What do you think of when you hear Puerto Rico? Jennifer Lopez maybe, “Despacito” or possibly piña coladas. Did the word commonwealth cross your mind? How about colonialism? Puerto Rico has been a U.S. territory since 1898, and a commonwealth since 1952.
A commonwealth is a political unit that has local autonomy but is voluntarily united with the U.S. according to Merriam-Webster.
The Telegraph reported that Puerto Rican citizens voted in the beginning of June to become a state of the U.S.
In order to understand what is happening in Puerto Rico a brief history lesson is necessary.
Puerto Rico was under the rule of Spain from 1493 to 1898. BBC News reported that in 1898, Puerto Rico was surrendered to the United States in the Spanish-American War. Puerto Rico was then a colony — a colony is a place another country has control of and makes all political decisions for it with no say from the people living there —until 1952.