How long could US have kept Cuba?

If the US hadn't given up Cuba after the Spanish American War, how long would it have been able to realistically maintain its empire? Considering the vast cultural differences, would Cuba revolt at any point?
 
Forever if it's a state

But what are the odds of Cuba being granted statehood? Puerto Rico's been in the US since then and it still doesn't have statehood. People in both Cuba and the contiguous US would probably feel that the two were too culturally distinct.
 
But what are the odds of Cuba being granted statehood? Puerto Rico's been in the US since then and it still doesn't have statehood. People in both Cuba and the contiguous US would probably feel that the two were too culturally distinct.
That's because the only votes in favour of statehood have been the last two - and they were really marginal (for differing reasons). Puerto Rico didn't WANT statehood.
 
Forever, but the real POD would be to create a U.S.A. that annexed Cuba in the first place.

One possibility is if the Confederacy survives, and after the Spanish lose a war with...doesn't matter if it's the USA or CSA but one of them, the two nations go on a territory grab and either one side snaps up Cuba or they split it.
 

missouribob

Banned
One possibility is if the Confederacy survives, and after the Spanish lose a war with...doesn't matter if it's the USA or CSA but one of them, the two nations go on a territory grab and either one side snaps up Cuba or they split it.
I don't think the Confederates would have gone for Cuba after the Civil War. For one they had no reason too. The South wanted Cuba IOTL to add a slave state or two. Secondly they'd have enough problems just keeping the CSA up and maintaining a large standing army to deter Washington. Also Southerners were some of the main persons who wanted to halt Manifest Destiny to places like Cuba because they were brown and Catholic. I suppose this ATL CSA could just enslave the whole island but considering international abolitionist sentiment that seems unlikely.

There are also more practical issues. Like:
A. Would the CSA have a Navy large enough to support such an invasion
B. How would the USA respond.
C. Could the CSA spare enough of their military to invade Cuba?
D. How would Spain respond?
E. Did the CSA have enough force to enslave a group of free people that large?

Etc. etc. I also doubt the USA would want Cuba they'd likely just want to keep it out of CSA hands.
 

Wallet

Banned
But what are the odds of Cuba being granted statehood? Puerto Rico's been in the US since then and it still doesn't have statehood. People in both Cuba and the contiguous US would probably feel that the two were too culturally distinct.
Puerto Rico is completely ignored in DC. There too small to make too much of a fuss that would be notice. Ironic considering how many Puerto Rican live in the mainland.

Cuba is too big to ignore.
 
The US would do what we do with every state: flood it with people from the continental 48, the cultures merge and a lot of white folks suddenly live there to the point where it's American with native flavor, and McDonald's makes a milkshake based on a native holiday. Cuba, as an American territory and state, is going to be heavily settled by Americans. As a foreign country, it was America's vacation spot until Castro. As a state, millions of people would move there, buy land, develop it, bring businesses, the military infrastructure there would bring a lot of people in too, and so on. Come to think of it, it's weird we didn't make Cuba a state. We managed to do it with Alaska, and that should have been the Hail Mary of statehoods.
 
The US would do what we do with every state: flood it with people from the continental 48, the cultures merge and a lot of white folks suddenly live there to the point where it's American with native flavor, and McDonald's makes a milkshake based on a native holiday. Cuba, as an American territory and state, is going to be heavily settled by Americans. As a foreign country, it was America's vacation spot until Castro. As a state, millions of people would move there, buy land, develop it, bring businesses, the military infrastructure there would bring a lot of people in too, and so on. Come to think of it, it's weird we didn't make Cuba a state. We managed to do it with Alaska, and that should have been the Hail Mary of statehoods.
Cuba is not a state pretty much because it becoming part of the US means that US states that grow sugar beets would face competition from Cuban sugar cane without tariff walls. That's why Senator Teller of Colorado proposed his amendment making sure Cuba got independence
 

Wallet

Banned
Also, we justified the the Spanish-American war by saying the Spainish were oppressing the Cubans and we were going to liberate them. Kinda hard to annex them unless we can say they will be better off.

