Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Cuba: Laboratory for Dollar Deplomacy, 1898‐1917

1966; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 28; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1540-6563.1966.tb01757.x

1540-6563

Robert Freeman Smith,

Cuban History and Society

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. Various approaches to Dollar Diplomacy may be found in the following: Herbert Feis, The Diplomacy of the Dollar: First Era, 1919–1932 (Baltimore, 1950): Scott Nearing and Joseph Freeman, Dollr Diplomacy, a study in American Imperialism (New York, 1925); Dana G. Munro, Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921 (Princeton, 1964); William A. Williams, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy (Cleveland, 1959); Arthur P. Whitaker, "From Dollar Diplomacy to the Good Neighbor Policy,"Inter‐American Economic Affairs, IV, No. 4 (Spring, 1951).2. Henry L. Stimson, The United States and the Other American Republics (Department of State, Latin American Series No. 4, Washington, 1932), 5.3. Memorandum from the Bureau of Latin American Affairs, October 6, 1909, Philander C. Knox Papers, Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress.4. Stewart L. Woodford to William McKinley, March 17, 1898, Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1898 (Washington, D. C., 1901), 685–88; Capt. C. D. Sigsbee to the Secretary of the Navy, February 8, 1898, ibid., 673.5. The views of McKinley and his most respected advisers concerning the methods of pacifying Cuba can be found in the following: Woodford to McKinley, October 17, 1897, as printed in Herminio Portell Vilá, Historia de Cuba en sus relaciones con los Estados Unidos y España (4 vols.; Havana, 1938), III, 324–25; William R. Day to Woodford, March 26, 1898, Foreign Relations, 1898, 704; Day to Woodford, April 5, 1898, ibid., 735; Fizhugh Lee to Day, March 1, 1898, Ntional Archives, Records of the Department of State (hereafter cited as NA), U. S. Peace Commission, Paris 1898 (Record Group 43). For an excellent analysis see, Walter LaFeber, The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion (Ithaca, N. Y., 1963), 333–51, 370–406. The political pressures are discussed in Ernest R. May, Imperial Democracy: The Emergence of America as a Great Power (New York, 1961).6. McKinley's message of April 11, 1898 is in A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents (20 vols.; Bureau of National Literature ed., New York, 1922), XIII, 6281–92. The documemtary material cited in note five also presents the definition of pacification and some implications ofa this definition for the future status of Cuba. See also John Sherman to John Hay, June 30, 1897, as printed in Vilá, Cuba en sus relaciones, III, 298; Woodford to Sherman, August 30, 1897, ibid. 306–07;, Lee to Day, August 25, 1897, U. S. Peace Commission, Paris, 1898, NA; Elihu Root to General Leonard Wood, February 9, 1901, Leonard Wood Papers, Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress; Senator O. H. Platt to Wood, June 1, 1900, ibid.; Root to Hay, January 11, 1901, ibid.7. Congressional Record, 55th Cong., 2nd. Sess., XXXI, Pt. 5, 4041–92. The Amendment to the Resolution of April 18, 1898 which would have granted recognition to the Republic of Cuba was defeated after a heated debate. The word was spread that McKinley would veto any resolution that included recognition.8. Lee to Day, March 1, 1898, U. S. Peace Commission, Paris, 1898, NA; Gerneral D. E. Sickles to Root, April 22, 1901, Wood Papers; Lodge to Wood, January 15, 1901, ibid.; Lodge to Wood, April 24, 1900, ibid.; Platt to Wood, June 1, 1900, ibid; Roosevelt to Lodge, July 21, 1899, in Henry Cabot Lodge (ed.), Selections from the Correspondence of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry cabot Lodge, 1884–1918 (2 vols.; New York and London, 1925), I, 413–15.9. David F. Healy, The United States in Cuba: Generals, Politicians, and the Search for Policy (Madison, Wis., 1963), 73–77.10. Special Report of Gerneral Leonard Wood, September 21, 1899, Civil Report of Major‐General John R. Brooke (Washington, 1900), 369; Herman Hagedorn, Leonard Wood, a Biography (2 vols.; New York and London 1931), I, 213. The success of Wood's efforts to "Pacify" the Cuban officers was praised by American investors. A. B. Farquhar to Wood, June 16, 1902, Wood Papers. See also: "Report of Payment of the Cuban Army," National Archives, Department of the Interior, Records of the Military Government of Cuba, 1899, File 