HIST 8B Chapter 9: Page 436-458 Week 5 Readings Cuban Revolution
Page 436-458 Week 5 Readings Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
● Cuba remained a Spanish colony until 1898
○ underwent rise and dominance of its sugar industry
○ consisted of a small class of creole landowners that raised cattle and grew some export
crops like tobacco, coffee, and sugar cane
■ plated no great party in the economy of the empire
● Eleven month occupation of Havana by the British in 1762-63
○ Spanish restrictions were temporarily lifted and trade with England and North America
opened the Cuban creoles’ eyes to the economic potential of their island
● The major catalyst for the island’s development as a major exporter of sugar came in the 1790s
when massive slave revolts in the French Caribbean island of Haiti following the French
Revolution dislocated the most productive sugar industry in the Americas and drove the French
planters to settle in nearby Cuba
○ After 1793: Cuba developed into a large scale slave society with a plantation economy
powerfully geared to the export of sugar
● The strong belated growth of the Cuban economy made the creole elite largely indifferent to the
question of political independence from Spain
○ the great influx of African slaves discouraged political radicalism among the whites
■ fear of an uprising (blacks by the 1820s already formed about a quarter of the
population)
● A minority of planters were dissatisfied with Spanish colonial rule and favored Cuba’s
annexation by the USA in the 1840s
○ USA had become Cuba’s most important trading partner and with Britain pressing for the
abolition of the slave trade, Cuban slave-owners saw it favorable to side with the slvave
states of the American South
○ support for annexation ended when the South lost in the USA Civil War
● Independence appeared to many as the only way to advance creole interests
● Oct 10, 1868: a creole landowner Carlos Manuel de Cespedes issued the Grito de Yara a
proclamation of independence and a call to arms
○ later on formed a sense of Cuban patriotism
○ rev heroes emerged such as Maximo Gomez and the mulatto commander Antonio Maceo
○ the Cubans were unable to defeat the Spanish army
○ the Ten Years’ War was concluded by the Treaty of Zanjon in 1878
● A major economic consequence of the war was the ruin of many Cuban sugar planters
○ led to the extensive take-over of sugar mills and plantations by US interests
○ the rise in the production of beet sugar in Europe at this time left the USA as the largest
and most accessible market for Cuban sugar
○ created economic Cuba’s dependency upon the USA
The War of Independence and US Intervention
● Jose Marti: a radical liberal poet who joined Maceo and Gomez in the revolutionary movement
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○ articulated the Cubans’ yearning for nationhood and warned of the dangers of absorption
by the USA
○ led the second major uprising against Spain in 1895 but died in battle
● USA became involved and concerned with the Cubans’ guerrilla war against Spain because of its
economic interests
○ had economic investments in the Cuban sugar plantations
○ also saw the war as a threat to its building of the Panama Canal
● The USA declared war on Spain in 1898 when its battleship Maine was mysteriously blown up in
Havana harbour killing 260 crewmen
○ Spain offered the Cuban insurgents a truce but they opted instead to assist the USA in
defeating the colonial power
○ The war was brought to a quick conclusion when the superior US navy sank a Spanish
fleet
● USA involved itself in the war to secure its objectives as an emerging world power
● Cuban insurgents were entirely excluded from the peace negotiations
○ a deal between an alien power and Cuba’s colonial masters
● The US occupation of Cuba lasted from 1891 until 1903
○ during its occupation the US eliminated famine, improved sanitation, modernized the
university system
○ the judiciary was overhauled in order to provide for its independence
○ an electoral system for local and national gov was put in place
● 1901: an electoral assembly passed a liberal constitution which separated Church and state and
guranteed universal male suffrage
● After Tomas Estrada Palma (the candidate of Marti’s Cuban Revolutionary Party) had duly won
the presidency in 1902 the US troops left the island
○ Cuba was now officially a sovereign state
● The US maintained power over Cuba through the Platt Amendment
○ the right to intervene in the new republic’s internal affairs for “the maintenance of a
government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberties”
○ the US also reserved certain prerogatives over the conduct of Cuban foreign policy
○ obtained a concession of land for US naval bases (Guatanamo)
