideals of the Monroe Doctrine, which rejected European rule and intervention in the Americas, led the United States to intervene against Spain in the Cuban War for Independence (1895-1898). In January 1898, the US sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana, and on February 15, 1898, the battleship sank after a mysterious explosion. Although they lacked any credible evidence to support their claims, newspapers held Spain responsible for the incident. In April 1898 the United States declared war. The Spanish-American War lasted for only ten weeks and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. As part of the agreement, Spain granted Cuba its independence and ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. The United States also purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million and annexed Hawaii on August 12, 1898. The end of the war marked a turning point in US foreign policy, as the nation expanded its economic and political influence in the Western Hemisphere.

The political cartoon comments on American expansionism in the Western Hemisphere. In the image, Uncle Sam performs a circus act for European emperors, monarchs, and leaders. He balances children, who are holding flags representing Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, and the Ladrones Islands, on his shoulders and head. John Bull, the symbol for Great Britain, remarks in the caption below the image: "It's really most extraordinary what training will do. Why, only the other day I thought that man unable to support himself." The children are drawn in a manner that reflects the ethnic and racial stereotypes of the era.

This political cartoon is one of several newspaper clippings pasted into a scrapbook. "How the Spaniard Became an Angel," another clipped cartoon affixed below "Holding His End Up" by the scrapbook creator, has not been encoded by HINT project staff.

American expansionism as well as the ideals of the Monroe Doctrine, which rejected European rule and intervention in the Americas, led the United States to intervene against Spain in the Cuban War for Independence (1895-1898). In January 1898, the US sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana, and on February 15, 1898, the battleship sank after a mysterious explosion. Although they lacked any credible evidence to support their claims, newspapers held Spain responsible for the incident. In April 1898 the United States declared war. The Spanish-American War lasted for only ten weeks and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. As part of the agreement, Spain granted Cuba its independence and ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. The United States also purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million and annexed Hawaii on August 12, 1898. The end of the war marked a turning point in US foreign policy, as the nation expanded its economic and political influence in the Western Hemisphere.

The political cartoon comments on American expansionism in the Western Hemisphere. In the image, Uncle Sam performs a circus act for European emperors, monarchs, and leaders. He balances children, who are holding flags representing Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Cuba, Philippines, and the Ladrones Islands, on his shoulders and head. John Bull, the symbol for Great Britain, remarks in the caption below the image: "It's really most extraordinary what training will do. Why, only the other day I thought that man unable to support himself." The children are drawn in a manner that reflects the ethnic and racial stereotypes of the era.

This political cartoon is one of several newspaper clippings pasted into a scrapbook. "How the Spaniard Became an Angel," another clipped cartoon affixed below "Holding His End Up" by the scrapbook creator, has not been encoded by HINT project staff.

Image annotation

Uncle Sam stands on an "army and navy" pedestal and performs a circus act for the emperors and leaders of Europe.

Image transcription

HAWAII In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state.

Image transcription

John Bull-It's really most extraordinary what training will do. Why, only the other day I thought that man unable to support himself.

Image annotation

John Bull, the symbol for Great Britain, watches Uncle Sam perform his circus act.

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American expansionism as well as the ideals of the Monroe Doctrine, which rejected European rule and intervention in the Americas, led the United States to intervene against Spain in the Cuban War for Independence (1895-1898). In January 1898, the US sent the battleship USS Maine to Havana, and on February 15, 1898, the battleship sank after a mysterious explosion.

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Native Population

Puerto Rico's native Taíno population-whose hunter-gatherer ancestors settled the island more than 1,000 years before the Spanish arrived-called it Borinquén, and referred to themselves as boricua (a term that is still used today).

During his second expedition to the Indies in 1493, Christopher Columbus returned several Taíno captives to Borinquén and claimed the island for Spain, calling it San Juan Bautista. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the first European settlement, Caparra, near a bay on the island's northern coast; Caparra was renamed Puerto Rico (or "rich port") in 1521.

Over time, people began referring to the entire island by that name, while the port city itself became San Juan. Smallpox soon wiped out the vast majority of the Taíno, with many others enslaved by the Spanish to mine silver and gold and to construct settlements.

