Was an American Cuba ever in the cards?

" [Napoleon] will consent to our recieving Cuba into our union to prevent our aid to Mexico and the other provinces. [After that] I would immediately erect a column on the Southernmost limit of Cuba & inscribe on it a Ne plus ultra as to us in that direction. We should then have only to include the North in our confederacy....and we should have such an empire for liberty as she has never surveyed since the creation:"-Thomas Jefferson, in 1808.

Leaving aside this was yet another example of the Jefferson's ability to lose a grip on reality at times, this is quote is interesting because it shows just how long Americans had been thinking about Cuba as an inevitable piece of territory that was going to fall to America. Even in the Spanish-American War, the US tried to subsidize and bribe Cuban politicians into supporting annexation; something that was frankly never in the cards.

But I'm curious, because this also seems to show how unlikely this was to ever happen. Too early, and America simply lacks the power projection to take the territory. Too late, and there's the issue of slavery, the fact that the Cubans don't have any desire to be part of America, etc. etc.
 
Last edited:
Frankly, and some might say ironically, one of the things that really served to kill the prospect of Cuban annexation/statehood after the USA captured it from Spain was opposition from within the US. Opposition less so towards annexation but very much so towards statehood. This was motivated predominantly by the endemic racism of the period; people were antsy enough about the blacks and immigrants that they already had, to admit a latino state into the Union was next to unthinkable.
 
The US did have long-term ambitions in regards to Cuba. I think that if President Grant's attempt to annex the Santo Domingo succeeded in 1871, and if that annexation turned out to be a profitable move by the United States, then the US could start looking at the Caribbean as an arena for territorial expansion, not just commercial expansion. So when the *Spanish-American War starts, one of the war aims is the liberation via direct annexation of Cuba.
 
IIRC Andrew Jackson's goal after conquering...err...I mean "pursuing bandits into and thereby allowing the subsequent legal purchase of" Florida was to move on to Cuba.

Somehow I doubt a Spanish-American war back then would go as well for the US as OTL's nearly a century later. Spain was willing to write off a barely-occupied swamp...the Crown Jewel of the Spanish Caribbean, on the other hand...
 
IIRC Andrew Jackson's goal after conquering...err...I mean "pursuing bandits into and thereby allowing the subsequent legal purchase of" Florida was to move on to Cuba.

Somehow I doubt a Spanish-American war back then would go as well for the US as OTL's nearly a century later. Spain was willing to write off a barely-occupied swamp...the Crown Jewel of the Spanish Caribbean, on the other hand...

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=121862&highlight=mexico

That thread is based on a different Mexican Revolution leading to American annexation of roughly Mexican-American War gains through the Adams-Onis Treaty. The American "Manifest Destiny" could well expand its scope beyond coast-to-coast if that vision is achieved so quickly.
 
Last edited:
The US did have long-term ambitions in regards to Cuba. I think that if President Grant's attempt to annex the Santo Domingo succeeded in 1871, and if that annexation turned out to be a profitable move by the United States, then the US could start looking at the Caribbean as an arena for territorial expansion, not just commercial expansion. So when the *Spanish-American War starts, one of the war aims is the liberation via direct annexation of Cuba.

But the Cubans didn't want to annexed by the United States. So how will you push them into accepting statehood?
 
But the Cubans didn't want to annexed by the United States. So how will you push them into accepting statehood?

The US had enormous economic interests in Cuba by the time of the OTL Spanish-American War. With the ATL annexation of Santo Domingo (and that territory's presumed success) the American investors in Cuba could decide the same route would be a good idea. If there is a successful outcome in Santo Domingo, the idea of annexation may become a serious option in anti-Spanish Cuban circles as well. The line of thought would go that being inside the American tent is better than being outside it. Comparisions of Santo Domingo's situation versus the rest of Central and South America would have to be pro-Domingo.

So a pro-annexation faction among anti-Spanish Cubans, combined with American corporate support for that faction, prompt an American military intervention in Cuba, and after the American victory the provisional government requests annexation.
 
The US had enormous economic interests in Cuba by the time of the OTL Spanish-American War. With the ATL annexation of Santo Domingo (and that territory's presumed success) the American investors in Cuba could decide the same route would be a good idea.

But why would the Cubans care about Santo Domingo? And why would the US support Cuban entry into the country? Santo Domingo, if anything, would be vigorously opposed, since they'd compete for the same economic niches.
 

Raymann

Banned
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=121862&highlight=mexico

That thread is based on a different Mexican Revolution leading to American annexation of roughly Mexican-American War gains through the Adams-Onis Treaty. The American "Manifest Destiny" could well expand its scope beyond coast-to-coast if that vision is achieved so quickly.

I've actually been thinking about doing a TL, expanding that premise. Any ideas on how to get a Santo Domingan and Cuban annexation out of it?
 
I've actually been thinking about doing a TL, expanding that premise. Any ideas on how to get a Santo Domingan and Cuban annexation out of it?

The annexation of that vast amount of land happens before the Missouri Compromise. This means that all of the OTL Mexican-American War gains will be subject to the *Missouri Compromise. I think that in (a rather short) amount of time it will become clear that slavery isn't feasible west of Texas. All of this happens while Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John Calhoun and Andrew Jackson are on the scene- a generation early enough to avoid the road to civil war. I think that sectional tensions will exist, but they won't lead to civil war.

The fastest way to California is a sea-route that crosses Nicaragua. So you'll have more American traffic and trade with Nicaragua. American business interests increase, perhaps with an early gold rush. The American expat community has considerable heft, and in the 1840's there is a struggle from which the Americans emerge in control of the country. They apply for annexation, ala Hawaii, and are annexed by Congress. The new territory of Nicaragua becomes profitable, and American businessmen see this as the model for future relations with the Caribbean basin. During the second half of the 19th century the US annexes a few more countries, among them the islands of Hispanola, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
 
As i just did a 3000 word essay on American & cuban relations i think the US could of never of annexed it totally. Before the american civil war they couldnt of defeated Spain who would never give up its one of its last remaining part of its american empire. After the US civil war the cubans didnt want it, the americans didnt want it and the US government didnt want it either.
Even after the spanish american war the us couldnt annex it because of the teller amendment.
 

Xen

Banned
But the Cubans didn't want to annexed by the United States. So how will you push them into accepting statehood?

In all fairness neither did Hawaii, but to quote Peter Griffin

Peter Griffin said:
Its like having sex with Kobe Bryant, you can kick and scream about it all you want to, but its going to...its gonna happen."
 
Top