Cuba & Initial US Policy

I. The shift from Annexation

a. Initial assumptions of the US
i. Move in and stabilize and assert control again
ii. Carry out a number of reforms to prepare the island for annexation
1. hygiene
2. education
3. structure
iii. demonstrate beneficence
1. raise cuba to the level of US
b. The Decision for a Protectorate
i. Small groups that were against the annexation
1. representatives of cane sugar and beet farmers in the US,
didn’t want more competition
ii. However no one believed that Cuba was capable of running itself
1. which meant that everyone still wanted interaction on some
level
iii. As Americans began the process in 1899 for annexation there was
a very negative response from Cubans in which it was implied that
there would be violence
iv. 1899-1902 – Filipino war
1. we went over to help drive the Spanish out of Phillipines
2. when the Spanish were out the filipino’s immediately
turned on the US
v. People in the know in the US decided that with everything going
on it would be better to make Cuba a Protectorate
c. The Platt Amendment
i. Method by which Cuba could become a Protectorate
ii. Constituent Assembly formed in Cuba but membership limited to
people the US thought would vote in favor of US views.
1. WRONG – they wanted nothing to do with it
iii. Platt amendment must be accepted by the Cubans for the US to
leave cuba and allow them to be an independent nation
1. passes by one vote
iv. Includes Guantanamo
v. Cuba can’t enter a political or economic arrangement without US
Consent, and US can intervene any time the US deems its
necessary
vi. Platt = do what we want or we’ll come in and make you do it
vii. 1902
1. Cuba becomes independent and establishes constitution
2. Platt Amendment passes
II. Neo Colonialism
a. Initial Constraints (Foraker)
b. Patter of Penetration
c. Significance of Infrastructure & Finance
 III. Cuban Politics under Platt
a. Socio-economic Realities
b. Emergent Political Parties
c. Exclusion of the Afro-Cuban Masses

Evaristo Estenoz
1907 Independent Party of Color