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View Full Version : What was the Ostend Circular?




aspiringconstitutionalist
11-25-2007, 08:38 PM
So I was reading the first Republican Party platform (1856) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/print.php?pid=29619 , which is a very good and highly recommended read by the way, when I came across a passing mention of something called the "Ostend Circular." I can find hardly any information about it, but from what I gather, it was a meeting where foreign ministers from several nations made some sort of unpopular agreement that had something to do with allowing certain nations the right to buy other countries, presumably with or without the other countries' consent? The facts are quite hazy, but here's hoping somebody else out there knows anything about the "Ostend Circular."

RickSp
11-26-2007, 10:39 AM
It appears to be a scheme involving acquiring or seizing Cuba for the United States. The Ostend Circular appears to be synonymous with the Ostend Manifesto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostend_Manifesto).