Amanda Nguyen
Professor Rabii
History 102H
24 April 2014
A Convenient Overthrow: Puerto Rico and the Spanish-American War
The story of Puerto Rico and the U.S. involvement in the Spanish American war can be likened to a television drama concerning divorced parents and an angst filled teenager. To elaborate, imagine Puerto Rico as the rebellious teenager of a divorced and separated couple. Parent number one is a stern Spain, who the teenager is currently living with. Parent number two is a fun United States, who the teenager is not living with. The rebellious teenager eagerly wants to be independent from parent number one. After numerous stressful events, the strict parent gives up and grants “freedom” to the teen. The teen loves this, but then realizes it is hard to be on one’s own and support oneself. Then parent number, America, comes along and persuades the teen to live with him or her for the sake of shelter and protection, which the teen agrees to. With this, parent number two has the satisfaction and pleasure of spiting parent number one because the teenager chose the former. Other than solidifying the fact that I watch way too much Netflix and television, this analogy shows that the United States overthrow of Puerto Rico after its short independence is not all that complicated. The taking over of the small island occurred during the efficient Spanish-American War. To fully understand the reasoning behind the U.S. overthrow of the short lived Puerto Rican government, one has to understand the reasoning behind the Spanish-American war. That is why this paper contains the objective of dispelling the theory that the U.S.S Maine was the sole cause of the war and proving the theory that Puerto Rico was a surprisingly convenient w...
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...ate, it is a commonwealth. This allows them to have autonomy and lets them celebrate their own flag. However, the responsibility of electing the governor of Puerto Rico and other significant decisions resides with The U.S. Congress. But day-to-day controlling and local governing is left to the public administration of the island. Also, since the Jones Act Puerto Ricans currently enjoy all the rights of citizenship, except for maybe the most significant one; the right to vote.
In short, the U.S.S. Maine, though tragic, gets a lot more credit than it deserves for starting the Spanish-American War. Also, Puerto Rico’s involvement was short and bittersweet in the Spanish American war and American invasion. All the focus was on Cuba, so Puerto Rico got easily overshadowed. This however made it extremely efficient for America to overthrow Puerto Rico for her own benefit.