After 50 years of the Democrats trying to annex Cuba it was time for the Republicans to have a go at it

Cuba

DEMOCRATS AND SLAVERY dominated America's attempt to annex Cuba until the end of the 1850s. Repeated attempts to purchase the island or hasten Spain's departure so that it could be annexed all failed. European powers, notably England and France, feared America's growing population and its democratic ideals, and helped Spain maintain its hold on the island. The last gasp of the Democrats to annex Cuba came from Stephen A. Douglas in a debate with Abraham Lincoln. He received thunderous applause when he announced that Spain's oppressive rule was collapsing around the world, and that no nation could save Cuba for Madrid. However, Lincoln was elected and he distrusted all overtures to annex the island. He saw them as plots to create another bastion of American slavery. Thus, America withdrew into its own turmoil during the 1860s – the American Civil War – and the 1870s – Reconstruction. Cuban revolutionaries were on their own.

President Lincoln distrusted all overtures to annex Cuba (click to enlarge)

During a brief period of reconciliation between the Spanish peninsulares and Cuban creoles, they formed the Partido Reformista to bring administrative reform to Cuba and Puerto Rico. The Reform Party in Cuba seemed to succeed when, in November, 1865, a royal decree was issued in Madrid forming a special junta to study the issue. Unfortunately, the junta was myopic, seeing the issues only from the point of view of the Cuban peninsulares while neglecting the creoles' concern for the subjugated masses of the island: the white proletariat, the mestizos, and the Negro slaves. If anything, the junta not only recognized the continuing authority of merchants, tax-collectors, soldiers, and clerics, but also reinforced it. Revolution was inevitable.

In October, 1868, the rebellion was announced in a manifesto first proclaimed at the plantation of Yaro, where the Indian hero, Hatuey, had been executed by the Spanish conquistadores 350 years earlier. This document echoed the grievances of the American colonies voiced in the Declaration of Independence. Thus began the Ten Years War. Manuel de Cespédes, one of the foremost leaders of The Ten Years War, blamed the revolution on Spanish tyranny, excessive taxation and tribute, and denial of political, civil, and religious liberties.

Also, like the American revolution, not all Cubans agreed with the manifesto. Some, like José Antonio Saco, an eminent Cuban writer, argued for better administration, not social liberty. De Cespédes on the other hand, manumitted his slaves and enlisted them as guerrilla warriors. He was joined by a Cuban general, Máximo Gomez, who abhorred class society and the slave system.

Another feature of the Ten Years War that mirrored the American Revolution was the existence of the “Volunteers”, creoles who remained loyal to Spain and Spanish rule on the island. Indeed, just as some of the fiercest fighting occurred between Revolutionaries and Tories in the American Revolution, Cuban Rebels and the Volunteers fought with insane blood lust.

In an interesting parallel between the Ten Years War and Castro's Revolution, fighting centered in the eastern end of the island where the mountainous terrain favored guerrilla operations employed by the rebels. Indeed, the Sierra Maestras Mountains were the home of every Cuban revolution, including Hatuey's fight against the conquistadores. The war was a brutal, vicious affair with rapine and pillage commonly committed on all sides. The insurgents, who had originally promised to respect the lives and property of noncombatants, began burning plantations to ruin the sugar economy of the island and extend the pain of revolution into the royal treasuries in Madrid.

The Ten Years War devolved into a bloody stalemate. Neither side could win and neither side would accept peace on any terms other than their own. The rebels wanted political autonomy before laying down their arms, and the Peninsulares wanted the rebels to lay down their arms in exchange for promises of autonomy. The Volunteers had no position other than to kill rebels.

Watching from the sidelines, President Grant became convinced that only the United States had any chance of ending the Cuban bloodbath.