Puerto Rico. Transition From The Spanish Government To The Us Regime

Abstract

The Caribbean basin has been listed as an "imperial frontier". American pre-eminence, which began to take shape in the late nineteenth century and strengthened during the first two decades of the twentieth century, implied the retraction of areas of influence and the advance of other forms of domination such as informal empires and protectorates. The United States managed in 1898, to displace Spain from the Caribbean basin, through its direct intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and the Spanish American War annexing the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. On October 18, 1898, the flag of the Spanish empire that for 400 years flew over the fortress of Santa Catalina was lowered for the last time and the flag of a nascent empire was raised for the first time.