Puerto Rico Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Spanish colony (1493–1898)=== {{Further|Columbian Viceroyalty|New Spain|Captaincy General of Puerto Rico}} [[File:RUIDIAZ(1893) 1.083 JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN.jpg|thumb|upright| Artist's depiction of [[Juan Ponce de León]], Puerto Rico's first governor]] ====Conquest and early settlement==== When [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]] arrived in Puerto Rico during his second voyage on 19 November 1493, the island was inhabited by the Taíno. They called it ''Borikén'', spelled in a variety of ways by different writers of the day.<ref name=Brau1>{{cite book|last=Brau|first=Salvador|title=Puerto Rico y su historia: investigaciones críticas|year=1894|publisher=Francisco Vives Moras|location=Valencia, Spain|pages=[https://archive.org/details/puertoricoysuhi00braugoog/page/n33/mode/2up 27]–40|url=https://archive.org/details/puertoricoysuhi00braugoog|language=es}}</ref> Columbus named the island ''San Juan Bautista'', in honor of St [[John the Baptist]].{{efn|Today, Puerto Ricans are also known as Boricuas, or people from Borinquen.}} Having reported the findings of his first travel, Columbus brought with him this time a letter from [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|King Ferdinand]]<ref>{{cite web |title=King Ferdinand's letter to the Taino-Arawak Indians |url=http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/king-ferdinands-letter-to-the-taino-arawak-indians.php |publisher=University of Groningen |access-date=27 March 2015 |archive-date=21 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321192743/http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/before-1600/king-ferdinands-letter-to-the-taino-arawak-indians.php |url-status=live }}</ref> empowered by the [[Inter caetera]], a [[papal bull]] that authorized any course of action necessary for the expansion of the [[Spanish Empire]] and the Christian faith. [[Juan Ponce de León]], a [[lieutenant]] under Columbus, founded the first Spanish settlement of [[Caparra Archaeological Site|Caparra]] on 8 August 1508. He later served as the first [[List of Governors of Puerto Rico|governor]] of the island.{{efn|[[Vicente Yañez Pinzón]] is considered the first appointed governor of Puerto Rico, but he never arrived from Spain.}} Eventually, traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, and San Juan became the name of the main trading and shipping port city. At the beginning of the 16th century, Spanish people began to colonize the island. Despite the [[Laws of Burgos]] of 1512 and other decrees for the protection of the indigenous population, some Taíno Indians were forced into an [[encomienda]] system of [[Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies|forced labor]] in the early years of colonization. The population suffered extremely high fatalities from epidemics of European [[infectious]] diseases such as [[smallpox]].{{efn|[[PBS]], to which they had no natural [[immunity (medical)|immunity]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Arthur C. Aufderheide |author2=Conrado Rodríguez-Martín |author3=Odin Langsjoen |title=The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-55203-5 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC&pg=PA204 204] |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316173835/https://books.google.com/books?id=qubTdDk1H3IC |url-status=live }}</ref> For example, a [[smallpox]] outbreak in 1518–1519 killed much of the Island's indigenous population.<ref>{{cite book |first=George C. |last=Kohn |title=Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence: From Ancient Times to the Present |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&pg=PA160 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2008 |page=160 |isbn=978-0-8160-6935-4 |access-date=18 October 2020 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208215043/https://books.google.com/books?id=tzRwRmb09rgC&pg=PA160#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> "The first ''repartimiento'' in Puerto Rico is established, allowing colonists fixed numbers of Tainos for wage-free and forced labor in the gold mines. When several priests protest, the crown requires Spaniards to pay native laborers and to teach them the Christian religion; the colonists continue to treat the natives as slaves."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/timeline.html |title=Masterpiece Theatre – American Collection – Almost a Woman – Puerto Rico: A Timeline |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-date=22 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222221840/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/timeline.html }}</ref>}}{{efn|Poole (2011) "[The Taíno] began to starve; many thousands fell prey to smallpox, measles and other European diseases for which they had no immunity [...]"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html |title=History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places – Smithsonian |publisher=Smithsonianmag.com |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207130050/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/What-Became-of-the-Taino.html }}</ref>}}{{efn|[[PBS]] "[The Taíno] eventually succumbed to the Spanish soldiers and European diseases that followed Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/spirits/html/body_taino.html |title=taino |website=PBS |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130208073734/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/spirits/html/body_taino.html |archive-date=8 February 2013}}</ref>}}{{efn|[[Yale University]] "[...] the high death rate among the Taíno due to enslavement and European diseases (smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus) persisted."