CARIBBEAN COLLAGE THE Cuban Wars OF Independence, 1868-1898 In the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution, Cuba came to replace Saint-Domingue as the world’s foremost sugar producer. The expansion of the sugar industry on the island coincided with extensive trade in enslaved Africans. People of color in Cuba faced progressively harsher racial discrimination, as whites feared that the island would become a black republic similar to Haiti. It was in this context that, in October 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes issued his Grito de Yara, a cry that began the first wide-scale armed struggle by Cubans for their independence. The war ended in February 1878, with Cuba remaining a Spanish colony. However, Antonio Maceo and some other generals central to the independence struggle fought on in what became known as La Guerra Chiquita. Following the Ten Years’ War, poet, politician and philosopher José Martí, in exile in New York, mobilized further support for Cuban independence. In 1895 a second great war for independence began. American public support for a free Cuba increased as U.S. newspapers portrayed wretched conditions in the relocation camps established throughout the island by Spanish Captain-General Valeriano Weyler. The U.S. intervened in the conflict in April 1898, following the famous but still mysterious explosion of the USS Maine in Havana’s harbor. In addition to public outcry, the U.S. was concerned with protecting its business interests on the island. After the U.S. sent troops, the war lasted an additional ten weeks. Cuba became an American protectorate at the end of 1898 and a republic in 1902, though the U.S. remained involved in the country’s political affairs.

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Caribbean Collage Home | Introduction
Caribbean Collections at the University of Florida | British Imperialism in the Caribbean
The Haitian Revolution |The Cuban Wars of Independence
U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean |Credits

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