Spanish Rule

In order to produce cash crops such as sugar cane, ginger, tobacco and coffee, the Spanish began importing more slaves from Africa in the 16th century. They also spent considerable resources turning San Juan into an impregnable military outpost, building a fortified palace for the governor (La Fortaleza) as well as two massive forts-San Felipe del Morro and San Cristobál-that would withstand repeated attacks by rival powers such as England, the Netherlands and France.

Under Spanish colonial rule, Puerto Rico experienced varying levels of economic and political autonomy over the centuries. By the mid-19th century, however, a wave of independence movements in Spain's South American colonies had reached Puerto Rico.

In 1868, some 600 people attempted an uprising based in the mountain town of Lares. Though the Spanish military efficiently quashed the rebellion, Puerto Ricans still celebrate "El Grito de Lares" (The Cry of Lares) as a moment of great national pride.

Foraker Act

In July 1898, during the brief Spanish-American War, U.S. Army forces occupied Puerto Rico at Guánica, on the island's south side. Under the Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the war later that year, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Cuba to the United States.

The interim U.S. military government established on the island ended in 1900 after Congress passed the Foraker Act, which formally instituted a civil government in Puerto Rico. Having enjoyed considerable autonomy in the latter years of Spanish colonial rule, many Puerto Ricans bristled under the control exercised by the United States.

In 1917, Congress passed the Jones-Shafroth Act, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans and made Puerto Rican males eligible for the military draft; some 18,000 of the territory's residents were subsequently drafted into World War I.

Operation Bootstrap

Big political, economic and social changes swept Puerto Rico after World War II. In 1948, Congress passed an act permitting Puerto Ricans to elect their own governor. Four years later, Puerto Rico would officially become a U.S. commonwealth, which enabled the island to create its own constitution and granted other powers of self-government.

By that time, the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments had jointly launched an ambitious industrialization effort called Operation Bootstrap. Even as Puerto Rico attracted an influx of big American companies, and became a center for manufacturing and tourism, the decline of its agricultural industries led many islanders to seek employment opportunities in the United States.

Between 1950 and 1970, more than 500,000 people (some 25 percent of the island's total population) left Puerto Rico, an exodus known as La Gran Migración (the Great Migration). Today, more than 5 million people of Puerto Rican descent live in the United States, with huge communities centered in Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and especially New York City.

Is Puerto Rico Part of the U.S?

Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, but the island's ambiguous status in relation to the United States has driven heated debate over the years between those who support its commonwealth status, those who favor full-fledged Puerto Rican statehood and those who want the island to be its own independent nation.

As citizens of a commonwealth, Puerto Ricans can elect a non-voting representative in Congress and vote in presidential primaries, but cannot vote for president because Puerto Rico is not part of the electoral college.

After three separate votes in 1967, 1993 and 1998 reaffirmed Puerto Rico's commonwealth status, a majority of residents who voted in a 2012 referendum said they were not satisfied with the status quo, and indicated their preferred choice was statehood.

Hundreds of thousands of voters left the second part of the referendum blank, however, leaving the question open for further debate. A fifth referendum in 2017 ended in a majority vote for statehood, but only 23 percent of voters (a historic low) turned out.

Economic Crisis

In the first decade of the 21st century, Puerto Rico's economic growth slowed, even as its national debt rapidly expanded. In 2015, the worsening economic crisis led its governor to announce that the commonwealth could no longer meet its debt obligations.

Two years later, under legislation passed by Congress to help Puerto Rico deal with its economic crisis, the commonwealth declared a form of bankruptcy, claiming debt of more than $70 billion, mostly to U.S. investors.

In September 2017, Puerto Rico's economic woes were compounded when Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 hurricane with some 150 mph winds, made direct landfall on the island. In Maria's aftermath, Puerto Rico's inhabitants-some 3.4 million American citizens-found themselves in a humanitarian crisis, facing debilitating shortages of water, food and fuel and a deeply uncertain future.

HISTORY Vault

Sources

Doug Mack, The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA. W.W. Norton, 2017.
Puerto Rico, History, Art & Archives: U.S. House of Representatives.
Smithsonian.
Library of Congress.
Puerto Rico statehood referendum draws big support-but small turnout, CNN.

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Puerto Rico is a large Caribbean island of roughly 3,500 square miles located in the West Indies. After centuries of Spanish rule, Puerto Rico became a territory of the United States in 1898 and has been largely self-governing since the mid-20th century.