PLATT AMENDMENT

The Platt Amendment to the Cuban Constitution was based on a clause in a bill drafted by Senator Orville H. Platt. The Teller Amendment (1898) had disclaimed any intention of annexation of Cuba as a result of the Spanish-American War of 1898, but American policymakers feared the imperial designs of Germany. Platt forged a compromise by introducing the amendment that bears his name to an army appropriation bill in 1901. It barred Cuba from making a treaty that gave another nation power over its affairs, going into debt, or stopping the United States from imposing a sanitation program on the island. Also, the United States could intervene in Cuban affairs to keep order or maintain independence, and could buy or lease sites for naval and coaling stations (the main one was Guantánamo Bay).

Later in 1901, under American pressure, Cuba included the amendment's provisions in its Constitution. After President Theodore Roosevelt withdrew federal troops from the island in 1902, Cuba signed a treaty with the United States that outlined American power in the area.

The United States exercised that power. Roosevelt sent American troops to Cuba in 1906, at the Cuban president's invitation, to restore order out of what they considered revolutionary chaos. The United States also refused to recognize revolutionary governments and dispatched its warships to Cuban waters. Finally, in 1934, as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy toward Latin America, the United States signed a treaty abrogating the Platt Amendment.

See also Caribbean-U.S. Relations.