American-Cuban Political Relations - Essay Example

Historian and expert on early modern Cuba, Louis A. Pérez of the of North Carolina focuses the attention of his lengthy scholarly work on early 20th century American-Cuban political relations with a particular emphasis on the Platt Amendment. In the United States, the Platt Amendment is considered a controversial policy appended on the back of the 1901 Army Appropriations Act, which would replace the Teller Amendment by dictating the conditions under which the United States would withdraw from the island of Cuba still present there from the time of the Spanish-American War. While troops would be removed from the island nation, the United States retained some economic and military rights on the island, including a naval base at Guantanamo Bay. These provisions severely restricted the power of the Cuban government to control its own interior. American-Cuban political relations would remain conditioned by the Platt Amendment until 1934 and the passing of the Treaty of Relations. Between the period of 1902 and 1934, however, the Amendment managed to create a rift between the United States, which was interested only in the political stability of the island, and the Cuban people, who wished for political independence and labor-oriented policies. Pérez offers an invaluable analysis for anyone trying to understand the effects of American outside influence on the development of 20th century Cuban ideological leanings, which would then continue to direct the political future of the island government (36). Of course, like any scholar with a strong personal attachment to Cuba, Pérez reviews the ideal of an independent Cuba, and is critical of policies, motives, and effects of external powers (both Spanish and North American) throughout the history of Cuba. While constituting what is probably the best study of Cuban political history during the early 20th century, Pérez’s work ultimately suffers from a short-sighted bias that influences the focus of his writings by ignoring, to a large extent, American ambivalence toward Cuba and the lack of U.S. hegemony in its foreign policies. Thematically, Pérez organizes his account by the sociopolitical roots of American annexation, from the appeals from Cuban property holders to the United States for a stable government to protect these resources in the first chapter to the effects of the Platt Amendment on American-Cuban political relations after its repeal. Interestingly, Pérez focuses on the actions of the United States as causes and the actions of the Cuban people as effects. These chapters are focused on generalizations formed from a depiction of American influence in Cuba from the assumption that Cuba was, from the outset, wholly capable of self-determination. Chapter titles like “Reason to Rule” promote the idea of an American ideological hegemony centered on the political domination of Cuba (182). These thematic usages of words and phrases to structure the book reveals the pains Pérez goes through to ascribe all of Cuba’s ills to American greed. That is, the picture Pérez draws is of an American elite swooping in, smothering Cuban labor and any other local institution with the petitions of American interests, and creating internal struggle and strife by means of economic burdens (240). Chronologically, Pérez does a good job of depicting the events of early 20th century American-Cuban political relations in the attempt to promote his thesis. His analysis begins before the institution of Platt Amendment policies, focusing in particular on U.S. legislation’s prevention of revolutionary decolonization in 1898 and of a truly new state in 1933. For this reason, the chronology of Pérez’s account does well to explore the root causes of the legislation and the kind of long-term effects it would have on Cuban politics. The timeline he uses focuses primarily on the political situation within the United States, particularly around the middle of the work, and tends to focus on events happening within Cuba at the beginning and at the end of the time period he has chosen to analyze. This indicates Pérez is interested in devoting a majority of his efforts in portraying intervention as a tool of protecting American interests in Cuba. Aside from its structure and the approach Pérez takes to studying U.S.-Cuba political relations in the early 20th century, one is also struck when reading his analysis the depth and breadth of his research. In essence, his book is about, on one hand, the diplomacy of these countries’ relations, and, on the other, the consequences of such relations on the internal affairs of the Cuban nation. Additionally, the research Pérez devotes to the effect of the Platt Amendment shows that the legislation promoted the conditions its creators aimed to avoid: Cuban political instability and threats to U.S. property in the country. Cubans called to the U.S. for relief; when these calls were ignored, Cubans destroyed U.S. property, overthrew presidents, and other actions to undermine the protectorate. Knowing how self-defeating and self-contradicting the Platt Amendment became, the United States tried to reinterpret and translate the legislation at least five times, creating turmoil and misunderstanding in how to understand U.S. policies in the country. According to Pérez, none of these reinterpretations produced an outcome favorable to either side, leading to the Amendment’s repeal in 1934. However, recurring themes throughout the book include issues that scholars have known since the time of the Amendment: namely, the political “industry” in Cuba, and a notoriously corrupt state. Pérez’s realism toward these kinds of problems brings him to say that although the entire country was virtually owned by foreign interests, politics and government was a home-grown industry that could not be shipped overseas or bought by a foreigner. Thus, for Pérez, it seems the Cubans took advantage of some very few opportunities to accrue capital that could not leave the island: namely, the capital brought in by an interventionist United States and an unashamedly corrupt government aligned with it. Political corruption, as depicted in the book, became what Pérez calls an “allocative mechanism” by which a new economically and politically powerful—and independent—society would be formed. Now, as previously indicated, there are some problems inherent to the account of American-Cuban political relations and the Platt Amendment given by Pérez. The first among these is that Pérez seems too focused on the local picture, ignoring the balanced, cosmopolitan, and global view of the situation it might seem to warrant. For instance, questions as to the effects of Germany’s defeat in 1918 and the benefits of American democracy to people of different cultural experiences are not addressed. What is addressed in generalizations, however, is the capability of Cuba for self-determination apart from the United States. This makes the motivations of the United States seem solely economic (237). Following this course, Pérez endeavors to show how all of Cuba’s tribulations come from American capitalism, and how it smothered local Cuban institutions with the demands of foreign stakeholders. This theory explains why Cuba was not allowed to grow under the tutelage of American control beneath the Platt Amendment. Although Pérez’s tendency to focus on the United States’ effort to enforce the Platt Amendment and underestimate American uncertainty over control of Cuba forms one of his work’s greatest weaknesses, his work is particularly strong in how it adds new dimensions to the traditional story of the overthrow of Machado. He fills in the story of the fate of the sugar oligarchy, the Spanish community, the labor class, and the independence movement. In general, Pérez’s account shows “everything in transition”: particularly the large forces in Cuban history undergoing change from Spanish to North American allegiances. As a work of history, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment is one of the most comprehensive, if not the most inclusive, accounts of early 20th century Cuba and its politics. It is clearly written and well-structured around the conception of cause-and-effect relationships Pérez attempts to demonstrate by outlining the history of the Amendment. For any student, it provides essential background insight into why American-Cuban political relations are the way they are today. Designed to function as an instrumental piece in a larger set of works on early modern Cuban history, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment succeeds in maintaining the consistency of the author’s view of political relations between the island nation and the rest of the world. By giving particular emphasis on the Platt Amendment, Pérez seems to prove his thesis that the United States had a deleterious effect on the future of Cuba and, as such, the future relations between the country and the United States. The book challenges the reader intellectually to think of the United States, for much of 19th and 20th century history, as an imperial power, looking to grow its economic and political interests throughout Latin America and the rest of the world. Certainly, the book is worthy of being recommended to individuals of college age who can properly contextualize its content, themes, and theses in terms of other works on the political nature of early modern America and Cuba. Works Cited Louis A. Pérez, Jr. Cuba Under the Platt Amendment. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986. Read More