Ostend manifesto. Franklin Pierce: Foreign Affairs 2022-10-28
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The Ostend Manifesto was a document produced in 1854 by a group of United States diplomats and politicians seeking to annex the Central American nation of Cuba from Spain. The document, named after the Belgian city of Ostend where it was drafted, argued that the United States had a moral and strategic imperative to annex Cuba, and that it should be willing to pay any price, including going to war with Spain, to do so.
The Ostend Manifesto was the product of a complex set of political, economic, and strategic factors that were at play in the United States in the mid-19th century. At the time, the United States was experiencing rapid expansion and industrialization, and many politicians and business leaders saw Cuba, with its strategic location and rich resources, as a valuable prize that could further enhance American power and prosperity. Additionally, the United States was competing with other global powers, including Britain and France, for influence in the region, and some believed that annexing Cuba would help the United States maintain its position as a leading global power.
Despite the strong arguments in favor of annexation, the Ostend Manifesto was controversial from the moment it was released. Many Americans opposed the idea of going to war with Spain over Cuba, arguing that it was not worth the cost in lives and resources. Others argued that the United States should not engage in imperialism, and that it was wrong to try to annex another country against its will.
Ultimately, the United States did not pursue the annexation of Cuba in the way that the Ostend Manifesto suggested. However, the document did play a role in shaping the debate about American expansionism and imperialism, and it remains an important historical example of the forces that shaped American foreign policy in the 19th century. So, the Ostend Manifesto was a controversial and influential document that helped to shape the debate about American expansionism and imperialism in the mid-19th century.
Ostend Manifesto, October 18, 1854
The document's revelation would escalate tensions between North and South before the American Civil War. It was balanced by equal representation in the Senate. Even our acquisitions from Mexico are no exception to this rule, because, although we might have claimed them by the right of conquest in a just way, yet we purchased them for what was then considered by both parties a full and ample equivalent. Failed filibustering expeditions during the Taylor and Fillmore presidencies were evidence of the South's attempts to obtain this slaveholding Caribbean possession of Spain. The accusations that it was a pro-enslavement scheme boosted his profile in the American South, and helped him secure the Democratic nomination for the election of 1856. But, otherwise congratulations for a clear explanation of a complex period - found much to learn from in terms of article style and subject context! See Bemis 1965 , pp. Senator from Louisiana and member of the Young America movement, who sought a realization of American influence in the Caribbean and Central America.
The Ostend Manifesto, 1854 Proposal for US to Acquire Cuba
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Towards the port side there are many little fish outlets, and beyond that the ferries can be observed docking. Blacks in Colonial Cuba: 1774—1899. The natural and main outlet of the products of this entire population, the highway of their direct intercourse with the Atlantic and the Pacific States, can never be secure, but must ever be endangered whilst Cuba is a dependency of a distant Power, in whose possession it has proved to be a source of constant annoyance and embarrassment to their interests. And it advocated that the United States should offer to purchase the island. Practical Democrats Carrying Out The Principle.
. On the numerous navigable streams, measuring an aggregate course of some thirty thousand miles, which disembogue themselves through this magnificent river into the Gulf of Mexico, the increase of the population, within the last ten years, amounts to more than that of the entire Union at the time Louisiana was annexed to it. She cannot but see that such a sum of money as we are willing to pay for the Island would effect in the development of her vast natural resources. The intercourse which its proximity to our coasts begets and encourages between them and the citizens of the United States has, in the progress of time, so united their interests and blended their fortunes, that they now look upon each other as if they were one people and had but one destiny. In October 1854, Pierre Soulé crafted the Ostend Manifesto, which virtually threatened Spain with war if it refused to sell Cuba to the U. We have already witnessed the happy results for both countries which followed a similar arrangement in regard to Florida.
Additionally, the President opposed British settlement in Central America, and he supported American military action to keep that imperialist nation out of a region considered by Americans to be under their control. The Southerners did not want freed slaves so close to their shores and others thought Cuba, in its palmiest days, never yielded her exchequer after deducting the expenses of its government a clear annual income of more than a million and a half of dollars. Minister to Spain, Pierre Soulé was the mastermind of this expansionistic policy. Parts of the Americas, however, were still under European colonial rule. Should this question be answered in the affirmative, then, by every law human and Divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the power; and this, upon the very same principle that would justify an individual in tearing down the burning house of his neighbor, if there were no other means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home.
As they understood, Cuba was of utmost significance to the United States and ought to be turned over. Since states have equal representation in the Senate, a balance was needed between the number of pro-slavery and anti-slavery states. The Brigands moniker was the closest I could find. In New Mexico and Utah, the question of slavery would be determined by state governments. I have made some minor adjustments, which I hope you find useful.
In fact, Cuba's sugar production benefited greatly from the archaic form of labor. But if the United States and every commercial nation would be benefited by this transfer, the interests of Spain would also be greatly and essentially promoted. Cuba, in its palmiest days, never yielded her Exchequer, after deducting the expenses of its Government, a clear annual income of more than a million and a half of dollars. Under no probable circumstances can Cuba ever yield to Spain one per cent on the large amount which the United States are willing to pay for its acquisition. In 1854, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. New states were acquired, and settlers traveled great distances to new lands.
None of my sources attribute the term Ostend Manifesto to a single source. This is my first ever posting to wikipedia and I wanted to see how easy it is. The US and Manifest Destiny Manifest Destiny, slavery, and the sectional crisis had all reached their climax in the United States during the 1850s. Cuba was close to the United States and, if not watched closely, could be used as a launching point for an invasion against the U. Expansion of the Early Republic The third American president, President Jefferson, wished to create an "empire of liberty," which entailed spreading American democracy to new lands.
However, this vast new territory would trigger important debates about American slavery. The document, in fairly dry language, stated the issues the U. If anything, the controversy over the document probably ensured that any discussion of the United States acquiring Cuba would be rejected. Yet Pierce realized that what his diplomats proposed went far beyond any actions he was willing to take. President Pierce, an ardent believer in Manifest Destiny, did not want to take no for an answer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Although I believe the agreement has some text at the top referring to it as a Manifesto, which is, generally, a public declaration of intentions or principles. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida. We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe. However, in the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s, American interest in Cuba would skyrocket.
