Capitalism Was Behind American Colonization of Puerto Rico

Capitalism Was Behind American Colonization of Puerto Rico

The platform upon which the United States was built, freedom, was erected in response to the oppressive nature of colonialism. On July Fourth, 1776, the original thirteen colonies declared their independence, because the weight of Great Britain’s colonial restrictions proved to be too burdensome. The Constitution was signed shortly thereafter to protect American citizen’s rights from being abridged in the future. America was created as a direct response to the harmful nature of colonialism, however it soon forgot its idealistic birth. Freedom for all became a free for all, under America’s capitalistic system. When America was confronted with the question of what it should do with Puerto Rico it had three choices: accept it as a state, give it it’s freedom, or use it for profit. Capitalistic America saw Puerto Rico as an easily exploitable market, and enabled America to overlook the inconsistencies colonization presented in constitutional terms, or the widespread suffering colonization would cause. Thus, capitalism was the deciding factor in America’s decision to withhold from Puerto Rico its freedom.

Originally Puerto Ricans had high expectations regarding their future under American guidance. Puerto Rico wanted nothing “but American law, leaving no trace of Spanish legislation” (Trias -Monge 36). Under their new parent country, Puerto Rico hoped to receive universal male suffrage, American citizenship, elective mayors, free trade, and the right to elect a delegate to Congress, all of which had been denied them by Spain (Trias-Monge 36). Originally, implementing a system which would allow the maximum possibilities for Puerto Ricans to govern themselves was th...

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...colony, its inhabitants became subjects rather than citizens (Fernandez 11). Americans justified their decision to exploit Puerto Rico and its people, through capitalism and its survival of the fittest mentality.

Bibliography

James Dietz, Economic History of Puerto Rico (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1986).

Ronald Fernandez, The Disenchanted Island: Puerto Rico and The United States in the Twentieth Ventury (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 1996).

Lillian Guerra, Popular Expression and National Identity in Puerto Rico: The Struggle for Self, Community, and Nation, chs. 2-3 (Gainsville: U Press of Florida. 1998), 45-121.

Library of Congress American Memory Collection LC- USF34- 012370- E

Jose Trias-Monge, "The Shaping of a Colonial Policy," from Trias-Monge, Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World (New Haven: Yale U Press, 1997), 36-51.