Mobilization, Partisanship, and Political Party Dynamics in Puerto Rico, 1917-1920s

Abstract

This article posits the significance of Selective Service and WWI for reshaping colonial administration and political party dynamics in Puerto Rico. It examines the aspirations of significant political groups on the island and details how each attempted to use the draft to further their agendas. During the war each of the three major political parties in Puerto Rico—Unionists, Republicans, and Socialists—struggled to claim the U.S. cause as their own in order to attract Washington‘s support for both a specific party and its favored solution to the status question. At the same time, the colonial administration and metropolitan authorities used the war to reshape the colonial relationship—but in contradictory ways. Rather than following the trend in the recent historiography that stresses the essential continuity in political practice after the war, this article highlights the changes that set the stage for the political and social upheaval of the 1920s.