Cuba

In 1854, the Ostend Manifesto was written, which set out the reason for the United States to buy Cuba from Spain, implying the seizure of the island by force if Spain refused. After the document was published, many northern states condemned it. In 1859, Senator John Slidell introduced a bill to buy Cuba from Spain. Cuba, like many Spanish territories, wanted to free itself from Spain. The independence movement in Cuba was supported by the United States, and the leaders of the Cuban guerrillas wanted to join the United States, but the Cuban revolutionary leader José Martí called for Cuban statehood. When the American battleship Maine sank in the harbor of Havana, the United States blamed Spain for the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. After the US victory, Spain abandoned its claims to sovereignty over territories, including Cuba. The United States ruled Cuba as a protectorate until 1902. Decades later, in 1959, the US-backed Cuban government of Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by Fidel Castro, who later established a Marxist-Leninist government. When the US refused to trade with Cuba, Cuba merged with the Soviet Union, which imported Cuban sugar, Cuba's main export. The government created by Fidel Castro has been in power ever since. In 2016, the United States eased trade and travel restrictions against Cuba. United Airlines has filed a formal application with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for approval to provide services from the four largest US gateways - Newark / New York, Houston, Washington, and Chicago - to Havana's Jose Marti International Airport.