ABSTRACT
This chapter traces US imperialism in Cuba through two distinct phases: US economic hegemony and the US embargo. This chapter explores the informal imperialist course the United States took to create market conditions in Cuba that were more favourable to itself and then passed off under the guise of 'free trade'. The Platt Amendment of 1901 provided for future – if temporary – US intervention in Cuba, as required to stabilise the country, if anything were to disturb the calm economic base the United States had established during the occupation. When the United States left Cuba in 1902, they might have departed militarily, but they had certainly not retreated economically. The US policy of using a trade embargo against Cuba was not a rejection of economic imperialism, but instead an aggressive measure to attain the same freedom to trade with, and invest in, Cuba that it had prior to 1960.
