Cuba
EVERY EARLY AMERICAN PRESIDENT favored free trade with Cuba but steadfastly opposed Cuban independence. It was an attitude that would persist into the twentieth century and forever color Cuban-American relations. The reasons for American opposition would shift over the centuries, especially following the Spanish-American War, but the result would always be the same. Is it any wonder that the Cubans ultimately turned to the Soviet Union when they finally achieved true independence in the midst of the Cold War? The state of relations between the island nation and the Jefferson Administration is illustrative.
President Thomas Jefferson
Cuba seemed to have lost their taste for revolution prior to the American Revolution. In 1692 Don Francisco Manuel de Roca and 300 armed men captured the Spanish governor and established a short-lived island government. However, Spain quickly retaliated and tightened their control of the island. Other revolts in Santiago and Camaguey, Cuba, met similar fates. Spain finally clamped down after the Tobacco Revolts of 1721 and 1723. The Spanish crown decided that they couldn't trust the creoles – Spaniards born on the island. They vested all commercial interests in peninsulares – Spaniards born in Spain. Governors and key administrators were all peninsulares as well – and the creoles suffered. The smaller towns and cities were isolated, and Spanish merchants' ships visited at six-month intervals.
Relief only came during the brief ten-month occupation of the island by the British in 1762, and during the American Revolution when Yankee traders descended on the island. One must wonder why revolution did not break out in Cuba when the islanders knew perfectly well that prosperity would not return so long as it was a Spanish colony.
Several circumstances conspired to quash revolution in Cuba. Firstly, as other Spanish colonies won independence, loyalists emigrated to Cuba thereby greatly expanding that part of the population that favored Spanish rule. Secondly, the creole element in Cuba produced no Simon Bolivar or San Martin, revolutionary leaders who led other colonies to freedom. Finally, the lower clergy, an important element in revolutionary movements elsewhere, remained loyal to Spain. Their fortunes relied on the largess of their elder siblings who comprised the aristocracy in Spain.
When Thomas Jefferson took office, his attention as chief diplomat was focused on the Barbary Pirates who were harrying American merchants in the Mediterranean. However, Jefferson still found time to send a message to the creoles in Cuba: There would be no support for any revolutionary movement on the island. He and his Secretary of State, Albert Gallatin, were concerned that any transfer of power from Spain in Cuba would open the door to either French or English annexation of the island, and the United States would not tolerate either of them occupying such a strategic foothold on America's “front porch.” Thus, Jefferson supported Spain's claim to the island as far preferable to having a stronger European power to contend with.
Relief only came during the brief ten-month occupation of the island by the British in 1762, and during the American Revolution when Yankee traders descended on the island. One must wonder why revolution did not break out in Cuba when the islanders knew perfectly well that prosperity would not return so long as it was a Spanish colony.
Several circumstances conspired to quash revolution in Cuba. Firstly, as other Spanish colonies won independence, loyalists emigrated to Cuba thereby greatly expanding that part of the population that favored Spanish rule. Secondly, the creole element in Cuba produced no Simon Bolivar or San Martin, revolutionary leaders who led other colonies to freedom. Finally, the lower clergy, an important element in revolutionary movements elsewhere, remained loyal to Spain. Their fortunes relied on the largess of their elder siblings who comprised the aristocracy in Spain.
When Thomas Jefferson took office, his attention as chief diplomat was focused on the Barbary Pirates who were harrying American merchants in the Mediterranean. However, Jefferson still found time to send a message to the creoles in Cuba: There would be no support for any revolutionary movement on the island. He and his Secretary of State, Albert Gallatin, were concerned that any transfer of power from Spain in Cuba would open the door to either French or English annexation of the island, and the United States would not tolerate either of them occupying such a strategic foothold on America's “front porch.” Thus, Jefferson supported Spain's claim to the island as far preferable to having a stronger European power to contend with.
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Although these events played themselves out long before Castro's revolution in Cuba, the milieu of my novel, Rebels on the Mountain, they created the social, cultural, and economic environment in which the hero of my story, Nick Andrews, finds himself. I gave Nick a background in history so that he could help readers understand the circumstances of Castro's rise to power.
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