An ineffective and extremely corrupt administration, a grave
economic condition, new and heavy taxes, military repression,
recurring heavy deficits in the budget, adding to a debt (about
$150,000,000 in 1868) already very large and burdensome, and
the complete fiasco of the junta of inquiry of Cuban and Porto
Rican representatives which met in Madrid in 1866–1867—all
were important influences favouring the outbreak of the Ten
Years’ War. Among those who waged the war were men who
fought to compel reforms, others who fought for annexation
to the United States, others who fought for independence.
The reformists demanded, besides the correction of the above
evils, action against slavery, assimilation of rights between
peninsulars and creoles and the practical recognition of equality,
e.g. in the matter of office-holding, a grievance centuries
old in Cuba as in other Spanish colonies, and guarantees of
personal liberties. The separatists, headed by Carlos Manuel
de Céspedes (1819–1874), a wealthy planter who proclaimed
the revolution at Yara on the 10th of October, demanded
the same reforms, including gradual emancipation of the
slaves with indemnity to owners, and the grant of free and
universal suffrage. War was confined throughout the ten years
almost wholly to the E. provinces. The policy of successive
captains-general was alternately uncompromisingly repressive
and conciliatory. The Spanish volunteers committed horrible
excesses in Havana and other places; the rebels also burned
and killed indiscriminatingly, and the war became increasingly
cruel and sanguinary. Intervention by the United States
seemed probable, but did not come, and after alternations in
the fortunes of war, Martinez Campos in January 1878 secured
the acceptance by the rebels of the convention (pacto) of Zanjón,
which promised amnesty for the war, liberty to slaves in the
rebel ranks, the abolition of slavery, reforms in government, and
colonial autonomy. A small rising after peace (the “Little
War” of 1879–1880) was easily repressed. Gradual abolition
of slavery was declared by a law of the 13th of February 1880;
definitive abolition in 1886; and in 1893 the equal civil status
of blacks and whites in all respects was proclaimed by General
Calleja. There is no more evidence to warrant the wholly
erroneous statement sometimes made that emancipation was an
economic set-back to Cuba than could be gathered to support
a similar statement regarding the United States. Coolie importation
from China had been stopped in 1871.
As for autonomy and political reforms it has already been remarked that the change from the old régime was only superficial. The Spanish constitution of 1876 was proclaimed in Cuba in 1881. In 1878–1895 political parties had a complex development. The Liberal party was of growing radicalism, the Union Constitutional party of growing conservatism; and after 1893 a Reformist party was launched that drew the compromisers and the waverers. The demands of the Liberals were as in 1868; those for personal and property rights were much more definitely stated, and among explicit reforms demanded were the separation of civil and military power, general recognition of administrative responsibility under a colonial autonomous constitutional régime; also among economic matters, customs reforms and reciprocity with the United States were demanded. As for the representation accorded Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, as a rule about a quarter of her deputies were Cuban-born, and the choice of only a few autonomists was allowed by those who controlled the elections. Reciprocity with the United States was in force from 1891 to 1894 and was extremely beneficial to Cuba. Its cessation greatly increased disaffection.
Discontent grew, and another war was prepared for. On the 23rd of February 1895 General Calleja suspended the constitutional guarantees. The leading chiefs of the Ten Years’ War took the field again—Máximo Gómez, Antonio Macéo, Jose Martí, Calixto García and others. Unlike that war, this was carried to the western provinces, and indeed was fiercest there. Among the military means adopted by the Spaniards to isolate their foe were “trochas” (i.e. entrenchments, barbwire fences, and lines of block-houses) across the narrow parts of the island, and “reconcentracion” of non-combatants in camps guarded by the Spanish forces. The latter measure produced extreme suffering and much starvation (as the reconcentrados were largely thrown upon the charity of the beggared communities in which they were huddled). In October 1897 the Spanish premier, P. M. Sagasta, announced the policy of autonomy, and the new dispensation was proclaimed in Cuba in December. But again all final authority was reserved to the captain-general. The system was never to have a practical trial, although a full government was quickly organized under it. The American people had sent food to the reconcentrados; President McKinley, while opposing recognition of the rebels, affirmed the possibility of intervention; Spain resented this attitude; and finally, in February 1898, the United States battleship “Maine” was blown up—by whom will probably never be known—in the harbour of Havana.
On the 20th of April the United States demanded the withdrawal of Spanish troops from the island. War followed immediately. A fine Spanish squadron seeking to escape from Santiago harbour was utterly destroyed by the American blockading force on the 3rd of July; Santiago was invested by land forces, and on the 15th of July the city surrendered. Other operations in Cuba were slight. By the treaty of Paris, signed on the 10th of December, Spain “relinquished” the island to the United States in trust for its inhabitants; the temporary character of American occupation being recognized throughout the treaty, in accord with the terms of the American declaration of war, in which the United States disclaimed any intention to control the island except for its pacification, and expressed the determination to leave the island thereupon to the control of its people. Spanish authority ceased on the 1st of January 1899, and was followed by American “military” rule (January 1, 1899–May 20, 1902). During these three years the great majority of offices were filled by Cubans, and the government was made as different as possible from the military control to which the colony had been accustomed. Very much was done for public works, sanitation, the reform of administration, civil service and education. Most notable of all, yellow fever was eradicated where it had been endemic for centuries. A constitutional convention sat at Havana from the 5th of November 1900 to the 21st of February 1901. The provisions of the document thus formed have already been referred to. In the determination of the relations that should subsist between the new republic and the United States certain definite conditions known as the Platt Amendment were finally imposed by the United States, and accepted by Cuba (12th of June 1901) as a part of her constitution. By these Cuba was bound not to incur debts her current revenues will not bear; to continue the sanitary administration undertaken by the military government of intervention; to lease naval stations (since located at Bahía Honda and Guantánamo) to the United States; and finally, the right of the United States to intervene, if necessary, in the affairs of the island was explicitly affirmed in the provision, “That the government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the protection of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba.” The status thus created is very exceptional in the history of international relations. The status of the Isle of Pines was left an open question by the treaty of Paris, but a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has declared it (in a question of customs duties) to be a part of Cuba, and though a treaty to the same end did not secure ratification (1908) by the United States Senate, repeated efforts by American residents thereon to secure annexation to the United States were ignored by the United States government.
The first Cuban congress met on the 5th of May 1902, prepared to take over the government from the American military authorities, which it did on the 20th of May. Tomas Estrada Palma (1835–1908) became the first president of the Republic.