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/ |title=Puerto Rico – Colonial Genocides – Genocide Studies Program – Yale University |publisher=Yale.edu |access-date=14 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520120915/http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/ |archive-date=20 May 2013}}</ref>}} ====Colonization under the Habsburgs==== [[File:Hendricksz 1625 attack on San Juan, Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|[[Battle of San Juan (1625)|1625 attack on San Juan]] by [[Boudewijn Hendricksz]]]] In 1520, [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|King Charles I of Spain]] issued a royal decree collectively emancipating the remaining Taíno population. By that time, the Taíno people were few in number and their culture extirpated.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/index.html |title=Puerto Rico – Colonial Genocides – Genocide Studies Program |publisher=Yale University |access-date=30 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908234849/http://www.yale.edu/gsp/colonial/puerto-rico/index.html |archive-date=8 September 2011}}</ref> [[slavery in the Spanish Empire|Enslaved Africans had already begun to be imported]] to compensate for the native labor loss, but their numbers were proportionate to the diminished commercial interest Spain soon began to demonstrate for the island colony. Other nearby islands, like [[Cuba]], [[Hispaniola]], and [[Guadeloupe|Guadalupe]], attracted more of the slave trade than Puerto Rico, probably because of greater agricultural interests in those islands, on which colonists had developed large sugar plantations and had the capital to invest in the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref name="Stark">{{cite journal |title=A New Look at the African Slave Trade in Puerto Rico Through the Use of Parish Registers: 1660–1815 |last=Stark |first=David M. |journal=Slavery & Abolition |year=2009 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=491–520 |doi=10.1080/01440390903245083|s2cid=144704852 }}</ref> The colonial administration relied heavily on the industry of enslaved Africans and creole blacks for public works and defenses, primarily in coastal ports and cities, where the tiny colonial population had hunkered down. With no significant industries or large-scale agricultural production as yet, enslaved and free communities lodged around the few littoral settlements, particularly around San Juan, also forming lasting [[Afro–Puerto Ricans|Afro]]-[[Criollo people|Criollo]] communities. Meanwhile, in the island's interior, there developed a mixed and independent peasantry that relied on a subsistence economy. This mostly unsupervised population supplied villages and settlements with foodstuffs and, in relative isolation, set the pattern for what later would be known as the [[Jíbaro (Puerto Rico)|Puerto Rican Jíbaro culture]]. By the end of the 16th century, the Spanish Empire was diminishing and, in the face of increasing raids from European competitors, the colonial administration throughout the Americas fell into a "[[Siege mentality|bunker mentality]]". Imperial strategists and urban planners redesigned port settlements into military posts to protect Spanish territorial claims and ensure the safe passing of the king's silver-laden [[Spanish treasure fleet|Atlantic Fleet]] to the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. San Juan served as an important port-of-call for ships driven across the Atlantic by its powerful [[Atlantic Ocean#Climate|trade winds]]. West Indies convoys linked Spain to the island, sailing between [[Cádiz]] and the [[Spanish West Indies]]. The colony's seat of government was on the fortified [[Isleta de San Juan|Islet of San Juan]] and for a time became one of the most heavily fortified settlements in the [[Spanish West Indies|Spanish Caribbean]] earning the name of the "[[City Wall of San Juan|Walled City]]". The islet is still dotted with various forts and walls, such as [[La Fortaleza]], [[Castillo San Felipe del Morro]], and [[Castillo San Cristóbal (San Juan)|Castillo San Cristóbal]], designed to protect the population and the strategic [[Port of San Juan]] from the raids of the European competitors and corsairs. In 1625, in the [[Battle of San Juan (1625)|Battle of San Juan]], the [[Dutch people|Dutch]] commander [[Boudewijn Hendricksz]] tested the defenses' limits like no one else before. Learning from [[Francis Drake]]'s previous [[Battle of San Juan (1595)|failures here]], he circumvented the cannons of the castle of San Felipe del Morro and quickly brought his 17 ships into the [[San Juan Bay]]. He then occupied the port and attacked the city while the population hurried for shelter behind El Morro's moat and high battlements. Historians consider this event the worst attack on San Juan. Though the Dutch set the village on fire, they failed to conquer El Morro, and its batteries pounded their troops and ships until Hendricksz deemed the cause lost. Hendricksz's expedition eventually helped propel a fortification frenzy. Constructions of defenses for the San Cristóbal Hill were soon ordered so as to prevent the landing of invaders out of reach of El Morro's artillery. Urban planning responded to the needs of keeping the colony in Spanish hands. ====Late colonial period==== [[File:Hacienda La Fortuna Francisco Oller 1885 Brooklyn Museum.jpg|thumb|Sugar [[hacienda]]s, like the one depicted