Platt Amendment

Platt Amendment: see Platt, Orville Hitchcock.

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Platt Amendment

(1901) Rider appended to a U.S. Army appropriations bill stipulating conditions for withdrawing of U.S. troops remaining in Cuba after the Spanish-American War. The amendment, which was added to the Cuban constitution of 1901, affected Cuba's rights to negotiate treaties and permitted the U.S. to maintain its naval base at Guantánamo Bay and to intervene in Cuban affairs “for the preservation of Cuban independence.” In 1934 Pres. Franklin Roosevelt supported abrogation of the amendment's provisions except for U.S. rights to the naval base. See also Good Neighbor Policy.

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Platt Amendment 

one-sided obligations imposed in 1901 on Cuba by the US government. The USA refused to end its occupation of Cuba, which it captured during the Spanish-American War of 1898, until Cuba incorporated into its constitution a definition of the principles by which future Cuban-American relations would be conducted. The amendment contributed to Cuba’s transformation into a virtual US colony.

The Platt Amendment, proposed by Senator O. Platt, was passed by the US Congress on Mar. 2, 1901. It restricted Cuba’s sovereignty and legitimized US interference in its internal affairs. Under the amendment, the US received the right to occupy Cuba, to have naval bases there, and to control the country’s foreign policy. In 1934 the Cuban people achieved the repeal of the amendment, but the imperialist US domination of Cuba continued until the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.

REFERENCES

Nitoburg, E. L. Politika amerikanskogo imperializma na Kube, 1918–1939. Moscow, 1965.
Roig de Leuchsenring, E. Historia de la enmienda Platt, 2nd ed., vols. 1–2. Havana, 1961.