How Puerto Rico became a U.S. possession

 In international law, Puerto Rico is considered an unincorporated territory associated with the United States. One feature of this territory in constitutional and international law, as defined in the US insular cases, “appurtenant and belonging to the United States, but is not part of the United States within the revenue clauses of the Constitution”. Puerto Rico’s official government label is as a Commonwealth. The Commonwealth status does not describe or provide for any specific political status or relationship between the United States. It has been applied to states and territories in the past but when used in connection with areas under US sovereignty that are not states, the term describes an area that is self-governing under a constitution of its adoption and limited right of self-government will not be unilaterally withdrawn by congress. The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States can be traced back to the era of the Spanish-American war. Beginning in 1894, the US Naval War College developed plans to go to war with Spain with both the Cuban and Puerto Rican islands valued for their sugar crops which the U.S. mainland lacked. The US Naval War College drafted plans for war with Spain as early as 1894 in hopes of protecting American businesses operating in Cuba. Lieutenant William Kimball constructed the official plan in 1896, which entailed a two front war on Spain’s colonies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. Finally, in July of 1898 while the Spanish American War was underway, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico. General Nelson A. Miles, Commanding General of the United States Army, led the U.S. forces that landed in Guanica, Puerto Rico. General Miles stated claims to the people of Puerto Rico that the U.S. military did not “come to make war upon the people of a country that for centuries has been oppressed, but, on the contrary, to bring you protection, not only to yourselves, but to your property, to promote your prosperity, and to bestow upon you the immunities and blessings of the liberal institutions of our Government.” At the conclusion of the war in August of 1898, Spain conceded three of its sovereign territories to the United States including the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. Spain's decision to officially cede Puerto Rico to the United States continued until the Treaty of Paris came into effect in April, 1899, which facilitated United States control over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines, and Guam from Spain. This political procedure ceded any remaining nations in the Spanish Empire and evidently marked a prominent shift for United States as a world power.