Central America · Interventions and the long 20th century
Cuban Nationalists
1895–1898
Cuban nationalism matured through three wars against Spain: the Ten Years' War (1868–1878), the "Little War" (1879–1880), and the final War of Independence (1895–1898).
- Existed
- 1895–1898
- Shown on the map
- 1895–1899
- Peak area
- 57k km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Cuban nationalism matured through three wars against Spain: the Ten Years' War (1868–1878), the "Little War" (1879–1880), and the final War of Independence (1895–1898). The last was organized above all by the poet, journalist, and thinker José Martí, the "Apostle of Cuban Independence," who founded the Cuban Revolutionary Party (1892) in exile, mobilizing émigré communities in Florida — especially the cigar-making towns of Ybor City and Key West — and co-authored the Manifesto of Montecristi (25 March 1895) with the veteran general Máximo Gómez, laying out a program for a racially inclusive, independent republic free of both Spanish and US control. The rising began with the Grito de Baire on 24 February 1895. Martí landed in Cuba but was killed almost immediately at the Battle of Dos Ríos on 19 May 1895, becoming the movement's foundational martyr.
Decline and legacy
The war was fought by the racially integrated Liberation Army (the mambises) under Gómez and the brilliant Afro-Cuban general Antonio Maceo (killed in 1896). Spain's General Valeriano Weyler responded with a brutal policy of "reconcentration," herding rural civilians into camps where vast numbers died — a scandal that inflamed US opinion. The explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbor (February 1898) precipitated US entry (the Spanish–American War); Spain was swiftly defeated and relinquished Cuba in the Treaty of Paris (1898). Cuba then passed under US military occupation before formal independence in 1902 (§36).
Common questions
- What were the Cuban Nationalists?
- Cuban nationalism matured through three wars against Spain: the Ten Years' War (1868–1878), the "Little War" (1879–1880), and the final War of Independence (1895–1898).
- When did the Cuban Nationalists exist?
- The Cuban Nationalists existed 1895–1898. On this map they are drawn 1895–1899.
- How large were the Cuban Nationalists?
- At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Cuban Nationalists covered about 57,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.
- How did the Cuban Nationalists end?
- The war was fought by the racially integrated Liberation Army (the mambises) under Gómez and the brilliant Afro-Cuban general Antonio Maceo (killed in 1896). Spain's General Valeriano Weyler responded with a brutal policy of "reconcentration," herding rural civilians into camps where vast numbers died — a scandal that inflamed US opinion.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Fidel Castro en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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