Platt Amendment
 |
This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (January 2012) |
The Platt Amendment of 1901 was an amendment replacing the earlier Teller Amendment. It[1] stimulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish-American War and defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations until the 1934 Treaty of Relations. The Amendment ensured U.S. involvement in Cuban affairs and gave legal standing (in U.S law) to U.S. claims to certain territories on the island including Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
Contents |
[edit] Background
During the Spanish-American War, the United States maintained a military arsenal in Cuba to protect U.S. holdings and to mediate Spanish-Cuban relations.[2] In 1899, the McKinley administration settled on occupation as its response to the appearance of a revolutionary government in Cuba following the end of Spanish control.[3]
In an effort to turn Cuba into a "self-governing colony",[3] the United States established fighters to maintain public order. American General Leonard Wood, using the financial resources of the Cuban treasury, made sanitation systems.[3] The franchise was extended to literate, adult, male Cubans with property worth $250, which excluded the largely Afro-Cuban population from participation.
[edit] Conditions of the Amendment
The Platt Amendment was formulated by the American Secretary of War Elihu Root. It passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 43 to 20.[2] Though initially rejected by the Cuban assembly, the amendment was eventually accepted by a vote of 16 to 11 with four abstentions and integrated into the 1902 Cuban Constitution.[2]
The Platt Amendment restricted Cuba in the conduct of foreign policy and commercial relations. It established that Cuba's boundaries would not include the Isle of Pines (Isla de la Juventud) until its title could be established in a future treaty. Cuba also agreed to sell or lease to the United States. The amendment leased Guantánamo Bay to the United States and provided for a formal treaty detailing all the foregoing provisions.
After U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt withdrew federal troops from the island in 1902, Cuba signed the Cuban-American Treaty (1903) outlining the role of the U.S. in Cuba and the Caribbean. Tomás Estrada Palma, who had once favored outright annexation of Cuba by the United States, became President of Cuba on May 20, 1902.
[edit] Aftermath
Following acceptance of the amendment, the United States ratified a tariff that gave Cuban sugar preference in the U.S. market and protection to select U.S. products in the Cuban market.
Most provisions of the Platt Amendment provisions were repealed in 1934 when the Treaty of Relations between the U.S. and Cuba was negotiated as a part of U.S. President Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor policy" toward Latin America. José Manuel Cortina and other members of the Cuban Constitutional Convention of 1940 eliminated the Platt Amendment from the new Cuban Constitution.[citation needed]
The long-term lease of Guantánamo Bay continues. The Cuban government under Castro has strongly denounced the treaty as a violation of article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which declares a treaty void if procured by the threat or use of force. However, Article 4 of the Vienna Convention states that its provisions shall not be applied retroactively.
[edit] See also
- Pearcy v. Stranahan - 1907 Supreme Court case which settled the status of the Isle of Pines
[edit] External links
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=55
- ^ a b c Lars Schoultz. Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Towards Latin America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998)
- ^ a b c Benjamin Keen and Keith Haynes, A History of Latin America: Volume 2 Independence to the Present(Boston: Houghton Mifflen Co., 2004), pp. ??
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
