What was the impact of the platt amendment?

The so-called Platt Amendment was a legal provision, inserted in the Constitutional Charter of Cuba, which authorized the United States to intervene in that country at any time when reciprocal interests of both countries were threatened. Thus, in practice, Cuba became an American protectorate.

When Cuba became formally independent on May 20, 1902, as a result of the Spanish-American War, it had to comply with the Platt Amendment, which allowed the United States to intervene in internal affairs of Cuba. Moreover, the Amendment allowed the United States to maintain a base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, still in American hands today.

The Platt Amendment represented an interference in Cuban affairs, restricting the sovereign exercise of Cuba's foreign and commercial policy.

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 sign a treaty accepting these seven conditions. On May 22, 1903 the treaty was signed between U. S. and Cuba to protect Cuba's independence from foreign intervention and permitting extensive U. S. involvement in Cuban international and domestic affairs for the enforcement of Cuban independence.

The Impact:

Ironically The Platt Amendment was used by the U. S. 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 Executive Order 518, ratifying the order