page_title: Spain–United States relations
section_title: Cuba
hierarchical_section_title: Spain–United States relations / Mid-nineteenth century / Cuba
context_page_description: The Spain–United States relations also referred to as the Spanish–American relations, refer to the diplomatic, social, economic and cultural relations between Spain and the United States.
  The troubled history of Spanish–American relations has been seen as one of "love and hate". The groundwork was laid by the colonization of parts of the Americas by Spain before 1700. The first settlement in Florida was a small outpost that never grew large. More permanent, much larger colonies in New Mexico and California, with a few in Texas and Arizona. Spanish settlements north of Mexico were the results of the same forces that later led the British to come to the East Coast. In order to add the Spanish dimension to the history of the US, the concept of "Spanish borderlands" was developed in 20th-century historiography to expand on the traditional Anglo-centric vision.
  Spain, provided indirect support to the new United States by fighting against Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. Madrid tacitly recognised the independence of the United States in 1783. The purchase of the underdeveloped Spanish Florida by the US was made effective in 1821.
context_section_description: But it was the issue of Cuba that dominated relations between Spain and the United States during this period. At the same time that the United States wished to expand its trade and investments in Cuba during this period, Spanish officials enforced a series of commercial regulations designed to discourage trade relations between Cuba and the U.S. Spain believed that American economic encroachment would result in physical annexation of the island; the kingdom fashioned its colonial policies accordingly.
  In a letter to Hugh Nelson, U.S. Minister to Spain, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams described the likelihood of U.S. "annexation of Cuba" within half a century despite obstacles: "But there are laws of political as well as of physical gravitation; and if an apple severed by the tempest from its native tree cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its own unnatural connection with Spain, and incapable of self support, can gravitate only towards the North American Union, which by the same law of nature cannot cast her off from its bosom."
  In 1850, John A. Quitman, Governor of Mississippi, was approached by the filibuster Narciso López to lead his filibuster expedition of 1850 to Cuba. Quitman turned down the offer because of his desire to serve out his term as Governor, but did offer assistance to López in obtaining men and material for the expedition.
  In 1854 a secret proposal known as the Ostend Manifesto was devised by American diplomats to purchase Cuba from Spain for $130 million, thereby opening new slave territory. The manifesto was rejected due to vehement objections from anti-slavery activists when the plans became public. When President Buchanan addressed Congress on December 6, 1858, he listed several complaints against Spain, which included the treatment of Americans in Cuba, lack of direct diplomatic communication with the captain general of Cuba, maritime incidents, and commercial barriers to the Cuban market. "The truth is that Cuba", Buchanan stated, "in its existing colonial condition, is a constant source of injury and annoyance to the American people." Buchanan went on to hint that the US may be forced to purchase Cuba and stated that Cuba's value to Spain "is comparatively unimportant." The speech shocked Spanish officials.
caption: John Quincy Adams, who as U.S. Secretary of State compared Cuba to an apple that, if severed from Spain, would gravitate towards the U.S.
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