Puerto Rico was colonized primarily by the Spanish, but after it was incorporated into the US, there was no interest in bringing in lots and lots of Americans of others regions to help develop the island and increase the population?
Puerto Rico was colonized primarily by the Spanish, but after it was incorporated into the US, there was no interest in bringing in lots and lots of Americans of others regions to help develop the island and increase the population?
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Puerto Rico needed no help from Americans to increase their population.
It’s not a state, its a territory, meaning Americans are losing rights when they move there. Like for example, the right to vote.
Edit: I’m referring to Federal elections, not local. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/05/can-us-territories-vote-for-president/76072641007/
April Fools is over
Americans generally are not interested in moving to places that are less wealthy or developed
Bringing in lots of Americans? Wym, they ARE Americans.
It’s an expensive place to live with ridiculously high taxation and very few high-end job prospects.
Why would you increase the population? It’s already an island with finite resources.
Puerto Rico is mostly inhabited by catholic mixed people who speak Spanish. I don’t think white protestant Americans from the early 1900s would have liked it there.
I do not know where exactly you are from, but in the USA, most of our islands are as legally unwelcoming as they can be when it comes to mainlanders moving in.
Too far for convenient trade, no advantageous location, too small to compete with Brazil on tropical agriculture, no valuable natural resources for extraction, regularly decimated by hurricanes. Both Alaska and Hawaii are much farther, but Hawaii is a critical location to hold and Alaska has lots of resources. Alaska is also an important shipping hub for air freight because it is equidistant from most of the big cities in the northern hemisphere.
Local politics are a little corrupt.
Their infrastructure took forever to fix after a hurricane.
Importing raises the cost of goods.
There is very little jobs there to incentivize people to move there and it’s not like you can drive there.
No congressional representation.
Puerto Rico doesn’t have many comparative advantages compared to the Mainland. It’s richer than most of the Caribbean but it not likely to ever catch up to the U.S due to being an island economy.
One reason – Hurricanes.
Puerto Ricans are American but I’m assuming you’re referring to people from the 50 states. PR isn’t a state and is only a territory. Moving there would mean you lose your voting rights. The island is poor and electricity frequently goes in and out. The island is also prone to natural disasters
You guys know that when colonization happens people already live there? Like it’s not usually sitting vacant just waiting for people.
Puerto Rico isn’t a state and has less rights
Language barrier is a big reason. Only part of the us where you basically need to speak a language other than English. If you were choosing where to move, assuming all else was equal, would you choose the place where you needed to learn another language or the place where you don’t.
(Before anyone says it, I know you can get by with just English, but because Spanish is the day to day language, not speaking it holds you back a lot)
Puerto Rico is much poorer than the rest of the country. It has a GDP per capita of $37k while Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, has a GDP per capita of $53k. Going from PR to the poorest state means an increase in GDP per capita of 43%.
No jobs
High cost of living, weak economy, high taxes, severe hurricane season, most of the locals speak Spanish and have little to no English skills.
Puerto Rico was already quite heavily populated in 1900, with a population density of about 280/square mile. The mainland, on the other hand, had only 20/square mile. It was also a poor and disease-ridden place (life expectancy in Latin America in 1900 was 29 years and it was probably less than that in PR, with its tropical, humid climate and high population density). I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to move there.
It’s a small island, so you really can’t bring lots and lots of people in…finite resources and all of that. There really isn’t any incentive for US citizens from the mainland to move to Puerto Rico because it’s a territory and while you would maintain your US citizenship, you cannot vote in federal elections as a resident of Puerto Rico. Personally, I think it’s a gem and can’t wait to go back.
When Spain does it it’s colonization but when the US does it “it gets incorporated” lmao
Because the beaches are better in Florida and you can get there and back by car.
Disease and poverty were rampant during this period. Mortality rates were really high.
By the time we acquired it the island was already very populated and it was much poorer than the mainland. It was while we were still expanding westward so not many people were interested.
Combine that with tropical diseases and not really a shared language and I suspect it just wasn’t an attractive option.
They also had a significant anti US bias as they just saw us as colonizers replacing the Spanish (pro tip, accurate). Puerto Rican nationalists also tried to assassinate Truman in 1950 and got scarily close to doing it.
They also shot up the House of Representatives in 1954. Wounding 5 representatives. Some 30 shots in all. Thankfully no one died.
So to say relations weren’t historically great is probably one reason.
It would be cool if it became a state and we started investing in it. I’m not sure they want that though. But I’d totally check it out to live there if the economy was developed and it had good jobs. I loved it there. It’s like Florida but better beaches, better weather, mountains, rainforests….
No work.
For the same reason there was never mass migration to North Dakota. There weren’t enough jobs or ways to potentially get to attract people away from where they currently lived.
Puerto Ricans ARE Americans.
Low pay, broken down infrastructure and realistically you have to speak Spanish. More economic opportunities (higher paying jobs) in CONUS which is why so many Puerto Ricans moved to CONUS.
The island was already highly populated from 400 years of Spanish rule prior to it’s seizure. Islands were mote difficult to access before air travel and due to it’s distance from thr mainland.
If I were a white man in 1900, why would I move to Puerto Rico ( referred often as ‘Porto Rico’ in English at that time) with Spanish speakers, mixed race, and catholics when I could buy cheap land in the western US and travel by rail road?
Puerto Ricans are Americans but I know what you are asking.
You’d lose the right like the ability to vote or have a say in mainland politics (it’s a territory after all)
It’s a poor island with little to no good job prospects
The locals are pretty much as unwelcoming to mainlanders as possible.
The island is already basically overpopulated and has a comparatively high cost of living.
It’s still “mostly Spanish”. The average American would see little difference between PR and MX. It also has no Federal representation, no congress, no senate, no vote for president. It’s not a state. Some federal taxes, but not all. So it’s excluded from a lot of programs, or gets less federal funding. So… it’s generally ignored. Washington DC is notorious for being terribly under represented, but you’re better off in DC than PR.
It’s a very “ya gotta love it to want to be there” type situation (or be rich enough to not care). Because of their island-nature and are basically 3rd class citizens of the USA… there is higher unemployment, higher poverty, and higher cost of basic necessities.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against PR. But I suspect most US citizens don’t even know the above about PR. With a name like “Puerto Rico” there is probably a large contingent who think its somewhere in Mexico.
I know a few people who moved there thinking it would be like a permanent tropical vacation and moved back within a few years because of lack of job prospects.
What business opportunities are there in PR? Agriculture? There’s plenty of land in the U.S. that’s equally ripe for agriculture that’s a lot easier to develop. PR doesn’t offer much above and beyond what Florida already offers, and Florida is a lot easier to develop than PR.
It was ceded to the US after the Spanish-American War. It and the pacific holdings acquired were not acquired for settlement, but for strategic naval operations as coaling stations.
They’d lose their right to vote in the presidential election.