Platt Amendment: Imperialism Quotes

Plain and clear, the U.S. doesn't intend to take over the island of Cuba. America wants Cuba to govern itself, but it wants to make sure that government is up and running first. Sounds pretty anti-imperialist, right? Remember, the Teller Amendment made it illegal for the U.S. to take over Cuba, so shouldn't the U.S. have nothing to worry about? Maybe Congress knew that the rules it was about to set could be seen as imperialist, so it wanted to make it extra clear that Cuba would stay governed by Cuba.

How imperialist does this sound? Think about it: how would Americans today feel if some other country decided to come in and "intervene for the preservation of American independence" or tell Americans they need foreign help to maintain "the protection of life, property, and individual liberty?"

We can tell you now: Americans would take that as a huge insult. You can bet that Cuba and possibly the rest of the world saw this part of the Platt Amendment as imperialist on the part of America.

Military occupancy? U.S. lawful rights being enforced in Cuba? Sounds suspiciously like imperialism. We mean, occupying another country and enforcing your rights within that country is…well, it's pretty much like owning that country right?

And that's imperialism.

Now to be fair, the U.S. had just kicked Spain out of Cuba and still had military forces on the island for the transition, so that may have been all that Congress was referring to. But since the wording here is vague, we'll never know if they actually meant more than that…