End of the Spanish Empire in America – Universal History

The beginning of the end of the Spanish Spanish Empire in America began after 1825, Spain saw its American possessions reduced to Cuba and Puerto Rico. And while the metropolis strove to maintain colonial ties, one would have to wonder to what extent it benefited from its colonies. The greatest benefits were derived by a small group of peninsulares with interests in colonial business and trafficking, along with large island planters , since the cost of maintaining the Empire was high. In the second half of the 19th century, the panorama regarding the commercial partners and commercial flows of Cuba and Puerto Rico had cleared up. The importance of the North American market was growing and the American acquisitions of sugar exceeded the peninsular ones. In 1850 Cuba exported 7 million pesos to Spain and 28 million to the United States. In 1890 the situation decided definitively in favor of trade with the United States, where 61 million pesos were sold, against the 7 million sold in Spain. North American interests were consolidated in the Cuban economy, while the independence insurrections were seen as a destabilizing factor that threatened investments.

First Insurrections

In 1868 the Ten Years’ War began, a serious attempt at emancipation, taking advantage of the confusion before the revolution that had broken out in Spain. The war reduced sugar production and the number of mills, but the insurgents’ military weakness and lack of popular support prevented them from prevailing over the Spanish army. The Peace of Zanjón in February 1878 put an end to the conflict, but there was a lack of imagination and there was plenty of interest to solve the colonial problem and to refound relations between Spaniards and Cubans based on a renewed coexistence. Cuban historians interpret the agreement as the beginning of a new era that allowed them to enjoy the formal liberties typical of a rule of law, freedom of expression, the possibility of constituting political parties and the election of city councils and provincial councils. After peace, some insurrections broke out that did not threaten the stability of the system and between 1878 and 1895 Cuba enjoyed sufficient freedoms for the colonial relationship to subsist. Under the protection of the Peace of Zanjón, the Autonomist Party and the Constitutional Union Party arose. The failure of the autonomists turned the Cuban Revolutionary Party, led by José Martí, into the motor of the rebellion and the one in charge of bringing together the supporters of emancipation. Faced with the Cuban model of confrontation with the metropolis, the landowners of Puerto Rico, eager to obtain autonomy, preferred the moderate path of political pressure on the colonial and metropolitan authorities.

Second War of Independence

The Cry of Baire, on February 24, 1895, started the Second War of Independence. The sugar crisis of 1884 and widespread discontent on the island broadened the social base of the emancipation movement, unlike the Ten Years’ War. With popular support and the leadership problem resolved, the war advanced under the leadership of Generals Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez and José Martí. Despite the efforts of Governor General Arsenio Martínez Campos, the rebellion spread and the eastern part of Cuba fell into the hands of the rebels. In ten months the insurrection spread throughout the colony and the Madrid government set out to put an end to it. By the end of 1896 the Spanish army under the command of General Valeriano Weyler had increased to 200,000 men and although the repression hardened, the course of the war could not be reversed. The Spanish scorched earth policy caused heavy losses among the rebels, but also among the Spanish who had more than 62,000 dead. The United States government, which wanted to acquire the island, feared a social revolution that would affect its investors. and he was suspicious of the pacifying capacity of the Spanish government. Martí had condemned US annexationist ambitions, but his death in 1896 made it impossible to consolidate his leadership in the independence movement.

United States Declaration of War on Spain

The return of the Liberals to power in Madrid allowed, in January 1898, an autonomous government in Havana. The retreat of metropolitan politics led to a new conflict in a moment of uncertainty, aggravated by the rejection of the most radical of the Spanish pacifying proposal. On those same dates, the United States government sent the cruise Maine to Havana to protect US interests. On February 15, in a confusing accident, the cruise ship burned down and was the pretext for the United States to declare war on Spain. and intervene in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines where it imposed its military superiority, as shown by the naval confrontations in Santiago de Cuba and Cavite. Finally Spain lost Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific. In Latin America, the events of 1898 were a wake-up call for many intellectuals, concerned about the power of the United States and its harmful effects on the rest of the continent. From Mexico to the Southern Cone, warnings of the dangers of US imperialism and expansionism were warned, although the governments and their diplomacies adopted more cautious positions,
like Argentina, which quickly declared its neutrality in the conflict.

Consequences of the War

After the War of 1898, the paths of Cuba and Puerto Rico parted ways, according to the positions of their dominant groups towards independence. The Treaty of Paris made Puerto Rico a North American possession, but the 1898 invasion was not only a change of metropolis, but also of the economic relations with the rulers. From being under the control of a protectionist metropolis at the end of the 19th century, they passed, at the beginning of the 20th century, into the hands of a great capitalist power, with an open and rapidly expanding economy. In Cuba, the political scheme had become complicated, since the confrontation between the local political parties was added to the economic, military and political domination of the United States. The liberals had supported emancipation, while the conservatives had remained in favor of imperial linkage. The 1900 Constitution, approved by a Liberal-dominated convention, included universal suffrage and minority representation in Parliament.

Cuban situation

Between January 1, 1899 and May 1902, Cuba had a military administration, which did not please the independentistas, who saw the United States as a new colonial power. The first president was Tomás Estrada Palma, a moderate liberal supported by a broad coalition of liberals and conservatives. The Platt Amendment, approved by the US Congress in February 1901, and incorporated by US pressure into the constitutional text, granted the United States the possibility of intervening on the island when it deemed it appropriate to protect liberty, individual property and personal interests. americans. Beginning in 1903, Cuba leased the Guantanamo area to the United States for $200 a year, which is still used today as a naval base. One consequence of the guarantees granted by the Platt Amendment to North American capital was the increase in their investments in Cuba, which came to be almost a quarter of the North American investments in Latin America and that in 1896 totaled 50 million dollars, 220 in 1913 and 919 million on the eve of the Great Depression, concentrating preferentially in the sugar sector, but also covering other areas, especially in the service sector (commerce, banking, tourism, etc.).

trade growth

In 1902, a trade agreement was signed between Cuba and the United States, which economically complemented the Platt Amendment. The United States reduced customs tariffs by 20% on various Cuban productsincluding sugar and tobacco, which dominated exports, and Cuba reduced between 20 and 40% tariffs on US products, preferably manufacturing. The growth of Cuban-American trade, which between 1904 and 1928 multiplied by five, was a direct consequence of the treaty. Cuban exports accounted for 16.6% of the total sugar consumed in the United States and rose to 28.2% between 1897-1901 and 1932. A more spectacular growth was seen in the production of Puerto Rico, which on the same dates went from 2.1% to 14.7% of the sugar consumed in the United States. The growth of the sugar industry in Puerto Rico was due to strong investments of North American capital, in a very short space of time in land and machinery, becoming a monoproducer of sugar, with the consequent decline in coffee crops (which had known a great expansion in the last two decades of the 19th century) and tobacco.

Puerto Rican situation

In Puerto Rico, after the division of the Autonomist Party in 1897 and the North American invasion, the political forces were reorganized, which affected the “great Puerto Rican family.” Two parties were created: the Federal and the Republican. El Federal represented the interests of the landowners and sought to maintain its social hegemonywhile the Republican expressed the rising urban sectors, who wanted to create a liberal and modern social and political system. For many Puerto Ricans, the 1898 invasion symbolized the arrival of liberalism and modernity after long centuries of colonial domination. Over time, the position against North American domination was a factor of political identification and division among Puerto Ricans, who had to choose to remain linked to the United States or continue down the difficult path of independence.