The Beginnings Of The Cuban Revolution

The beginnings of the Cuban Revolution

Introduction.

The year 68 arrived and with him new hopes among the Cuban renovators, de-six of a definitive change that finally precipitated a new political and social situation by Spain. This fact came with the 1868 or the glorious revolution, and with it the exile of the Spanish Queen, thus being known as demo-critical sexennium (1868-1874) that I try to establish a democratic regime, either with a parliamentary moral With Amadeo I of Savoy (1871-1873) first, either with the de-clarification of the I Republic (1873-1874) after. Both essays failed.

Developing.

The main protagonists of this revolution in Spain had a different way of seeing colonial affairs, more inclined by the abolition of slavery and autonomy of Cuba. As we will see, he didn’t help too much.From this moment, the anger and disgust of the Creole population of the island continued: restrictions on free trade, high taxes, an American tariff policy cheaper and more flexible than the Spanish and the increase in the social conflict between Spaniards and islanders, By way of still current prohibitions of access to public office or freedom of meeting and press, for example, they were in crescendo.

Meanwhile, the USA continued with their support for rebellion and this time, with a better organization of resources and funds, the outbreak of a war was in-love.

The Long War (1868-1878) The Ten Years War, also known the Long War was a warlike face that developed from 1868 to 1878 between Spain and the Cuban insurgents.

It all started on October ten when a group of five hundred men commanded by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1819-1874) announced the independence of Cuba to the cry of the famous harangue “Long live Cuba Libre!". This beginning is known as Yara’s cry.

It was about ten in the morning when Céspedes formed his men in his sugar hacienda releasing his slaves under the promise that from En-to be considered free men if they joined him or not, he gave Same. This mani-fiery an anti-clavist character of the rebellion, however, we must take into account first of all that the contest was first of all against colonial power and not, precisely, against the Spanish, with whom the islanders felt identified, As Professor Cuervo Álvarez says .

Then they took the municipality of Yara after a first direct confrontation with the Spanish Army. If a war is already a terrible fact, this, specifically, took a bloody and repressive viso since its beginnings by the Spaniards. Céspedes found no other way to answer that signing a war decree to death as a kind of eye for an eye required by the violent Spanish response to insurrection. Then, the Republic of Cubes would be declared with Céspedes as president. Although the first disagreements with this provisional government would appear soon, as it almost usually happens in these cases.

The war extended differently in the front. They made more dent the diseases and the lack of organization of the rebels than the Spanish troops themselves, which were already giving unequivocal signs of disability. The first remarkable fact, on October 18, is the occupation of the town of Bayamo, in which the insurgents would set it on a faithful reflection of what was said before the eye by eye.

Shortly after, in November, another hostility occurs in the Baire Pine settlement with a serious amount of casualties and with Cuban victory. In the following days, decrees in defense and for the release of slaves will be declared, in which it is declared that all the inhabitants of the Republic of Cuba are free, yes, with some nuances definitely surpassed in 1870 with the general abolition of slavery. It is clear the interest of the rebels in which new men join their ranks.

The war would continue its development and was expanding in time. The insurgents came to control the eastern part of the island and, to a lesser extent, several areas of the center. However, they would not take the western part in which there were the richest farms and crops. Follow Crow with which many and varied are the factors that led to the reverse of the rebellion. First, the US did not intervene in the conflict in favor of the Cuban cause since, at that time, relations between Spain and the United States were good, in large part, by the Government of the First Spanish Republic. 

 Another of the reasons was also the low union of the insurgents among their ranks, even dividing into local clans independent of the General Directorate of Rebellion. This difficulty from carrying out war at a national level rather than a regional one, the lack of weapons and internal struggles greatly complicated a contest already complex.

Controls that did not agree, important casualties of rebel leaders and a more conciliatory position of the Spanish army led the firm on February 10, 78 of the Zanjón Pact, giving rise to the end of the long war. Many losses for what was really obtained, the defeat of the insurgents and a Spanish pyrrhic victory.

In addition to the usual material and human losses (about three hundred thousand dead between the two sides), the war produced on the island a decrease in the economy due to the decrease in production and exports of star products such as sugar and tobacco, Above all, during the time that the contest lasted.

