e adoption of reciprocity with Cuba not only because it is eminently for our own interests to control the Cuban market and by every means to foster our supremacy in the lands and waters south of us, but also because we, of the giant republic of the north, should make all our sister nations of the American Continent feel that whenever they will permit it we desire to show ourselves disinterestedly and effectively their friend (Fitzgibbon).
The Reciprocity Treaty achieved its goal, and CubaÆs economy became dependent upon the U.S. to purchase its raw exports and upon the U.S. to supply it with finished products. The short-term effect of this occurred when large U.S. corporations purchased land in Cuba and operated huge farms to capitalize on the export of sugar or tobacco; this had the effect of shutting down the small and mid-sized farms run by Cubans, and eventually became the death of the middle class in Cuba (Perez). The long-term effect was that CubaÆs economy became entirely dependent upon the price of one commodity. This was not a problem in the spring of 1920 when sugar prices skyrocketed, but just as quickly the prices crashed to a fraction of their previous levels, and CubaÆs economy crashed with it.
The effect that the Platt Amendment had on CubaÆs sovereignty became apparent in 1906 when the U.S. landed troops to intervene against a feared overthrow of the
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