Located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, Puerto Rico was key to the Spanish Empire since the early years of conquest and colonization of the New World. The smallest of the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico was a major military post during many wars between Spain and other European powers for control of the region during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, Puerto Rico was invaded and subsequently become a possession of the United States of America. The first part of the twentieth century was marked with the struggle to obtain greater democratic rights from the United States. The Foraker Act of 1900, which established a civil government, and the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917, which granted Puerto Ricans U.S. citizenship, paved the way for the drafting of Puerto Rico's Constitution and the establishment of democratic elections in 1952.