above, ran a significant portion of the Puerto Rican economy in the late 19th century. |alt=|left]] During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Spain concentrated its colonial efforts on the more prosperous mainland North, Central, and South American colonies. With the advent of the lively [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon Dynasty]] in Spain in the 1700s, the island of Puerto Rico began a gradual shift to more imperial attention. More roads began connecting previously isolated inland settlements to coastal cities, and coastal settlements like [[Arecibo, Puerto Rico|Arecibo]], [[Mayagüez, Puerto Rico|Mayagüez]] and [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]] began acquiring importance of their own, separate from San Juan. By the end of the 18th century, merchant ships from an array of nationalities threatened the tight regulations of the [[Mercantilism|Mercantilist system]], which turned each colony solely toward the European metropole and limited contact with other nations. U.S. ships came to surpass Spanish trade and with this also came the exploitation of the island's natural resources. Slavers, which had made but few stops on the island before, began selling more enslaved Africans to growing sugar and coffee plantations. The increasing number of Atlantic wars in which the Caribbean islands played major roles, like the [[War of Jenkins' Ear]], the [[Seven Years' War]] and the [[Atlantic Revolutions]], ensured Puerto Rico's growing esteem in [[Madrid]]'s eyes. On 17 April 1797, Sir [[Ralph Abercromby]]'s fleet invaded the island with a force of 6,000–13,000 troops,<ref>Confirmation of troop count is unattainable, only Spanish and Puerto Rican sources are available regarding troop count.</ref> which included German soldiers and Royal Marines and 60 to 64 ships. Fierce fighting continued for the next days with Spanish troops. Both sides suffered heavy losses. On Sunday 30 April the British ceased their attack and began their retreat from San Juan. By the time independence movements in the larger Spanish colonies gained success, new waves of loyal European-born immigrants began to arrive in Puerto Rico, helping to tilt the island's political balance toward the Crown. [[File:Castillo San Felipe del Morro SJU 06 2019 6598.jpg|thumb|The 16th-century Spanish colonial-era [[Castillo San Felipe del Morro|Castle San Felipe del Morro]], in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]]]] In 1809, to secure its political bond with the island and in the midst of the European [[Peninsular War]], the [[Junta (Peninsular War)|Supreme Central Junta]] based in [[Cádiz]] recognized Puerto Rico as an overseas [[Provinces of Spain|province of Spain]]. This gave the island residents the right to elect representatives to the recently convened [[Cortes of Cádiz]] (effectively the Spanish government during a portion of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]), with somewhat equal representation to mainland Iberian, Mediterranean ([[Balearic Islands]]) and Atlantic maritime Spanish provinces ([[Canary Islands]]). [[Ramón Power y Giralt]], the first Spanish parliamentary representative from the island of Puerto Rico, died after serving a three-year term in the Cortes. These [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|parliamentary and constitutional reforms]] were in force from 1810 to 1814, and again from 1820 to 1823. They were twice reversed during the restoration of the traditional monarchy by [[Ferdinand VII of Spain|Ferdinand VII]]. Immigration and commercial trade reforms in the 19th century increased the island's ethnic European population and economy and expanded the Spanish cultural and social imprint on the local character of the island.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Puerto Rico |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/monge-puertorico.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=archive.nytimes.com |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820221316/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/monge-puertorico.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Minor [[Slave rebellion|slave revolts]] had occurred on the island throughout the years, with the revolt planned and organized by [[Marcos Xiorro]] in 1821 being the most important. Even though the conspiracy was unsuccessful, Xiorro achieved legendary status and is part of the [[folklore of Puerto Rico]].<ref name="GB">[[Guillermo A. Baralt]], ''Slave revolts in Puerto Rico: conspiracies and uprisings, 1795–1873''; Markus Wiener Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-55876-463-7}}</ref> ====Politics of liberalism==== [[File:Intentona de Yauco.jpg|thumb|left|The flag flown by Fidel Vélez and his troops during the ''[[Intentona de Yauco]]'' revolt of 1897.]] In the early 19th century, Puerto Rico spawned an [[Independence movement in Puerto Rico|independence movement]] that, due to harsh persecution by the Spanish authorities, convened in the neighboring island of [[Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands|St. Thomas]]. The movement was largely inspired by the ideals of [[Simón Bolívar]] in establishing a [[United Provinces of New Granada]] and [[Venezuela]], that included Puerto Rico and Cuba. Among the influential members of this movement were Brigadier General [[Antonio Valero de Bernabé]] and [[María de las Mercedes Barbudo]]. The movement was discovered, and Governor [[Miguel de la Torre]] had its members imprisoned or exiled.