Cuba’s Final War for Independence
by On February 24, 1895, Cuba’s war for independence began withthe Grito de Baire, a call by insurgents near Santiago de Cuba to begin their fighting. In subsequent months, Maceo, Gómez, and Martí landed on the island to join and lead growing ranks of rebels.
Final
Things went poorly at first. By May, Martí was dead, killed in his first and only appearance in battle. But by September, after registering several impressive victories over Spanish forces, rebel leaders met, elected a provisional revolutionary government, and chose to begin an invasion toward the western portion of the island under Maceo’s leadership.
Campaign
The campaign was largely a success, with troops crossing into the province of Havana and making their way to the western most tip of the island. Spain’s captain general of Cuba resigned his post and was replaced by General Valeriano Weyler, who instituted a brutal counter insurgency policy of reconcentration, forcing all residents on the island to move to fortified Spanish areas within 8 days or face attack. By the end of 1896, it seemed the Spanish were on the verge of victory: Maceo had been killed,much of the western provinces had been pacified, and the rebel generals were distracted by constant battles with and within the Council of Government, the revolution’s civilian authority, over civilian-military prerogatives in the conduct of the war (a tension that would emerge 50 years later among future insurgencies). Still, by the beginning of 1898, rebel control over rural areas had been reestablished, and Spanish morale had been generally weakening.
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