Platt Amendment

Platt Amendment Click here for more free books!

In 1901, U.S. Senator Orville Platt introduced an amendment to the U.S. Army appropriations bill specifying several conditions for the American military evacuation of Cuba. The two key provisions of the Platt Amendment, first proposed by Secretary of War Elihu Root, required that Cuba cede territory for American military and naval bases and also grant the United States the right to intervene in the island to preserve order, life, property, and liberty. In Congress, even proponents of Cuban independence like Senators Joseph Foraker and George Hoar supported the amendment, which President William McKinley signed into law on 2 March. In early June, the Cuban Constitutional Convention acceded to American demands, and the amendment came to regulate Cuban‐American relations until it was abrogated in 1934.

The Platt Amendment addressed a fundamental problem for the expanding United States. In 1898, the U.S. government had pledged under the Teller Amendment to withdraw from Cuba once Spain had been defeated in the Spanish‐American War. But after the U.S. military victory, Washington wished to maintain the strategic gains of 1898 and did not trust the Cubans to establish a government friendly to American interests. The Platt Amendment resolved this contradiction by in essence making Cuba a U.S. protectorate. However, the amendment also poisoned Cuban‐American relations and encouraged U.S. expansionism in the Americas in the early twentieth century.

[See also Caribbean and Latin America, U.S. Military Involvement in the.]

Bibliography

• David F. Healy, The United States in Cuba, 1898–1902: Generals, Politicians, and the Search for Policy, 1963.
• Louis A. Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1934, 1986

An amendment signed by President William McKinley on March 2, 1901 to specify conditions for the removal of U.S. troops from Cuba. Proposed by Secretary of War Elihu Root and presented to the Senate by Sen. Orville H. Platt, it required that Cuba cede land for U.S. military and naval bases, allow U.S. intervention to preserve Cuban independence, and agree not to transfer land to any other power. Cuba incorporated the provisions into its constitution, and the amendment regulated Cuban-American relations until it was abrogated in 1934.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

For more information on Platt Amendment, visit Britannica.com.

Platt Amendment, a rider attached to the army appropriations bill of 1901. It made Cuba essentially a protectorate of the United States until 1934. The amendment began as a series of eight articles drafted by Secretary of War Elihu Root in 1901 as guidelines for United States–Cuba relations. Congress passed the amendment, sponsored by Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt of Connecticut, in an attempt to address the relations between Cuba and the United States in the shadow of the U.S. occupation of postwar Cuba. After Spanish troops left Cuba in 1898 at the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States occupied Cuba until the provisions of the amendment were incorporated into the Cuban constitution in 1902. The Cuban convention was resistant to passage, and it was only under the threat of continued U.S. occupation that it agreed to accept the amendment, on 13 June 1901. On 22 May 1903, the articles were written into a formal treaty. The terms of the amendment allowed the United States "the right to intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty." The amendment also permitted the United States to lease lands for the establishment of a naval base in Cuba. The amendment was abrogated on 28 May 1934.

Bibliography

Pérez, Louis A., Jr. Cuba under the Platt Amendment, 1902–1934. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986.

Suchlicki, Jaime. Cuba: From Columbus to Castro and Beyond. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, 2002.

Page one of the Platt Amendment

The Platt Amendment was a rider appended to the Army Appropriations Act, a United States federal law passed on March 2, 1901 that 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 1934. Formulated by the U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root, the amendment was presented to the Senate by, and named for, Connecticut Republican Senator Orville H. Platt (1827-1905). It replaced the earlier Teller Amendment.

The amendment ceded to the United States the naval base in Cuba (Guantánamo Bay), 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, ensured U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs when the United States deemed necessary, prohibited Cuba from negotiating treaties with any country other than the United States "which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba" or "permit any foreign power or powers to obtain ... lodgement in or control over any portion" of Cuba, and provided for a formal treaty detailing all the foregoing provisions.

Page two of the Platt Amendment

Later in 1901, under U.S. pressure, Cuba included the amendment's provisions in its constitution. After U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt withdrew federal troops from the island in 1902, Cuba signed the Cuban-American Treaty (1903), which outlined 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 on May 20, 1902.

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 selected U.S. products in the Cuban market. As a result of U.S. action, sugar production came into complete domination of the Cuban economy, while Cuban domestic consumption was integrated into the larger market of the United States.

Except for U.S. rights to Guantánamo Bay, the Platt Amendment provisions, which many Cubans considered to be an imperialist infringement of their sovereignty,^[1] were repealed in 1934, when a new treaty with the United States 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 only be revoked by the consent of both parties. The Cuban government 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.

External links

• Modern History Sourcebook: The Platt Amendment, 1901 (full text)

References

1. ^ Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The pursuit for freedom. p. 277

• Referenced incorrectly in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Cuba-United States relations

Bay of Pigs Invasion • Brothers to the Rescue • Cuban American • Cuban-American lobby • Cuban Five • Cuban Missile Crisis • Elián González affair • Guantanamo Bay Naval Base • Helms-Burton Act • List of Cuba-US aircraft hijackings • Luis Posada Carriles • Mariel boatlift • Opposition to Fidel Castro • Platt Amendment • Spanish-American War • United States embargo against Cuba • United States Interests Section in Havana • United States Ambassadors to Cuba

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)