Puerto Rico Conference Lecture

On the Fringes of Empire:
Puerto Rico's Past and Present


Coat of Arms of Puerto Rico	Flag of Puerto Rico	Seal of Puerto Rico

1. On the Fringes of Empire, 1500-1898
Geographical Position: Doorway to the Caribbean
18.15 N, 66.30 W

Due to Its Geography, Within the Spanish Empire Puerto Rico was an Important Part of the Defense of Empire

2. Defense of the Empire

IMPERIAL DEFENSE:

San Felipe del Morro begun in 1539.
San Cristóbal (17th century)
San Geronimo were part of a defense system of the Port of San Juan and the Spanish Empire.

3. Economic and Social Outpost of the Empire

Economic and Social "Outpost of Empire:"

Size: 3515 square miles--three times the size of Rhode Island
Terrain: mostly mountains with coastal plain belt in the north.
Climate: Little seasonal variation in temperature, 85 during day, 75 night.

1500s-1700s

Economy of Puerto Rico: from the 1500s to the late 1700s depended on some sugar production, small scale agriculture, and cattle grazing, smuggling, trading, and the system of Spanish convoys of shipping to Spain.

In 1765 the island had only 45,000 inhabitants.

As Professor Frank Knight has commented, "Until the late eighteenth century, Puerto Rico had been a sleepy outpost of empire, with an impregnable fortress around San Juan and scattered rural settlements of highly miscegenated inhabitants throughout the island."

1780s-1898

Marshall Alejandro O'Reilly had devised a plan to make Puerto Rico profitable for the empire by creating a system of intensive plantation agriculture based on sugar and coffee.

He succeeded. By 1846 Puerto Rico had a population of 450,000 and a profitable plantation economy.

4. On the Fringes of a New Empire, 1898

US Continental Expansion Culminates in Expansion Overseas

In the Spring of 1898 the US entered the Cuban Independence War and quickly made it the Spanish-American War.

Teddy Roosevelt, looking for a war since he was young, finally got his "Splendid little war." Dramatized in this painting, Teddy led a charge of his men up Kettle Hill (Not San Juan Hill!).

He actually was the only one on horseback because the "Rough Riders" had no space aboard their ship and had to leave their horses in the US.

Teddy later called the charge "the great day of his life."

The fighting on land took place mainly in eastern Cuba, and on sea in Santiago Bay and Manila Bay in the Philippines.

In Puerto Rico, 300 American troops landed in Guanica and El Morro was bombarded.

A clock in the Fortaleza is a silent witness to that day....July 25, 1898. When the then Spanish Governor was informed of the successful landing, he struck the face of the clock with his sword, forever stopping its hands at 4:28.

3. On the Fringes of a New Empire, The Old is New Again
The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1899, gave the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico to the United States as spoils of war. In 1902, Cuba became independent. The Foraker Act (Charles Benson Foraker was a former governor of Ohio) made Puerto Rico a United States territory and established a civil administration with an American governor and 5 Puerto Rican Cabinet members.
US occupation and the end of Spanish domination in the Americas radically changed the appearance of the island.

Roosevelt Roads Naval Station

Just like the Spanish, The US realized that Puerto Rico's position as a doorway to the Caribbean Sea made it an ideal location for a naval base. Roosey Roads Naval Station was established.

Sugar, Tobacco and Coffee
Puerto Rico experiences enormous growth in the sugar industry, tobacco, and coffee.
Jones Act of 1917
The Jones Act is the first of many refinements which evolve in the 20th century in the relationship between the Puerto Rican territory and the United States.

The Modern Commonwealth

In 1947 the first popular elections for Governor of Puerto Rico take place and Luis Muñoz Marin is elected for the first of his 4 terms. He continues to refine the relations between the United States and Puerto Rico, now defined as the freely associated state.

US Code Section 936

That same year, section 936 section of the United States Internal Revenue Tax Code was implemented. This new code allowed American companies to make profit in the island without paying Federal taxes. Banks on the island experienced an unprecedented growth. About 100,000 Puerto Ricans were directly dependent on employment generated by Section 936 companies.

In a greater sense, Section 936 also created a much larger consumer society that continues to develop to this day. Section 936 was arguably the singlemost important factor in Puerto Rico's modern economic development.

Some of the first investments generated are the pharmaceutical companies which flood the island. Later, manufacturing companies such as Procter and Gamble enter the economy.

Currently, Section 936 has been replaced with Section 30A, maintaining the tax breaks for another ten years.

As the Puerto Rican Governor's website proclaims, "The island has one of the largest concentrations of pharmaceutical companies in the world, as well as factories that produce everything from women's lingerie to computer parts, from perfumes to pacemakers."

4. Still on the Fringes of Empire
Yet, Americans know little of Puerto Rico, and almost nothing of its history or issues. Moreover, most care little about the future of the island. Most see it as a place to vacation without needing a passport!

Historic La Fortaleza: Puerto Rican Governor's Mansion

However, on the fringes of empire, Puerto Ricans, rightly so, are dominated by the status question.
It is a question of economics, of politics, of legality and constitutionality, among other things.
Moreover, it is a question that is utterly devisive because it is also a question of patria and nationalism.
Hon. Pedro Rossello González

Current pro-statehood Governor Pedro Rossello

Some Links to Puerto Rico Sites:
La_Borinquena
La Fortaleza: Office of the Governor of Puerto Rico
Statehood Site
Puerto Rican Politics
US Code Section 936 Text
Puerto Rico Herald Economics of Statehood
SENATE ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE:
S. 472, PUERTO RICO SELF-DETERMINATION ACT
WORKSHOP 1 (COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT) APRIL 2, 1998