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TELLER AMENDMENT

TELLER AMENDMENT, a disclaimer on the part of the United States in 1898 of any intention "to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control" over the island of Cuba when it should have been freed from Spanish rule. It was proposed in the Senate by Henry M. Teller of Colorado and adopted, 19 April as an amendment to the joint resolution declaring Cuba independent and authorizing intervention. Spain declared war on the United States five days later. By August, the United States had expelled Spanish forces from the island. Despite Teller's amendment, the United States intervened in Cuban internal affairs deep into the twentieth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LaFeber, Walter. The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion, 1860–1898. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 1963.

Perez, Louis A., Jr. Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990.

Julius W. Pratt/A. G.

See also Cuba, Relations with; Imperialism; Spain, Relations with; Spanish-American War.