There's always the Dominican's Republic attempt during the Grant administration to voluntarily become an American state.
That was actually the attempt of some few warlords/dictators (Báez, Santana and little more) to maintain their absolute power over the country through foreign support. In the 1850s they asked for annexation to the French, who refused, then to the US, who refused also, and finally to the Spanish, who re-annexed the country during three years (1861-1863) till they left it because they had more important problems to solve at the same time, and they gained nothing for free support to a bunch of banana dictators in a poor island. That was the same reason because the French and the Americans refused it. The Dominicans (
some few Dominicans actually) wanted to be a
protectorate if it granted their position, but never a real US state. Why? Because that would mean to grant equal rights to all Dominicans, and then to destroy the political game of the upper dictorial class. Moreover, the Dominican population of the time was in the end quite nationalistic after being more than 20 years occupied by the Haitians, so they strongly opposed any incorporation to another country. That was the reason because Báez finally died in exile in Puerto Rico, although he did it as a wealthy man.
For Cuba, the main questions still are:
- Is the Cuban case similar to Hawaii, Texas or even California?
The clear answer is no. In those cases there was a hughe population of recent inmigrants/settlers from the US who took the government or revolted against it, and then asked for annexation to their real fatherland, the United States. That was never the case of Cuba.
- Were the Cubans pro-annexation to the US?
There were many tendencies among the Cubans of the time. I don't doubt that some landowners or sugar cane planters who had their source of money in the US wanted an US annexation, but they were always a tiny minority. The Cuban mass chose to elect their own destiny, firstly through massive liberal reforms and from the late 1870s as a whole independent nation. They didn't want to be "gringos", less to be
ruled by "gringos". Cuba wasn't a big version of Puerto Rico, whose inhabitants simply didn't care really about the owner of the island.
- Would be the Cubans pro-annexation to the CS?
Second or third class citizens in a country divided in racial castes? No, thanks.
- Would Spain voluntarily sell Cuba to the US, the CS, or any other country?
Never! Cuba was the Spanish province/colony/territory with more merchant traffic in the late 19th century. Havana was the second most valuable city for Spain after Barcelona. There was a good reason for the Spanish to invest in Cuban industries (for example, the first rail in Cuba was built more than 10 years before than the first in mainland Spain), and that was because all the money invested there could be taken later multiplied. In the late 1890s, when most Cubans were clearly pro-independence (even including the ones born in mainland Spain), the Spaniards had 200.000 permanent troops in the island hunting
guerrilleros (more than the British Empire in the whole Indian Raj at the same time) and spent hundreds of thousants of pesetas each year in that activity. There were other reasons like the national pride in the age of Imperialism, of course, but the main reason was still the same. Even the biggest spending in Cuba would be compensated in the future. None country in the world could buy a place like it.
- Would had the CSA enough money to even attempt to purchase Cuba?
I say no, at least no in her first years as an independent nation. Even in the case of the easiest possible war of independence she would need all her money to rebuilt her economy after the war. That without the money of the North, and most likely with the
boycott of the North. Turtledove use a little trick to avoid it giving total French and British support to the CSA in the place of the USA, but I doubt it. In any case, the British could support commerce with the CSA, but not the territorial expansion of a state based on the use of slaves in the Americas, specially if that expansion is violent (as it is
needed to be in this case). And there is an important crisis of her main resort coming in 1873 (as other
'Forumer
' said in other thread)... that surely delay even any wish of Cuban CSA for some decades. And after that, there is always the typical questions... Has the CSA enough money? Has enough troops to launch an invasion of Cuba and stablish a permanent occupation against the wishes of the population? Has even the CSA the capacity to build enough ships to fight, and then transport those troops? Again, I think that this isn't possible for the CSA in the late 1800s or even later. I think that, for the late 19th century, the CSA is more likely to use her troops to securing her dominion over the Apache lands in her wild west, or even to obtain a port in the Sea of Cortez from the Mexicans (who, by the way, I don't think that they are going to sale any inche voluntarily... not after the lose of half of the country in the Mexican-American War. The Gadsen purchase was ludicrous compared to the initial ambitions of Gadsen and Davis, but its sell costed the government to Santana anyway).
- Why is this cliché so recurent among US authors?
Well, this is a personal opinion, so you don't need to take it seriously. In my opinion many Americans use to consider Cuba as a sort of "rebel province"... I mean, they wanted it for several years (from the 1850s at least), they even took it in 1898, but they never couldn't annex it really for whatever reason. Moreover, in 1959 that island "
chose" to cut any relation with the US in order to follow her own real way. The Americans have Cuba in their minds as a treasure lost and use this stories about easy sellings or invasions in which the population receive it with flower bunchs as a form to lie themselves. That is the sensation that I have when I read, for example, that Turtledove wrote about a confederate Cuba
since the 1870s in
How Few Remain but he never wrote a line in the entire TL-191 series about what is the situation in CSA Cuba or even why was Cuba successfully purchased. There is none explanation. Cuba is confederate simply because it
needs to be American in some form. The rest isn't really important.