Of all the former Spanish colonies in the Americas, Puerto Rico, the smallest island of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea was the only territory that never gained its political independence. The years between 1800 and 1930, however, paved the way for the formation and development of its political institutions and national identity. The keys to the internal dynamics and the dramatic socioeconomic transformation that the island experienced throughout this period were the political and economic struggles of a decaying Spanish Empire and the formal transfer of the island to the United States at the end of the 1898 Spanish-American War. It is in this context that Puerto Rico's traditions, political institutions and economic system evolved so that it may be considered a "modern" nation.