Platt Amendment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Platt Amendment was a rider append to the Army Appropriations Act presented to the U.S. Senate by Connecticut Republican Senator Orville H. Platt (1827-1905) replacing the earlier Teller Amendment. The amendment stipulated the conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba since 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, both foreign and domestic, and gave legal standing to U.S. claims to certain economic and military territories on the island including Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
Contents |
[edit] American occupation of post-war Cuba
The Platt Amendment came in 1899 from the United States to expand its sphere of influence in Cuba and protect American investments by pacifying the state. During the Spanish-American War the United States maintained a military arsenal in Cuba to protect US holdings and mediate Spanish-Cuban relations.[1] In 1899, a formal policy of occupation was adopted after fears of an unmanageable revolutionary government in Cuba circulated among the McKinley administration in the wake of the fallen Spanish regime.[2]
In an effort to shape Cuba into a "self-governing colony"[3], the United States established a Rural Guard composed of ex-rebel fighters charged with reducing theft and protecting foreign property[4]. Further, under appointed military general Leonard Wood, sanitation systems, road works and a Cuban education system were implemented (all programs and reforms were financed from the Cuban treasury).[5] Franchise was extended to literate, adult, male Cubans with property worth $250. This restricted the largely Afro-Cuban population from participating in the newly-formed government while enforcing American hegemony in Cuba.
[edit] Conditions of the Amendment
Formulated by the American Secretary of War Elihu Root, the Platt Amendment passed through the U.S. Senate by a vote of 43 to 20.[6] Though initially rejected by the Cuban assembly, the amendment was accepted by a vote of 16 to 11 with four abstentions and integrated into the Cuban Constitution.[7]
The amendment stipulated that Cuba would not transfer Cuban land to any power other than the United States, mandated that Cuba would contract no foreign debt without guarantees that the interest could be served from ordinary revenues, and ensured U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs when the United States deemed necessary. It also prevented Cuba from negotiating treaties with any country other than the United States that would either "impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba" or allow "any foreign power or powers to obtain by colonization or for military or naval purposes or otherwise, lodgement in or control over any portion", thus greatly reducing Cuba's power.[8]
The Platt Amendment allowed Cuba only a limited right to conduct its own foreign and debt policies. It gave the United States an open door to intervene in Cuban affairs and define land claims. The Isle of Pines (now called Isla de la Juventud) was deemed outside the boundaries of Cuba until the title to it was adjusted in a future treaty. Cuba also agreed to sell or lease to the United States "lands necessary for coaling or naval stations at certain specified points to be agreed upon." 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 U.S. power in Cuba and the Caribbean. Tomás Estrada Palma, who had earlier 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 pact that gave Cuban sugar preference in the U.S. market and protection to select U.S. products in the Cuban market. As a result of U.S. action sugar production dominated the Cuban economy while Cuban domestic consumption became increasingly dependent on U.S. producers.
With the exception of U.S. rights to Guantánamo Bay, the Platt Amendment provisions were repealed in 1934 when the Treaty of Relations was negotiated as a part of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor policy" toward Latin America. The long-term lease of Guantánamo Bay still continues, and according to the treaty, that right can be revoked only by the consent of both parties, or by abandonment of "the said naval station". The Cuban government under Castro strongly denounces the treaty on grounds that article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties declares a treaty void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force. However, Article 4 of the same document states that Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties shall not be retroactively applied to any treaties made before itself.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
[edit] References
- ^ Lars Schoultz. Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Towards Latin America(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), 128.
- ^ Benjamin Keen and Keith Haynes. A History of Latin America: Volume 2 Independence to the Present.(Boston: Houghton Mifflen Co., 2004),427.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Schoultz, 144.
- ^ Keen and Haynes, 428.
- ^ Schoultz, 150.
- ^ Schoultz, 151.
- ^ http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/platt.htm