3100. (Hereafter cited as MGA).11. Wood to Platt, December 19, 1900, Wood Papers; Wood to Nelson W, Aldrich, January 12, 1901, ibid. Wood was especially interested in promoting railroad construction and to this end he worked closely with Sir William Van Horne's Cuba Company. The Foraker Amendment to the Army Appropriation Bill of 1899 forbade the granting of franchises or consessions in Cuba by U. S. authorities.12. Wood at one time hoped that the United States would retain control of the customs after the occupation ended. Wood to Root, July 6, 1900, Wood Papers.13. Wood to McKinley, February 6, 1900, Wood Papers.14. Wood to Root, February 16, 1900, ibid..15. Platt to Wood, June 1, 1900, ibid.; Roosevelt ot Lodge, July 21, 1899, Lodge, Selections from the Correspondence, I, 413–15; James Wilson, An Address on Our Trade Relations with the Tropics (Boston, 1901), 10–20; Speech by Albert J. Beveridge, "The Star of Empire," delivered on September 25, 1900, and printed in The Meaning of the Times (Indianapolis, 1908), 122–124.16. Platt to Wood, June 1, 1900, Wood Papers; Wood to Root, July 6, 1900, ibid. Resolutions calling for the withdrawal of troops from Cuba were introduced in Congress in January and April, 1900. These were finally buried in committee. Congressional Record, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., XXXIII, 1287 and 4696. Roosevelt to Hay, July 1, 1898, in Elting Morison (ed.), The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (8 vols.; Cambridge, 1951), II, 1024–1024.17. Wood to Root, January 4, 1901, Wood Papers.18. Wood to Nelson W. Aldrich, January 12, 1901, ibid.; Wood to Roosevelt, October 28, 1901, ibid.; Lodge to Wood, January 15, 1901, ibid.; Root to Wood, December 18, 1900, Elihu Root Papers, Division of Manuscripts. Lobrary of Congress.19. According to Root, the right to intervene was implicit in the Monroe Doctrine but the Doctrine was not recognized in intermational law. Thus, the U. S. needed an arrangement with Cuba which would give legal status to intervention. "Report of the Committee Appointed to Confer with the Government of the United States, Giving an Account of the Result of its Labors," Root Papers (The committee of the Cuban Constitutional Convention which conferred with Root in the spring of 1901); Root to Hay, January 11, 1901, Root Papers.20. Platt stated, "I am scarcely entitled to the credit of having my name attached to it, …" Platt to Wood, April 21, 1901, Wood Papers. For a detailed analysis see, Healy, The United States in Cuba, 150–67.21. Root compared Cuba to both China and Egypt and stressed the "international obligation" of the U. S. to insure the proper behavior of Cuba‐especially in matters of foreign lives and property; Root to Wood, Feabruary 9, 1901, Root Papers; Root to Hay, January 11. 1901, ibid.; article by Senator Platt in World's Work, May, 1901, in, Louis A. Coolidge, An Old‐Fashioned sentaor: orville H. Platt (New York, 1910), 345–47.22. Root to Wood, March 2, 1900, Root Papers; "Report of the Committee Appointed to Confer with the Government of the United States …,"ibid.23. Root to Wood, March 2, 1901, Wood Papers; Platt to Wood, January 18, 1901, ibid..24. Root to Wood, May 16, 1901, ibid..25. Roosevelt to Root. May 20, 1904, in Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, IV, 801.26. Herbert L. Squiers to Hay, October 13, 1902, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.27. Squiers to Hay, June 23, October 9, 1902, ibid.28. Roosevelt to Hay, July 1, 1899, Morison, Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, II, 1024–27.29. Hay to Squiers, April 8, 1903, Diplomatic Instructions, NA. Cuban attitudes are presented in, Portell Vilá, Historia de Cuba, IV, 121–34.30. Squiers to Hay, November 14, 1902, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.31. Squiers to Hay, August 7, and 12, 1902, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.32. Hay to Speyer and Company, February 27, 1904, Domestic Letters, NA.; "Memo from the Office of the Chief Clerk of the State Department to Mr. Alvey Adee," August 9, 1909, Numerical File, Case No. 1963, NA.33. Squiers to Hay, February 19, April 23, and August 31, 1904, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.34. Adee to Sleeper, August 31, 1906; Adee to Edwin F. Atkins, September 18, 1906, Numerical File, Case No. 682, NA. Roosevelt to Robert Bacon, September 12, 1906, Numerical File, Case No. 244, NA.35. Nicoli Rivero to Root, November 20, 1906, Numerical File, Case No. 1963, NA; Edwin F. Atkins to Bacon, October 