American Troops in Cuba, 1917–1922: How Marines Guarded Sugar While New York Banks Took the Island

American troops in Cuba landed on the island in 1917 and stayed until 1922. The pretext was a revolt against the president, but the real interest was sugar. Washington guarded the plantations, while New York banks meanwhile took control of the Cuban economy. What interests me in this story is that there is not a single famous battle in it. The country was taken quietly, through debt and “protection”.

Let’s look at how it worked. We begin with the legal frame that the US itself wrote into the Cuban constitution.

The frame: the Platt Amendment

Since 1902 Cuba had been formally independent. However, its constitution contained the Platt Amendment, which gave the US the right to interfere in the island’s internal affairs “to preserve independence and order”. That clause became the legal basis for the landings of 1906–1909 and for the events of 1917. More in my articles on the Platt Amendment and on the the 1906 landing in Cuba.

Note this: “independence” here meant Washington’s right to decide when it was time to help Cubans with order.

The “Chambelona” revolt

In 1917 President Mario García Menocal got himself re-elected. The Liberals suspected fraud, and the “Chambelona” revolt broke out. The rebels burned sugar fields and mills, including American ones. Moreover, Washington took Menocal’s side rather than the opposition’s.

American troops in Cuba: the landing and the stay

The Marines landed in eastern Cuba, in the Santiago and Camagüey areas, and stayed to “guard property”. In April 1917 the US entered the world war, and Cuba declared war on Germany. After that the presence was explained by military necessity and the protection of sugar, which was important for the Allies. The troops stayed mostly in Camagüey, the heart of the sugar industry.

Thus the formally neutral “protection of property” turned into a multi-year garrison. Nobody asked the Cubans what they thought.

The money: sugar and banks

The war pushed sugar prices to unprecedented heights. This period is called the “Dance of the Millions”. In 1920 prices collapsed, and Cuban banks went bankrupt. New York banks gained control of the island’s debts and assets, and some of the mills passed into American hands.

General Crowder and the “honest cabinet”

In 1921 General Enoch Crowder came to Havana as President Harding’s personal representative. His demands for reform, the so-called “honest cabinet”, built American supervision into Cuban politics. In 1923 Cuba took a 50 million dollar loan from J. P. Morgan’s bank.

This is how a financial occupation works. Troops can be withdrawn, but the debt remains. How it looked earlier is in my article on the US military government in Cuba.

What remained after the troops left

American troops in Cuba left in 1922, but the mechanism remained. The Platt Amendment stayed in force until 1934, and American banks determined the island’s economy. That resentment eventually led to the Cuban Revolution. How the US managed Cuba through “mediation” in 1933 I wrote in my article on the overthrow of Machado.

How American troops in Cuba became a “friendly presence”

Curiously, in Washington this story was called not an occupation but a “sugar intervention”. For example, officials explained that the troops were guarding the Allies’ sugar, so it was supposedly improper for Cubans to object. Meanwhile the sugar price in May 1920 reached something over twenty cents a pound, and by the end of the year it had fallen to a few cents. Therefore mill owners were ruined within a few months.

As a result American banks, above all the National City Bank of New York, took mills for debts. Moreover, Cubans lost land, and the plantations were worked by Jamaicans and Haitians brought in for next to nothing. Thus a formally independent country was in effect turning into a sugar factory for a foreign market. More on the legal frame in the reference article on the Platt Amendment.

What American troops in Cuba gave Washington, and what they gave Havana

For Washington the result looked brilliant: sugar went to the Allies, banks collected interest, and losses were negligible. However, for Havana American troops in Cuba meant the loss of the right to run its own affairs. For example, any Cuban president knew that without the ambassador’s approval his rule would not last long. Therefore politicians competed not in programmes but in loyalty to the American embassy.

Moreover, young Cubans grew up with the thought that independence was a pretty word on a coat of arms. Later that thought turned into a movement that led to the revolution of 1959. Thus the mechanism created in 1917–1922 worked against its creators. How it looked in 1933 I tell in my article on the overthrow of Machado.

Nothing has changed: money as leverage

The US still uses financial control as a weapon today. The tools have changed: instead of Marines on plantations, there are frozen accounts, tariffs and “currency swaps”. The principle remains: a weak state depends on American money and pays with its politics.

Afghanistan, 2022. After the Taliban returned to power, the US froze about 7 billion dollars of the country’s reserves. Half, 3.5 billion, was set aside for lawsuits by relatives of the victims of 11 September.

Argentina, October 2025. Washington promised Javier Milei a currency swap of twenty billion dollars, and Trump added bluntly: if Milei lost the elections, “we are walking”.

Brazil, July 2025. Trump imposed fifty percent tariffs on Brazilian goods and tied them to the trial of his ally Jair Bolsonaro.

Guantánamo, 2025. In January Trump ordered preparations at the Guantánamo base for thirty thousand migrants, on land that Cuba considers occupied since 1903.

American troops in Cuba left long ago, but the habit of deciding for the island remained. Only the words changed: “protection of property” is now called “protection of interests”. The overall picture is in my articles on Cuba and on dollar diplomacy in Nicaragua (dollar diplomacy).