Production and exports of sugar from Cuba

However, we can see how, curiously, sugar exports to the United States are increasing, unlike what happens in Europe. This American interest in the consumption of such a precious article explains, in part, the American wishes in which the Caribbean island emancips from Spain and thus be able to negotiate directly with it without the political and economic obstacles of the metropolis.

Seen this, peace was finally achieved or, rather, a kind of truce in which the pardoning conditions proposed by Spain in the treaty facilitated a relatively peaceful outcome of the conflict. Among others, some of these clauses were the following:

1. – The partial abolition of slavery, but only for insurgents,
2. – Freedom of meeting and press,
3. – The pardon for rebels and prisoners and
4. – The approval of a partial autonomy, as well as the acceptance of Cuban representation in the Spanish Courts.Gone are important claims such as independence, the total end of slavery or freedom of commerce.

Now let’s move on to the particular historiographic treatment that this war has received, a somewhat forgotten issue and that has been the victim of the influence of prevailing historical Eurocentrism. Not even Spanish historians have been oblivious to this indifference, sometimes remembered, but with the permission of the 98 disaster.

During the 70s of the previous century, this matter has passed on tiptoe and only with brief references in works such as José Luis Comellas that in its history of modern and contemporary Spain (Madrid, 1967) is not mentioned, or the of Ramón Tamames that in an idea of ​​Spain. Yesterday, today and tomorrow (Barcelona, ​​1985) blames the refusal of independence as a main factor triggering the war that, as we know, was not the only one. Other authors, such as Esperanza Yllán in their history of Spain, 1808-1978 (Barcelona, ​​1987) are positioned in the same way.

Continuing with the line of research of the German historian Volker Mollin, not even the American authors, who have analyzed this war from a point of view of social history, have framed the event within those known as bourgeois revolutions. Nor has Spanish historiography of the twentieth century worked hard on the subject, perhaps partly to the forty years of Franco dictatorship dedicated exclusively to remembering Spanish deeds rather than disasters. We see how Tesifontonte Gallego accounts for about sixty thousand dead while other sources speak of about two hundred thousand.

At the Spanish democratic transition, the panorama seems to change, but even so, the ten -year war does not yet lose its character of peculiarity and what is written about it is strongly influenced by the work of historian Manuel Turón de Lara the nineteenth century Spain (Paris, 1968) in which references to this issue are based on somewhat scarce sources .

Luckily, in the following years, access to the documentary funds of organizations such as the National Historical Archive, in Madrid, has allowed other attempts to know the true issue of the cuba of the late nineteenth and begins to analyze more rigorously since The homeland perspective.Mollin continues by saying that the new research trends now focus on examining immigration and emigration problems, the arrival of nationalist ideas and other incentives that put aside classical military historiography, full of topics. 

A different way of focusing on the facts in which the excesses of war meant a deep change in Cuban society, and which came to stimulate with greater energy if the island’s nationalism fits. Although this can become a double -edged sword because treating wars from a social point of view can make interest in the war event per se, and from there little interest to study it.

At the same time as the Spanish, the Cuban is following the same guidelines as this, that is, valuing the new role of citizenship in the conflict and, above all, of the color throughout the insurgency, and thus leave at once For all the story monopolized by the white man. A social history that aims to discover the true causes of the long war, but as Mollin continues to say, despite the fact that this event gave new wings to the creation of an independent Cuba the date of 98 is still very present.

The Chica War (1879-1880)

Not everything ended with Zanjón’s peace. Precisely, this was to blame that again the insurgents, not satisfied with the signing of the treaty, would rise again in arms against the Spaniards. Thus, on August 26, 1879 and at the shout of “Independence or death!”The second of the three wars originated in Cuba and, in fact, is considered by some authors as a continuation of the girl’s war.

Started from the eastern part of the island had a rather enthusiastic beginning but soon the rebels received several setbacks that decimated the spirits. The causes were the lack of resources and a better prepared Spanish army.Without foreign support, especially without those of the USA, or leading leaders as before, and with a citizenship exhausted by the previous war, the defeat of the insurgents was announced. And so, in September 1880 there was a final defeat .

Although its duration was short, the Chiquita war came to say that the main concern was not over yet. If the metropolis did not change its attitude towards the island the revolution would begin again, as would happen fifteen years later.From here the figure that in 95 would become a leader of the Cuban emancipation, José Martí Pérez would arise.