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 UPDATED:

MAY 26, 2020

ORIGINAL:

SEP 28, 2017

Puerto Rico
HISTORY.COM EDITORS

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CONTENTS

1. Native Population

2. Spanish Rule

3. Foraker Act

4. Operation Bootstrap

5. Is Puerto Rico Part of the U.S?

6. Economic Crisis

7. Sources
Puerto Rico is a large Caribbean island of roughly 3,500 square miles located
in the West Indies. It’s the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles chain,
which also includes Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola (divided into Haiti and the
Dominican Republic). 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. It has a population of some 3.4 million people and
a vibrant culture shaped by a mix of Spanish, United States and Afro-
Caribbean influences.

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.

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.

Citation Information
Article Title
Puerto Rico
Author
History.com Editors
Website Name
HISTORY
URL
https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/puerto-rico-history
Access Date
May 31, 2020
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
May 26, 2020
Original Published Date
September 28, 2017
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