The American people ignored Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, and even the Philippines. They will pay close attention to Cuba.
 
Cuba is not a state pretty much because it becoming part of the US means that US states that grow sugar beets would face competition from Cuban sugar cane without tariff walls. That's why Senator Teller of Colorado proposed his amendment making sure Cuba got independence

Once again, Colorado ruins everything.
 
If Cuban rum-runners, cigarette-smugglers, casinos, pimps and other assorted low-lives buy enough American senators, Cuban could buy its statehood.
 
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OTL Cuba, while friendly to the USA, was fighting for independence from Spain and was not looking to be annexed by the USA. On the part of the USA the Americans had zero desire to annex Cuba once it was free of Spain and a local government established with appropriate deference to the USA. The USA did not want a large population of non-English speaking, dusky Catholics to become instant US citizens. This same logic was one of the arguments against the USA claiming the Philippines, although geopolitical reasons led to the protectorate/annexation which was never planned to be permanent. There were other arguments, such as the sugar one, but basically the USA didn't really want Cuba, and IMHO the Cubans would not have been pleased to go from being owned by Spain to being owned by the USA.
 
Let's see the newspapers reporting led to the Spanish American War just get Hurst to get a hair up his a$$ as to how great statehood would be for Cuba the Philippines and/or Puerto Rico.
 
It would result in a Cuban-American War (Cuba loses, but it's a pain in the ass for the US while it lasts) and violent anti-US movements will persist for decades.

Make Cuba two states with capitols in Havana and Santiago. When baseball starts up we can have at least two teams coming from there

Why would they want Cuba to get four senators plus corresponding extra electoral votes?

If both Havana and Santiago can support a major league team, then they'll probably both eventually get them. Obviously at least Havana will have a team.

The US would do what we do with every state: flood it with people from the continental 48, the cultures merge and a lot of white folks suddenly live there to the point where it's American with native flavor, and McDonald's makes a milkshake based on a native holiday. Cuba, as an American territory and state, is going to be heavily settled by Americans. As a foreign country, it was America's vacation spot until Castro. As a state, millions of people would move there, buy land, develop it, bring businesses, the military infrastructure there would bring a lot of people in too, and so on. Come to think of it, it's weird we didn't make Cuba a state. We managed to do it with Alaska, and that should have been the Hail Mary of statehoods.

Probably. It would severely impact Florida's development by drawing off growth and people moving there.

On the other hand, Florida wouldn't have violent terrorist groups bombing American targets. They could just treat the island a lot like Puerto Rico, but leave Havana and maybe Santiago nice and shiny for tourists. It would be interesting if it becomes America's Northern Ireland. Puerto Rico wasn't that bad, but Cuba could be way worse.

I don't think the Confederates would have gone for Cuba after the Civil War. For one they had no reason too. The South wanted Cuba IOTL to add a slave state or two. Secondly they'd have enough problems just keeping the CSA up and maintaining a large standing army to deter Washington. Also Southerners were some of the main persons who wanted to halt Manifest Destiny to places like Cuba because they were brown and Catholic. I suppose this ATL CSA could just enslave the whole island but considering international abolitionist sentiment that seems unlikely.

There are also more practical issues. Like:
A. Would the CSA have a Navy large enough to support such an invasion
B. How would the USA respond.
C. Could the CSA spare enough of their military to invade Cuba?
D. How would Spain respond?
E. Did the CSA have enough force to enslave a group of free people that large?

Etc. etc. I also doubt the USA would want Cuba they'd likely just want to keep it out of CSA hands.

Why would they enslave free Cubans? Couldn't they just "steal" the Cuban slaves?

Confederacy vs Spain could actually have a slight chance for Spain to win.
 
The Southerners were the expansionists. They were the ones pushing for war with Mexico to acquire new territory, occupation of Latin America, as well as the idea of taking Cuba, in order to acquire new slave states. It did not matter who lived there, because they envisioned White settlement and supremacy. The abolitionists and those that leaned that way were the ones that most opposed Manifest Destiny.
 
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