31, 1906, ibid., Case No. 682; Illinois Manufacturers' Association to Roosevelt, September 14, 1906, ibid., Case No. 244.36. During the first intervention the city of Havana signed a contract with the firm of McGivney and Rokeby (Jacob Schiff and James Speyer were stockholders) for sewers and paving. The contract was not carried out and the decision in February, 1908 required the Cuban government to assume this much‐disputed obligation. Hay to Squiers, March 10, 1905, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA; Magoon to Roosevelt, August 26, 1903, Numerical File, Case No. 1963, NA.37. Ibid..38. Edwin V. Morgan to Knox, May 26, 1909, Nummerical File, Case No. 1963. The legacy of Magoon has been a much debated subject; see, David Lockmiller, Magoon in Cuba (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1938): Leland H. Jenks, Our Cuban Colony (New York, 1928); Ramiro Guerra y Sanchez, Un Cuarto de siglo de evolucion cubana (Havana, 1924).39. J. B. Moore to Speyer and Company, August 7, 1913, Decimal File, 837.51/197, NA (henceforth this file will be cited by number only); A. M. Geaupré to Knox, June 6, 1912, 837.00/731, NA.40. Robert Lansing to American Legation (Havana), October 17, 1914, 837.51/197, NA.41. Lansing to William Gibbs McAdoo, August 13, 1917, 837.51/279a, NA.42. J. P. Morgan & Co. to Norman H. Davis, November 22, 1915, 837.51/243, NA. Davis‐President of the Trust Company of Cuba and a stockholder in the Cuba Railroad‐urged the State Department to make the loan contingent upon the settlement of these issues. Davis to Paul Fuller, Jr., August 4 and 5, 1917, 837.77/148, NA.43. Division of Latin American Affairs, "Altruistic Policy of the United States Toward Latin America," May 28, 1910, 710.11/379, NA.44. William Jennings Bryan to Lansing, June 15, 1915, 111.11/74, NA.45. Wood to Roosevelt, October 28, 1901; Wood to Root, October 17, 1901; Wood to Aldrich, January 12, 1901, Wood Papers.46. Lt. Edward Carpenter to Wood, December 27, 1901; F. B. Thurber to Wood, December 26, 1901; Thurber to Root, October 18, 1901; all in File 3759, 1901, MGA.47. Loomis to Squiers. October 6, 1904, Diplomatic Instructions, NA.48. Squiers to Hay, September 17 and October 15, 1904, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.49. This policy was continued until 1934.50. Squiers to Secretary of State, March 19, 1904; Roosevelt to Adee, March 20, 1905, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.51. Squiers to Secretary of State, March 31, 1905, ibid..52. Loomis to Squiers, June 21, 1905, ibid..53. Squiers to Root, July 18, 1905, ibid..54. Morgan to Root, May 31, 1906, Numerical File, Case No. 80. Britain had threatened to break relations on the grounds that Cuba was not independent.55. Hay to Squiers, January 12, 1905, Diplomatic Instructions, NA; Squiers to Root, July 18, 1905, Diplomatic Dispatches, NA.56. Squiers to Root, August 24, 1905, Numerical File, Case No. 1318.57. Fred M. Dearing to Secretary of State, January 26, 1910; Secretary of State to Dearing, February 14, 1910. These and the letters from interested parties are in Numerical File, Case No. 14965, NA.58. "Memorandum and Arguments Relating to Constructive Steps Which Should be Taken in Central America Before the Close of the European War," February 15, 1918, 711.13/55, NA; Boaz Long, "Our Present Opportunity in the Caribbean," November 30, 1915, 710.11/261 Robert Lansing, Memorandum of November 24, 1915, 710.11/188/1/2, NA.59. Long Menorandum of February 15, 1918, 711.13/55, NA.60. As Misnister of Cuba, John B. Jackson warned of the danger in tying Cuba too closely to the U. S. Jackson to Knox, January 23, 1911, 611.3731/11, NA.61. For more detailed analyses of these later developments see: Dudley Seers, et al., Cuba: The Economic and Social Revolution (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1964), Chap. 1; Robert Freeman Smith, What Happened in Cuba? A Documentary History (New York, 1963), Chap. III‐V; ibid., The United States and Cuba: Business and Diplomacy, 1917–1960 (New York, 1960); Ramiro Guerra y Sanchez, Sugar and Society in the Caribbean: An Economic History of Cuban Agriculture (New Haven, Conn., 1964).Additional informationNotes on contributorsRobert Freeman SmithThe author is Professor of History at the University of Rhode Island and for the current academic year will be Visiting Professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin. The research for this article was made possible through a grant from the University of Rhode Island Research Committee.