Editing Platt Amendment (section)

==Background==
[[File:Orville Hitchcock Platt.jpg|thumb|Senator [[Orville H. Platt]], creator of the Platt Amendment]][[File:Enmienda Platt.JPG|thumb|Cartoon protesting the Amendment]]During the [[Spanish–American War]], the United States maintained a large military arsenal in Cuba to protect U.S. holdings and to mediate Spanish–Cuban relations.<ref name="schoultz">Schoultz, Lars, ''Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Towards Latin America'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp.139-151.</ref> In 1899, the [[William McKinley|McKinley]] administration settled on occupation as its response to the appearance of a revolutionary government in Cuba following the end of Spanish control.<ref name="keen">[[Keen, Benjamin]] and Haynes, Keith, ''A History of Latin America: Volume 2 Independence to the Present'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflen Co., 2004), pp.379-380.</ref>

The Platt Amendment was an addition to the earlier [[Teller Amendment]], which had previously limited US involvement in Cuba relating to its treatment after the war, particularly in preventing its annexation which had been proposed by various expansionist political entities within the US.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/teller.html|title=Teller and Platt Amendments|date=2011|website=Hispanic Division Library of Congress}}</ref><ref name="schoultz" /> [[Henry M. Teller|Senator Teller]] himself had a history of opposing American imperialism, criticising the [[Foreign interventions by the United States|American campaigns in Panama and the Philippines]].<ref name="schoultz" /> Yet in 1894 he had been an arch-expansionist supporting potential plans to annex Cuba, and Teller would go on to support the Platt Amendment.<ref name="schoultz" /> 
The Platt Amendment forbade the Government of Cuba from going into any international agreement that could jeopardize or undermine Cuban independence or permit foreign powers to use the island for military purposes. The United States could also and had the absolute right to get involved in any Cuban affairs to defend Cuban independence but also maintain a strong government, one that would serve justice to the people. Also another condition of the Platt Amendment was the United States demanded a naval station for themselves they could use that would be located in Cuba, this eventually led to the lease by the United States of Guantanamo Bay. Lastly, the amendment compelled the Cuban Government to stop a treaty with the United States that would make the Platt amendment authenticated, in which the United States pressured the Cubans to embrace the terms of the Platt Amendment in the Cuban constitution.

Some historians have questioned Teller's intentions, claiming that the real motive behind the resolution was to protect American beet sugar growers from Cuban competition.<ref name="schoultz" /> On the other hand, Teller became a leading opponent of land annexation in Cuba to grow sugar in the early 1900s, as well as President Roosevelt's plans to grant tariff preferences to Cuba in 1903.<ref name="schoultz" />

The Platt Amendment originated from American mistrust in the Cuban Constituent Assembly to formulate a new relationship between Cuba and the U.S.<ref name="schoultz" /> Senator [[Orville H. Platt]], chair of the [[Senate Committee on Relations with Cuba]], spearheaded the bill alongside [[Leonard Wood|General Leonard Wood]], the Governor of Cuba at the time and Secretary of War [[Elihu Root]]. Tasked with balancing Cuban independence with American desires to control Cuban politicians deemed unfit for self-governance, they established The Platt Amendment to maintain public order and turn Cuba into a "self-governing colony".<ref name="keen" /><ref name="schoultz" /> The Platt Amendment was initially intended to be its own bill, but it became an amendment as the [[56th United States Congress|56th Congress]] ended on March 4, 1901, and there was no time for the proposal to be submitted as a separate bill. 

General [[Leonard Wood]] used the financial resources of the Cuban treasury to create sanitation systems.<ref name="keen" /> A handful of civil rights, including the right to vote, were extended to literate, adult, male Cubans with property worth $250 or more, largely resulting in exclusion of the [[Afro-Cuban]] population and women from participation.<ref name="keen" />