Barely a month before the United States enters World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signs the
Jones-Shafroth act, granting U.S. citizenship to the inhabitants of Puerto
Rico.
Located about 1,000 miles
southeast of Florida—and less than half that distance from the coast of South
America—Puerto Rico was ceded to the U.S. by Spain in December 1898 as part of
the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. In 1900, a
Congressional act created a civil government for the island; the first governor
under this act, Charles H. Allen, was appointed by President William McKinley and
inaugurated that May in Puerto Rico's capital city, San Juan.
On March 2, 1917, Wilson
signed the Jones-Shafroth Act, under which Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory
and Puerto Ricans were granted statutory citizenship, meaning that citizenship
was granted by an act of Congress and not by the Constitution (thus it was not
guaranteed by the Constitution). The act also created a bill of rights for the
territory, separated its government into executive, legislative and judicial
branches, and declared Puerto Rico's official language to be English.
As citizens, Puerto Ricans
could now join the U.S. Army, but few chose to do so. After Wilson signed a
compulsory military service act two months later, however, 20,000 Puerto Ricans
were eventually drafted to serve during World War I. Puerto Rican soldiers were
sent to guard the Panama Canal, the important waterway, in operation since
1914, which joined the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean across the Isthmus of Panama
in Central America. Puerto Rican infantry regiments were also sent to the
Western Front, including the 396th Infantry Regiment of Puerto Rico, created in
New York City, whose
members earned the nickname Harlem Hell Fighters.
Later, during World War II, Puerto Rico
became an important military and naval base for the U.S. Army. Its economy
continued to grow, aided by a hydroelectric-power expansion program instituted
in the 1940s. In 1951, Puerto Rican voters approved by referendum a new U.S.
law granting the islanders the right to draft their own constitution. In March
1952, Luis Munoz Marin, Puerto Rico's governor, proclaimed Puerto Rico a freely
associated U.S. commonwealth under the new constitution; the status was made
official that July. Though nationalist agitation for the island's complete
independence from the U.S. was a constant—as were calls for Puerto Rico to
become a state—subsequent referendums confirmed the decision to remain a
commonwealth.
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