Constructing a Colonial People

Upon acquiring Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898, the United States moved quickly to convert this island nation into a strategic military base and lucrative investment site for American business, from which it could assert its hegemeony in the Caribbean. The Americanization of Puerto Rico's people and its political and legal institutions was pivotal to U.S. expansionism in the region. But the "Americanization" process was fraught with contradictions, provoking a nationalist uprising and an independence movement, and generating deep and enduring political divisions among Puerto Ricans.

Pedro A. Caban teaches courses on the political economy of U.S.-Caribbean relations and Latino politics Rutgers University.