SUPPLEMENTARY READINGS G. H. Blakeslee [ed.], Mexico and the Caribbean (N. Y., 1920). E. J. Dillon, Mexico on the Verge (N. Y., 1921). S. G. Inman, Intervention in Mexico (N. Y., 1919). F. Bulnes, The Whole Truth About Mexico (N. Y., 1916). R. de Zayas, The Case of Mexico (N. Y., 1914). J. Fernandez Rojas, De Porfirio Diaz a Victoriano Huerta (Mexico, 1913). Manuel Calero, Un decenio de política mexicana (Mexico, 1920). H. I. Priestly, "Relations Between U. S. and Mexico Since 1910,” Univ. of Cal. Chron., Vol. XXI, p. 1 (Jan., 1920). L. S. Rowe, "The Mexican Revolution, Its Causes and Consequences," Pol. Sci. Quar., Vol. XXVII, p. 281 (June, 1912). J. P. Chamberlain, "Property Rights under the New Mexican Constitution," Pol. Sci. Quar., Vol. XXXII, p. 369 (Sept., 1917). "Settlement of the Mexican Oil Question," Current Hist. (Oct., 1921). Investigation of Mexican Affairs, Sen. Doc. 285, 66th Cong., 2nd sess. Annals of Amer. Academy, series of articles on the Mexican situation, Vol. LIV, pp. 134-235 (July, 1914). TE CHAPTER VII CUBA AND ITS INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HE American colonies had hardly gained their independence before the new republic stretching along the Atlantic seaboard felt the growing pains of expansion. With a vast expanse of desirable territory spreading westward, ever beckoning to the adventurous hunter and farmer, it is not strange that the newly established nation should continue to look westward for remoter frontiers. The opening up of the great Northwest Territory and its early division into states gave added stimulus. When, furthermore, Napoleon succeeded in gaining control of the extensive Louisiana territory for France, the eyes of the American statesmen were turned south as well as west. In 1802 President Jefferson declared that the day that France takes possession of New Orleans "we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation":1 and when General Le Clerc's disastrous campaign in Haiti forced Napoleon's hand, the President was quick to seize the opportunity. Strict constructionist though he was in domestic policies, he realized that he must be an opportunist abroad. If Paris was worth a mass, surely Louisiana justified straining the constitution. The Floridas were regarded as of even greater importance to the United States than the Louisiana territory, and it was with the purpose of obtaining the Floridas that Livingston set out on his memorable mission in 1801. After Louisiana was obtained, including west Florida according 'P. L. Ford [ed.], The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (10 vols., N. Y., 1892-99), Vol. VIII, p. 145. to the interpretation of the purchasers, it was merely a question of time before east Florida would fall into the orbit of the rapidly expanding republic. In fact, in 1811 Congress authorized President Madison to use the army and navy to seize and occupy all or any part of east Florida.'1 But the need was hardly sufficient to proceed to this extremity, and in 1819 Spain was finally persuaded to cede the Floridas and all title to lands that the United States claimed as a part of the Louisiana purchase. A mere glance at the map of the Caribbean shows the strategic importance of Cuba to the country that possesses New Orleans and Florida. It also shows the interest which a nation possessing the Bahamas and Jamaica would have in seeing to it that Cuba should not fall into the hands of a dangerous rival. Therefore, from the beginning of the nineteenth century the United States and Great Britain continued to cast watchful eyes upon each other, lest the Pearl of the Antilles should slip from the ever-weakening grasp of Spain into the outstretched arms of a more dangerous rival. The importance of the island of Cuba to the United States in the formative period of American foreign policy is perhaps best expressed by Secretary J. Q. Adams in a note dated April 28, 1823, to the American minister in Spain: "These islands [Cuba and Porto Rico] from their local position are natural appendages to the North American continent, and one of them (Cuba) almost in sight of our shores, from a multitude of considerations has become an object of transcendent importance to the commercial and political interests of our Union. Its commanding position, with reference to the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian Seas; the character of its population; its situation midway between our southern coast and the island of St. Domingo; its safe and capacious harbor of Havana, fronting a long line of our shores destitute of the same advantage; the 1 American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Vol. III, p. 571. 1 |