This was something that confused me a bit in class today, so I hope I can clear things up a bit for you too before the test!
A Bit of Background
So America at this point was gaining territory as was said in class today. The McKinley administration decided to occupy Cuba to help mediate the Spanish upset. Upon winning the war, Cuba was allowed to be independent in name only. In other words, America practically controlled Cuba. On March 2, 1901, The Platt Amendment was passed which gave 7 conditions for which the US would withdraw their troops from Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War. It said that the relationship between Cuba and the US would make them constitutionally unequal in terms of the power over the territory.
The Seven Conditions
This document restricted Cuba in not only foreign policies but also in commerce. The Platt Amendment said that Cuba's boundaries would not include the Isle of Pines, and it demanded that Cuba sell/lease the lands to the US for naval stations (as we talked about in class - think A.T. Mahan).
And Afterward?
Afterward, the US ratified a tariff that protected Cuba's sugar imports while also protecting the US products in Cuba. Eventually most of the Platt Amendment provisions were repeated in 1934 by FDR's "Good Neighbor policy" toward Latin America. During a Cuban Constitutional Convention in 1940, the Platt Amendment was eliminated altogether.
Hope this helps your understanding of not only the situation with Cuba, but also with the overarching control that America was exerting on other territories at this time. Sorry for making this so brief! If you want more info on this topic, these sites delve even further:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/platt
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=55
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1901platt.asp
Hey Christina, thanks for clearing this up, it's really helpful. I was pretty curious about what some more of these Seven Conditions were so I decided to do some more research. What I found out was that some of these demands were actually quite oppressive. Like you said, the Platt Amendment restricted Cuba's foreign policy and commercial relations forbade the government from acquiring public debt, and basically granted the US control over all Cuban land and ports. Although the US justified these actions by claiming they were leading to Cuban independence in the future (the document actually says "To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof"), they seem to really just allow the US to consume the best Cuban resources and then leave the country to fend for itself without doing much other than improving sanitation and definitely not aiding the country in its independence.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/platt-amendment.htm
DeleteThanks guys for doing the research. I was wondering how strict the Seven Conditions were. This was super helpful!
ReplyDeleteWhile doing a little research of my own, I found a website created and run by the United States government. (We’ve been exploring different points of view and I thought this might be an interesting thing to compare. We clearly see that the Platt Amendment made it very hard for Cuba to earn its complete freedom, but what does the government say about it? Do they think it is a good/bad thing?*) But, contrary to what I thought I would find, the website was pretty straightforward about everything. The article said that the McKinley Administration could avoid violating the Teller Amendment because the Platt Amendment was directly stated in the Cuban constitution. They also included a small paragraph at the end that talks about how the Cuban government tried many times to reject the Platt Amendment but eventually gave up and gave in to America’s terms.
Check it out, if you’re interested. It’s a good review :)
*this sounds kind of like a conspiracy theory…
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/platt
I just realized that this website is one of the ones that Christina used. Well. I hope my little bit of information helped too. :P
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