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ABSTRACT
Puerto Rico had long been of strategic interest to U.S. policymakers, but the pending entry of the United States in the First World War suddenly made the Island of vital importance because of its important location Caribbean location. Leading members of Congress, officials in the Bureau of Insular Affairs and Navy Department, and the American governor of Puerto Rico all wanted to bind Puerto Rico more closely to the United States. The Jones Act accomplished this by granting Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, which policymakers calculated would undermine the Puerto Rican independence movement. More importantly, President Woodrow Wilson, officials in the War and Navy Departments, and the American governor of Puerto Rico thought the Jones Act, which granted Puerto Rico more self-government, would assuage Puerto Ricans' political demands. And if the looming engagement of the United States in the world war was the overwhelming impetus for the Jones Act, President Wilson's personal intervention and the death of Puerto Rican leader Luis Muñoz Rivera in November 1916 also helped assure the passage of the Jones bill. [Key words: First World War; Jones Act; National Security; Puerto Rico; U.S. Citizenship;
1.Introduction
Thirty-eight years ago, Raúl Serrano Geyls reviewed José Cabranes' Citizenship and Empire ( 1979) and concluded that "the definitive work on the reasons Congress had when it declared Puerto Ricans citizens of the United States has yet to be written" (Serrano 1979, 444-47). Despite the many books, articles, and edited volumes on the U.S.-Puerto Rico relationship, including some that address the 1917 Jones-Shafroth Act and bestowal of U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans, the definitive study of the reasons for making Puerto Ricans U.S. citizens remains to be written.
The purpose here is to advance an understanding of why Congress in 1917 declared Puerto Ricans to be U.S. citizens. We do so by referring to the relevant scholarship on the 1917 Jones-Shafroth Act ("Jones Act" hereafter), reviewing official documents, and consulting the personal records of several of the principals. We argue that the dominant reason for why the U.S. Congress and the Wilson administration granted U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans in early 1917 was the looming engagement by the United States in the First World War-then the "Great War" or the "World War," of course-thereby forcing...