Ostend Manifesto

Ostend Manifesto, a dispatch from American diplomats in Europe calling for acquisition of Cuba by the United States. After Spain formally rejected a U.S. proposal for the purchase of Cuba in 1854, the U.S. ministers to England (James Buchanan), France (John Y. Mason), and Spain (Pierre Soulé) met first at Ostend, Belgium, and then at Aix-la-Chapelle, where they recommended in a message of 18 October 1854 that their government's offer to purchase Cuba for up to $120 million; and if Spain refused, the United States should pursue every means available to acquire the island, including force if necessary. The ministers had hoped to capitalize upon the spirit of Manifest Destiny, but in reality the proposal reflected the expansionist sentiments of the southern states. When the suggestion became public, President Franklin Pierce repudiated the idea.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Stanley Urban, "The Africanization of Cuba Scare, 1853–1855," Hispanic American Historical Review 37, no. 1 (1957): 29-45.

Ivor D. Spencer, The Victor and the Spoils: A Life of William L. Marcy (1959).

Additional Bibliography

Alonso Romero, María Paz. Cuba en la España liberal (1837–1898): Génesis y desarrollo del régimen autonómico. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales.

Botero, Rodrigo. Ambivalent Embrace: America's Troubled Relations with Spain from the Revolutionary War to the Cold War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Opatrný, Josef. US Expansionism and Cuban Annexationism in the 1850s. Prague: Charles University, 1990.

                                       Thomas M. Leonard