MERITAS - Law Firms Worldwide (JD Supra Puerto Rico)

In 1493, Christopher Columbus arrived in Puerto Rico and claimed the island for the Spanish Crown. Spain controlled the island for most of the next four centuries until 1898, when it ceded Puerto Rico to the United States as part of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Spanish-American War. Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917 and the right to elect their own governor in 19