Wednesday Open Line


On this date in 1899, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War of 1898. The treaty, negotiated in Paris the previous December, was opposed by 27 senators; not opposed to peace, but to the overseas territorial acquisitions. Spain ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and — for a few years before independence — Cuba to the United States, along with selling the Philippines for $20 million. The Philippines became independent after World War II, but Puerto Rico and Guam are still U.S. territories. Guam’s population in the 2010 Census was over 159,000, while Puerto Rico was home to 3.7 million residents. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.