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.raquelrosario.net/Historias%20Claridad%20Mercedes%20Bar.pdf |title=María de las Mercedes Barbudo; Primera mujer independentista de Puerto Rico; ''CLARIDAD''; December 1994; p. 19 |access-date=30 October 2011 |archive-date=25 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125005706/http://www.raquelrosario.net/Historias%20Claridad%20Mercedes%20Bar.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> With the increasingly rapid growth of independent former Spanish colonies in the South and Central American states in the first part of the 19th century, the Spanish Crown considered Puerto Rico and Cuba of strategic importance. To increase its hold on its last two New World colonies, the Spanish Crown revived the [[Royal Decree of Graces of 1815]] as a result of which 450,000 immigrants, mainly Spaniards, settled on the island in the period up until the American conquest. Printed in three languages—[[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[English language|English]], and [[French language|French]]—it was intended to also attract non-Spanish Europeans, with the hope that the independence movements would lose their popularity if new settlers had stronger ties to the Crown. Hundreds of non-Spanish families, mainly from [[Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico|Corsica]], [[French immigration to Puerto Rico|France]], [[German immigration to Puerto Rico|Germany]], [[Irish immigration to Puerto Rico|Ireland]], [[Italy]] and [[Scotland]], also immigrated to the island.<ref name="Graces"/> Free land was offered as an incentive to those who wanted to populate the two islands, on the condition that they swear their loyalty to the Spanish Crown and allegiance to the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]].<ref name="Graces">{{cite web |url=http://www.ensayistas.org/antologia/XIXE/castelar/esclavitud/cedula.htm |title=Real Cédula de 1789 "para el comercio de Negros" |language=es |publisher=Ensayistas.org |access-date=30 October 2011 |archive-date=20 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720165149/https://ensayistas.org/antologia/XIXE/castelar/esclavitud/cedula.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The offer was very successful, and European immigration continued even after 1898. Puerto Rico still receives Spanish and European immigration. [[File:1868 Lares Revolutionay Flag.svg|thumb|The Lares revolutionary flag of 1868, also known as the "First Puerto Rican Flag" in Puerto Rico]] Poverty and political estrangement with Spain led to a small but significant uprising in 1868 known as ''[[Grito de Lares]].'' It began in the rural town of [[Lares, Puerto Rico|Lares]] but was subdued when rebels moved to the neighboring town of [[San Sebastián, Puerto Rico|San Sebastián]]. Leaders of this independence movement included [[Ramón Emeterio Betances]], considered the Father of the Puerto Rican independence movement, and other political figures such as [[Segundo Ruiz Belvis]]. Slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1873, "with provisions for periods of apprenticeship".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 |title=Ways of ending slavery |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=29 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130309101044/http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24160 |archive-date=9 March 2013}}</ref> [[File:IMG 2972 - Abolition Park in Ponce, Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Monument commemorating the [[Slavery in colonial Spanish America|1873 abolition of slavery]] in Puerto Rico, located in [[Ponce, Puerto Rico|Ponce]]]] Leaders of ''Grito de Lares'' went into exile to [[New York City]]. Many joined the [[Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican Revolutionary Committee]], founded on 8 December 1895, and continued their quest for Puerto Rican independence. In 1897, [[Antonio Mattei Lluberas]] and the local leaders of the independence movement in Yauco organized another uprising, which became known as the ''[[Intentona de Yauco]]''. They raised what they called the [[Flag of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican flag]], which was adopted as the [[national flag]]. The local conservative political factions opposed independence. Rumors of the planned event spread to the local Spanish authorities who acted swiftly and put an end to what would be the last major uprising in the island to Spanish colonial rule.<ref name="HMPR">{{Cite book |title=Historia militar de Puerto Rico |first=Héctor Andrés |last=Negroni |author-link=Hector Andres Negroni |publisher=Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario |year=1992 |language=es |isbn=978-84-7844-138-9 }}</ref> In 1897, [[Luis Muñoz Rivera]] and others persuaded the liberal Spanish government to agree to grant limited self-government to the island by [[Decree|royal decree]] in the Autonomic Charter, including a [[Bicameralism|bicameral legislature]].<ref>[http://www.proyectosalonhogar.com/enciclopedia_ilustrada/Carta_Autonomica.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109192703/http://www.proyectosalonhogar.com/enciclopedia_ilustrada/Carta_Autonomica.htm|date=9 January 2015}} Retrieved: 8 January 2015. Carta Autonómica de Puerto Rico, 1897.</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=August 2021}} In 1898, Puerto Rico's first, but short-lived, autonomous government was organized as an "overseas province"{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} of Spain. This bilaterally agreed-upon charter maintained a governor appointed by the [[Monarchy of Spain|King of Spain]]—who held the power to annul any legislative decision{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}—and a partially elected parliamentary structure. In February, Governor-General [[Manuel Macías y Casado|Manuel Macías]] inaugurated the new government under the Autonomic Charter. General elections were held in March and the new government began to function on 17 July 1898.