CUBA 



1661 



CUBA 



chase Cuba from Spain or to seize the island 

 if purchase plans should fail. Spain refused to 

 sell the island, though offered a hundred mil- 

 lion dollars for it; and the Manifesto was 

 repudiated by the American people. See OS- 

 TEND MANIFESTO. 



In 1875 the United States complained to 

 Spain that the condition of insurrection in 

 Cuba could no longer be endured. A vigorous 

 attempt was made by the mother country to 

 suppress it in the following year. In 1895 a 

 Cuban republic was proclaimed at Najassas, 

 but the Spanish General Campos defeated the 

 republicans at Matanzas. In the next year the 

 cruel General Weyler succeeded Campos and 

 angered the American people by his atrocities. 



In 1898 the United States battleship Maine, 

 while visiting Havana, was mysteriously blown 

 up, supposedly by a submarine mine, though 

 this was not known to be a fact. The press of 

 the United States clamored for intervention in 

 behalf of the Cubans. This action followed, 

 and a war with Spain resulted. The Spanish 

 force was defeated by the Americans in Cuba 

 at San Juan Hill, near El Caney, on the 1st 

 of July; and the Spanish fleet, which had been 

 shut in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, was 

 destroyed on the third by the fleet of Admiral 

 Sampson, who was absent at the time, the 

 chief honor of the victory being accorded to 

 Commodore Schley. 



Peace was made in the following year, and 

 Spanish claim to the island was forever aban- 

 doned. ' Cuba was recognized as a nation by 

 the powers of the world on entering into an 

 agreement with the United States giving the 

 latter the right of intervention when necessary 

 and the use of naval stations; certain stipula- 

 tions were also made in 1902 as to finances and 

 foreign relations. In 1905 intervention by the 

 United States for the preservation of order 

 became necessary, and the American occupa- 

 tion continued until 1909, when President Jose 

 Miguel Gomez was inaugurated. He was suc- 

 ceeded in 1913 by Mario Menocal, a graduate 

 of Cornell University. President Menocal was 

 reflected in 1916. In 1914 Cuba borrowed 

 largely from American capitalists for the pro- 

 motion of a considerable number of modern 

 governmental enterprises. 



Insurrection of 1917. When President Meno- 

 cal was elected in 1916 the vote was so close 

 between him and Alfredo Zayas that Jose 

 Miguel Gomez, the retiring President and 

 leader of the Zayas party, demanded that the 

 Supreme Court reverse the result and declare 



Zayas elected. The demand was ignored, and 

 Gomez threatened the government with attack 

 and Menocal with death. The two parties may 

 be loosely termed conservatives, under Meno- 

 cal, and radicals, under Gomez. 



The term of President Menocal was to ex- 

 pire on May 20, 1917; the radicals prepared 

 to gather in force to seize the machinery of 

 government and assure themselves of power 

 to name his successor. They did not expect 

 to become active until March, but in January 

 the government discovered and frustrated a 

 plot to kidnap President Menocal. Gomez 

 and his followers escaped from Havana and 

 scattered over the island and gathered recruits 

 from among the discontented. They burned 

 sugar plantations of adherents of the adminis- 

 tration, as a means of striking at the finances 

 of the opposition. Skirmishes which cannot 

 be dignified as battles occurred between the 

 regular forces of the republic and the revolu- 

 tionists, in nearly all of which the former were 

 victorious. Suspected traitors were forced 

 from the army, four city mayors were arrested, 

 and loyal militia companies were organized. 



Meanwhile, the United States, by virtue of 

 its right, reserved when the republic was or- 

 ganized, found it necessary to send the Cubans 

 a warning that insurrection must cease; that 

 the power of the American government would 

 be used, if necessary, to sustain the regularly- 

 constituted authority represented by President 

 Menocal; this ultimatum brought peace. 



On April 8, 1917, Cuba followed the lead of 

 the United States and declared war upon the 

 German Empire. Its help could be but slight, 

 but it was appreciated. E.D.F. 



Consult bulletins of the Pan-American Union, 

 Washington, D. C., sent on request ; Porter's In- 

 dustrial Cuba; Roosevelt's The Rough Riders; 

 Canini's Four Centuries of Spanish Rule in Cuba. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes contain much information which 

 will be of help to the reader interested in Cuba : 



CITIES AND TOWNS 



Matanzas 

 Santiago de Cuba 



Camagiiey 

 Cienfuegos 

 Havana 



HISTORY 



Columbus. Christopher Gomez y Baez, Maximo 

 Filibusters Ostend Manifesto 



Garcia y Iniguez, Palma, Tomas Estrada 



Calixto Spanish-American War 



LEADING PRODUCTS 



Banana Pineapple 



Cocoanut Sugar 



Coffee Tobacco 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Isle of Pines 



