Melody Coll
Mr. Rupertus
Global History II- B
25 February 2013
Background info * Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands * Under Spanish rule, the island was colonized and the indigenous population was forced into slavery and wiped out due to, among other things, European infectious diseases. * Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. * In 1898, Spain ceded the archipelago, as well as the Philippines, to the United States as a result of its defeat in the Spanish-American War under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898. Since then Puerto Rico has remained under United States rule * Puerto Rico was governed as a colony for 50 years, with a governor appointed by the American president. * Puerto Ricans were made U.S. citizens in 1940, and they were allowed to vote directly for their own governor in 1948. * Puerto Ricans disagree about whether the island should become a U.S. state, an independent nation, or should maintain its commonwealth status with fuller independence. In plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters voiced a preference for continued commonwealth status. * The U.S. Border Patrol consisted of 450 agents, many of them local police and Texas Rangers, who