American Intervention in Cuba and Puerto Rico

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End notes are missing from the paper.

To Secretary of State John Hay, the Spanish-American War was a "splendid little war", one that would bring tremendous benefit to those fortunate colonies liberated from Spain. For those places where the Spanish were forcibly expelled, there was nothing splendid about either about the war or its aftermath. To state simply that war is hell and that change is disruptive is merely to state the obvious. Beyond this, many U.S. historians have characterized the results of U.S. intervention and subsequent occupation of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines as a bequest, an opportunity to enjoy previously unknown individual liberties, political self-determination and potential economic prosperity. Other historians have characterized the actions of the United States as nothing short of exploitative imperialism, designed to subjugate those who it considered inferior to a state of political and economic servitude.

What is clear is that, in Cuba and Puerto Rico, many viewed the American involvement initially as a positive development. What is equally apparent is that after the war and over time, these pro-American attitudes soured considerably. There were many reasons for this development. Leaving the economic, sociological, and psychological examinations of this large issue to other more ambitious endeavors, this paper aims to explore the way in which the intervention and occupation disrupted and complicated the normal political construction of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Also, in an effort to avoid the larger historiographical debate, political developments will be presented simply in response to conditions. The premise of this paper is that, intentionally or otherwise, the U.S. intervention and subseque...

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