Syracuse University SURFACE Theses - ALL 5-2015 The Peculiar Status of Puerto Rico: Neither a State, nor an Independent Nation Gyula Tihanyi Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/thesis Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tihanyi, Gyula, "The Peculiar Status of Puerto Rico: Neither a State, nor an Independent Nation" (2015). Theses - ALL. 118. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/118 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ABSTRACT “The Peculiar Status of Puerto Rico: Neither a State, nor an Independent Nation” is a study of the creation of the peculiar status of Puerto Rico. The research traces the steps from the American acquisition of Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898 to the granting of US citizenship to Puerto Ricans in 1917, cementing the ambiguous status of the island. The burgeoning industrial and agrarian economy of the late-nineteenth century United States generated an overproduction of goods without sufficient domestic and foreign markets. At the same time the closing of the frontier halted continental expansion, thus limiting the available free soil sought by the new waves of immigrants and their pressure pushing native populations westward. The combined economic forces of overproduction and the closing of the frontier led to social problems like unemployment and labor unrest, which consequently led to political problems subsequent administrations attempted to tackle. In search of new markets, the United States sought expansion into Central and South America bringing the US in conflict with Spain, still holding Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.