5 - Reconstructing Puerto Rico, 1904–1909

Summary

By 1905 the United States had installed in Puerto Rico and other possessions a makeshift form of imperial rule governed by inconsistency and ad hoc compromises. The island labor leader Santiago Iglesias, the New York journalist of Puerto Rican descent Domingo Collazo, and the federal Bureau of Insular Affairs all characterized the resultant empire as one at odds with itself. All three moved to resolve competing imperial strands in favor of their particular interest. Iglesias worked with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to realize the uplift, rights, and procedural regularity that colonial officials promised. He and the AFL opposed the exploitation of workers that colonial officials allowed. Though Democrats favored undemocratic governance of populations of color, Collazo hoped that their fear of federal power would bring them to support Puerto Rican self-government. The Bureau of Insular Affairs sought to rationalize the confusion in the makeshift U.S. empire by securing centralized control. By 1910, all three efforts had failed. Ambiguity, ambivalence, and inconsistency were essential features of U.S. empire – and were sometimes sources of its strength and resilience, not problems in need of definitive resolution.