○ US companies acquired control of large parts of the sugar, tobacco, and other industries
The Limits of Independence
● The intervention of the USA in the war followed by the Platt Amendment compromised the sense
of nationhood which a post-colonial state must draw upon in order to build a legitimate authority
● The US was able to dominate the island because of the weakened Cuban landowning elites who
had lost their power and money during their war against Spain in 1868-1878
○ led to the economic invasion of Cuba ag by US sugar companies
● Spain’s abolition of slavery in 1886 had further eroded the traditional basis of white authority in a
society where up to a third of the population was black
● The prime source of wealth for the upper and middle classes lay in servicing an export-economy
increasingly controlled by North American capital
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● Constitutional democracy quickly degenerated into a venal spectacle in which populist caudillos
sought to divide the spoils of office
● Elections became routinely fraudulent
○ between 1909 and 1921 US troops were sent to occupy the island on four occasions
following unrest after corrupt elections
○ politics were manipulated by US ambassadors intriguing with local politicians
● Cuba’s sugar economy underwent fluctuations
● From 1903 Cuba gained privileged access to the US market through a reciprocal trade agreement
which reduced tariffs for sugar exports to the USA by 20% in return for reductions of up to 40%
on a range of US imports
○ Until 1920 Cuba enjoyed a period of growing prosperity through its sugar, tobacco, rum,
and nickel markets
○ the golden age of reciprocal benefits peaked in the months between February and May of
1920 when the world price of sugar rose to a record 22.5 cents per pound and fortunes
were made overnight in an exultant Cuba
● During the high peak of the sugar economy planters borrowed money in order to expand but
overproduction on the world market caused the price of sugar to drop sharply to around 3.5 cents
per pound by the end of 1920 and large numbers of Cubans were ruined
● US companies were able to buy up the bankrupt mills and plantations, extending their dominance
over the Cuban sugar industry even further (1914-1923)
● After the Wall Street Crash of 1929 the price of sugar slumped to below a cent per pound by 1932
● The faltering economy of the 19200s and US dominance over Cuba led students and intellectuals
to invoke the memory of Jose Marti and denounced the monoculture of sugar and the dependence
on the USA
● The focus of the nationalist struggle was the University of Havana
○ followed the Cordoba University Reform Movement in Argentina
○ called for educational reforms, nationalization of the sugar industry and the breakup of
the large estates
○ central demand: the repudiation of the Platt Amendment
○ coincided with the Afro-Cuban cultural movement
○ through this movement the small Communist Party arose in 1925
The Machado Dictatorship and the Revolution of 1933
● The election to the presidency of the Liberal Gerardo Machado in 1924 consisted of Macahado’s
embarked program of public works and measures to diversify the economy
○ the fall in sugar prices of the late 1920s led him to repress strikes and protests
○ when Machado got a controlled congress to grant him a further 6 year term in 1928 he
faced an explosion of anger from the student movement
● As Machado’s rule became increasingly repressive students and middle-class intellectuals took to
violence and terrorism
○ formed a Directorio Estudiantil which was to play a continuing oppositional role in the
island’s politics
● 1931: a secret organization called ABC filled with middle and upper class nationalists resorted to
assassination and shoot-outs in the streets with Machado’s brutal police
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Document Summary
Cuba remained a spanish colony until 1898. Underwent rise and dominance of its sugar industry. Consisted of a small class of creole landowners that raised cattle and grew some export crops like tobacco, coffee, and sugar cane. Plated no great party in the economy of the empire. Eleven month occupation of havana by the british in 1762-63. Spanish restrictions were temporarily lifted and trade with england and north america opened the cuban creoles" eyes to the economic potential of their island. The major catalyst for the island"s development as a major exporter of sugar came in the 1790s when massive slave revolts in the french caribbean island of haiti following the french. Revolution dislocated the most productive sugar industry in the americas and drove the french planters to settle in nearby cuba. After 1793: cuba developed into a large scale slave society with a plantation economy powerfully geared to the export of sugar.
