Although Congress had adopted the Teller Amendment in 1898 pledging Cuba’s independence from Spain, President McKinley and his supporters insisted that Cuban self-rule would come only after pacification. Racial prejudice and cultural chauvinism blinded Americans to the contributions Cubans had made to defeat Spain. When white commanding officers arrived in Cuba, they expressed shock at the large number of blacks in the Cuban military, many of whom held leadership positions. One U.S. officer reported to the New York Times: “The typical Cuban I encountered was a treacherous, lying, cowardly, thieving, worthless half-breed mongrel, born of a mongrel spawn of [Spain], crossed upon the fetches of darkest Africa and aboriginal America.” José Martí may have been fighting for racial equality, but the U.S. government certainly was not.
Because U.S. officials presumed that Cuba was unfit for immediate freedom, the island remained under U.S. military occupation until 1902. The highlight of Cuba’s transition to self-rule came with the adoption of a governing document based on the U.S. Constitution. However, the Cuban constitution came with strings attached. In March 1901, Congress passed the Platt Amendment, introduced by Senator Orville Platt of Connecticut, which limited Cuban sovereignty. The amendment prohibited the Cuban government from signing treaties with other nations without U.S. consent, permitted the United States to intervene in Cuba to preserve independence and remove threats to economic stability, and leased Guantánamo Bay to the United States as a naval base, an arrangement that continues to this day. American officials pressured Cuban leaders to incorporate the Platt Amendment into their constitution. When U.S. occupation ended in 1902, Cuba was not fully independent. Instead, the United States established Cuba as a protectorate, paving the way for economic exploitation of the island and the return of American troops to safeguard investments.