In 1948, Puerto Rico held its first democratic gubernatorial elections, following a half-century of direct U.S. government rule. The winner was Luis Muñoz Marín, a representative of the Puerto Rican Democratic Party and a vocal supporter of independence. Under his leadership and during Truman's presidency, the United States implemented its first significant direct intervention in Puerto Rico's economy.

After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States brought several former Spanish colonies into its sphere of influence. These included Cuba, which would achieve full independence a few years later, as well as the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The latter three were then united under a colonial-style U.S. government. Today, Guam and Puerto Rico remain a part of the American political landscape. Of these, Puerto Rico is the largest, most populous, and closest to the continental United States. As a result, it stands out as a particularly peculiar and controversial subject of study.

The 1940s and 1950s represented a turning point for the island of Puerto Rico, marked by the acquisition of rights such as US citizenship—though without the right to vote in presidential elections—for its inhabitants following uprisings, including the Jayuya uprising, and the assassination attempt by Puerto Rican nationalists against President Truman. Alongside these concessions, measures were also extended that led US companies to heavily infiltrate the Puerto Rican labour economy, transforming it into an important support for the increasingly industrially stricken American consumer economy.

This goal was pursued in 1948 with Operation Bootstrap, a package of tax breaks designed to facilitate Puerto Rico's massive industrialisation. This enabled the movement of large numbers of workers from the countryside and the primary sector to industries and more specialised jobs. This, however, did not prevent the continuation of enormous social and income disparities among the island's population, nor the inexorable, increasingly strong dependence of the Puerto Rican economy on US investments created by these economic measures. The precarious and dangerous situation described above is amply demonstrated by the penalties Puerto Rico still suffers today.