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.solboricua.com/history2.htm#usa |title=USA Seizes Puerto Rico |year=2000 |work=History of Puerto Rico |publisher=solboricua.com |access-date=30 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515120148/http://www.solboricua.com/history2.htm#usa |archive-date=15 May 2014 }}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=August 2021}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.topuertorico.org/history4.shtml |title=History |access-date=1 October 2007 |author=Magaly Rivera |publisher=topuertorico.org |archive-date=12 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111012174815/http://www.topuertorico.org/history4.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=August 2021}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronpr.html |title=Chronology of Puerto Rico in the Spanish–American War |work=The World of 1898: The Spanish–American War |publisher=Hispanic Division, Library of Congress |access-date=30 December 2017 |archive-date=4 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104123909/http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/chronpr.html |url-status=live }}</ref> {{Clear}} ====Spanish–American War==== {{Main|Spanish–American War|Puerto Rican Campaign|Treaty of Paris (1898)}} [[File:Bombardment of San Juan, Porto (sic) Rico LCCN2001695573.jpg|thumb|Artistic rendering of the 1898 [[Bombardment of San Juan]] by American forces during the [[Spanish–American War]]]] In 1890, Captain [[Alfred Thayer Mahan]], a member of the Navy War Board and leading U.S. strategic thinker, published a book titled ''[[The Influence of Sea Power upon History]]'' in which he argued for the establishment of a large and powerful navy modeled after the British [[Royal Navy]]. Part of his strategy called for the acquisition of colonies in the Caribbean, which would serve as coaling and naval stations. They would serve as strategic points of defense with the construction of a canal through the [[Isthmus of Panama]], to allow easier passage of ships between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.<ref name="SP">Jorge Rodriguez Beruff, ''Strategy as Politics'', Universidad de Puerto Rico: La Editorial; p. 7; {{ISBN|978-0-8477-0160-5}}</ref> [[File:First Company of native Puerto Ricans in the American Army.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The first company of Puerto Ricans enlisted in the U.S. Army, within a year of the U.S. invasion.]] [[William H. Seward]], the Secretary of State under presidents [[Abraham Lincoln]] and [[Andrew Johnson]], had also stressed the importance of building a canal in [[Honduras]], [[Nicaragua]] or [[Panama]]. He suggested that the United States annex the [[Dominican Republic]] and purchase Puerto Rico and Cuba. The [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] did not approve his annexation proposal, and Spain rejected the U.S. offer of {{Nowrap|160 million}} dollars for Puerto Rico and Cuba.<ref name="SP"/> Since 1894, the United States [[Naval War College]] had been developing [[contingency plan]]s for a war with Spain. By 1896, the [[Office of Naval Intelligence|U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence]] had prepared a plan that included military operations in Puerto Rican waters. Plans generally centered on attacks on Spanish territories were intended as support operations against Spain's forces in and around Cuba.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2f0Gf0DQfmUC&pg=PA72 |author=David F. Trask |title=The War with Spain in 1898 |pages=72–78 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |access-date=6 February 2011 |isbn=978-0-8032-9429-5 |year=1996 |archive-date=8 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208215204/https://books.google.com/books?id=2f0Gf0DQfmUC&pg=PA72 |url-status=live }}</ref> Recent research suggests that the U.S. did consider Puerto Rico valuable as a naval station and recognized that it and Cuba generated lucrative crops of sugar, a valuable commercial commodity which the United States lacked prior to the development of the [[sugar beet]] industry in the United States.<ref>Jorge Rodriguez Beruff, ''Strategy as Politics'', La Editorial; Universidad de Puerto Rico; p. 13; {{ISBN|978-0-8477-0160-5}}</ref> On 25 July 1898, during the [[Spanish–American War]], the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at [[Guánica, Puerto Rico|Guánica]]. After the U.S. prevailed in the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the [[Philippines]] and [[Guam]], to the U.S. under the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]], which went into effect on 11 April 1899; Spain relinquished sovereignty over [[Cuba]], but did not cede it to the U.S.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp |title=Treaty of Peace Between the United States and Spain |date=10 December 1898 |work=The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School |publisher=Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library |access-date=16 October 2010 |archive-date=8 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708063629/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sp1898.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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