The
Ostend
Manifesto
Events Leading up to the Ostend Manifesto
Manifest Destiny
In 1845, the term "Manifest Destiny" was created, which stated that the United States was destined by God to expand across the American continents, and that the expansion was justified and inevitable. This belief spread quickly to Americans (mostly Southerners). Soon, southerners thought Manifest Destiny should be extended to Cuba, not just the Americas. In the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), the U.S. gained Alta California and New Mexico (seen in "Mexican Cession" below), but those states didn't satisfy the South's need for new slave territory.
Franklin Pierce
President Pierce, who was a pro-slavery Democrat, believed that the annexation of Cuba would be beneficial and strengthen the slave-based economy. Along with the south, Pierce believed that Cuba automatically belonged to the U.S. due to its close proximity, not to a nation across the Atlantic ocean. He eventually gave in to the pressure from the south, and gave Pierre Soulé the task of negotiating with Spain. He had no luck on his own, but after a suggestion from William Marcy, Soulé met with James Buchanan and John Mason and crafted the Ostend Manifesto in 1854, named after the Belgian town where the 3 diplomats met.
The Black Warrior Affair
More pressure was put on the administration after the Black Warrior Affair. The Black Warrior was an American merchant steamer that often stopped at Havana, Cuba. On the last day of February in 1854, the Black Warrior was boarded and seized by Spanish authorities at Havana. The officials imposed a large fine, saying that the ship had violated customs regulations, and arrested the crew. The Black Warrior increased the tensions between the U.S. and Spain, and eventually led to Soulé's war threat in the Ostend Manifesto.
Southern Pressure
For years, southern targets for expansionism focused on Latin American territories, primarily the Spanish-owned island of Cuba. Slavery was legal there and they were developing a strong agricultural economy dependent on slaves that Southerners wanted to be a part of. Southerners believed that their economic and political interests would greatly benefit from the addition of Cuba into the Union. So, the U.S. attempted to buy Cuba from Spain in 1848, but Spain refused. Cuba held a great opportunity to extend slavery in the south if America gained possession of it, so the idea wasn't forgotten. The south began pressuring the new Pierce administration into considering the purchase of Cuba from Spain. After all, the island lay only 90 miles off the tip of Florida.