On March 2, 1901, the Platt Amendment was passed as part of the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill. It stipulated seven conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish–American War, and an eighth condition that Cuba signs a treaty accepting these seven conditions. It defined the terms of Cuban–U.S. relations essentially to be an unequal one of U.S. dominance over Cuba.
On June 12, 1901, Cuba amended its constitution to contain, word for word, the seven applicable demands of the Platt Amendment.
On May 22, 1903, Cuba entered into a treaty with the United States to make the same required seven pledges: the Cuban–American Treaty of Relations of 1903. Two of the seven pledges were to allow the United States to intervene unilaterally in Cuban affairs, and a pledge to lease land to the United States for naval bases on the island. (The Cuban-American Treaty of Relations of 1934 replaced the 1903 Treaty of Relations, and dropped three of the seven pledges.)
The 1903 Treaty of Relations was used as justification for the Second Occupation of Cuba from 1906 to 1909. On September 29, 1906, Secretary of War (and future U.S. president) William Howard Taft initiated the Second Occupation of Cuba when he established the Provisional Government of Cuba under the terms of the treaty (Article three), declaring himself Provisional Governor of Cuba. On October 23, 1906, President Roosevelt issued , ratifying the order.
On May 29, 1934, the United States and Cuba signed the 1934 Treaty of Relations that in its first article abrogates the 1903 Treaty of Relations.
Background
During the Spanish–American War, the United States maintained a large military arsenal in Cuba to protect U.S. holdings and to mediate Spanish–Cuban relations. 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.
The Platt Amendment was an addition to the earlier Teller Amendment, which had previously limited US involvement in Cuba relating to its treatment after the war, particularly in preventing its annexation which had been proposed by various expansionist political entities within the US. Senator Teller himself had a history of opposing American imperialism, criticising the American campaigns in Panama and the Philippines. Yet in 1894 he had been an arch-expansionist supporting potential plans to annex Cuba, and Teller would go on to support the Platt Amendment.
Some historians have questioned Teller's intentions, claiming that the real motive behind the resolution was to protect American beet sugar growers from Cuban competition. On the other hand, Teller became a leading opponent of land annexation in Cuba to grow sugar in the early 1900s, as well as President Roosevelt's plans to grant tariff preferences to Cuba in 1903.
The Platt Amendment originated from American mistrust in the Cuban Constituent Assembly to formulate a new relationship between Cuba and the U.S. Senator Orville H. Platt, chair of the Senate Committee on Relations with Cuba, spearheaded the bill alongside General Leonard Wood, the Governor of Cuba at the time and Secretary of War Elihu Root. Tasked with balancing Cuban independence with American desires to control Cuban politicians deemed unfit for self-governance, they established The Platt Amendment to maintain public order and turn Cuba into a "self-governing colony". The Platt Amendment was initially intended to be its own bill, but it became an amendment as the 56th Congress ended on March 4, 1901, and there was no time for the proposal to be submitted as a separate bill.
General Leonard Wood used the financial resources of the Cuban treasury to create sanitation systems. A handful of civil rights, including the right to vote, were extended to literate, adult, male Cubans with property worth $250 or more, largely resulting in exclusion of the Afro-Cuban population and women from participation.
Provisions of the amendment
The Platt Amendment was introduced to Congress by Senator Orville H. Platt on February 25, 1901. It passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 43 to 20, and although it was 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 1901 Cuban Constitution.