- Cuba
and the sugar plantation system.
- The ingenio
(sugar plantation) was the central element of the economic system of
the island
- Slavery
was the main form of labor in this economic system, called SACAROCRACY
by Manuel Moreno Fraginals.
- Sugar
plantation owners formed a lobby that controlled Spanish colonial
policy.
- The Marquis of Comillas,
as an example of the financier-plantation owner from Spain.
He made his fortune in slave traffic during the 1840s and 1850s. The
slave trade was illegal, and this made it more profitable.
- The
Marquis of Comillas founded the Compañia Transmediterránea, that contracted most of the commercial and
passenger traffic between Spain
and Cuba.
- He
founded the Banco Hispano-Americano to
finance the commerce between Spain
and Cuba.
- His
son, the second Marquis, benefited from the second war of independence
in Cuba.
He monopolized the transportation of Spanish troops to Cuba
(some 200,000 conscripts).
- He
was the sponsor of Antoni Gaudí,
the Modernist architect of Barcelona.
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- What
was the Spanish American War?
- Intervention
of the US
in the conflict between the Spanish colonial government and the Cuban independentists
- The
second war of Independence
started in 1895. Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez were the two
main military leaders.
- Maceo was a Mulatto man, and a political leader of
blacks in Cuba.
- By
1897 the situation had reached a stalemate. Spain
had offered limited autonomy to Cuba.
Cubans were divided between anexionists, independentists, and autonomists.
- African
Americans participated in the war to establish a principle of military
worth.
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- The
Cuban War of Independence as a war of racial liberation.
- The
first war of independence lasted ten years 1868-1878.
- Slavery
was still practiced in Cuba,
and both parties promised independence to black slaves if they joined
their side.
- In
1870 the Spanish Government announces the gradual abolition of slavery
in Cuba
through the Moret Law. Segismundo
Moret, a Spanish abolitionist, was in charge
of seeing it through.
- Slavery
was abolished in Puerto Rico in 1873
- In
1878, the Pact of Zanjón put an end to the
first independence war. Slaves who had fought for the Spanish
Government or the Patriots were granted freedom. Antonio Maceo protested. He wanted total abolition. He did
not accept the conditions of capitulation and went into exile.
- Gradual
abolition meant a system of semi-slavery for Black slaves, elevated to
the condition of patrocinados or “under
patronage”
- In
1886 slavery was declared extinguished in Cuba.
Slave owners were compensated economically.
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- Abolition
did not meet the expectations of the black population.
- Former
slaves were recycled as hand laborers in their former plantations. They
became salaried.
- Competition
was created with the importation of Asian field workers
- The
Partido Revolucionario
Cubano, founded by José Martí
during his exile in the United States
was seen asan opportunity for economic
change.
- Differences
between Antonio Maceo and José Martí about the direction of the revolution. Independence
for the first meant a change in the economic order. Land for his
soldiers. Martí
wanted to attain independence first, economic change later.
- Marti
dies in 1895, in action.
- Maceo dies in action also in 1897
- Máximo Gómez becomes the
military leader.
- Ascendance
of Black Cuban figures in politics and the military: Juan Gualberto Gómez, Morúa Delgado, Quintín Banderas.
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- The
War in Cuba
- The
United States
occupies Cuba,
Puerto Rico, Guam, and
the Philippines.
- Media
campaign in favor of the US
intervention in Cuba
to liberate if from Spain
(“decadent colonial empire”). Randolph Hearst´s
newspapers at the forefront. The media war between Hearst and Pullitzer.
- More
than 2,500 Black American troops participated in the conflict. They
fought in the Battle of San Juan Hill and others.
- Racial
riots in Brownsville, Houston,
TX due to the presence of black
uniformed troops.
- The
African American Press, divided. Ida B. Wells,
against the war of expansion without resolving the racial inequality at
home.
- http://www.nps.gov/prsf/history/buffalo_soldiers/philippine_war.htm
- Military
administration by the United States.
Plans for a controlled process of independence for Cuba.
- The
Platt Ammendment to be added to the Cuban
Constitution of 1902. Right of the US
to intervene in Cuban affairs when it finds it necessary to defend its
national interests.
- Cession
in perpetuity of the Guantánamo military
base.
- Right
of the US Navy to rent space in Cuban ports for refueling.
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