WHO SANK THE USS MAINE?
The island of Cuba has an inexplicable power to draw the world’s great intrigues to its shores. Once colonised by Spain in 1511 the next 387 years saw the island transformed from a collection of scenic coastal outposts to a source for agricultural products. By the 19th century Cuba was synonymous with just two commodities: African slaves and sugar.
Such was the nature of Spanish governance in Cuba that momentous events like the Haitian Revolution and the Latin American wars of independence changed little in the colony. Of course, there had been revolts – some of them bloody, others aborted. Another passionate rising swept Cuba in 1895. The ruthless General Valeriano Weyler launched a campaign to depopulate entire villages, whose inhabitants became known as ‘reconcentrados’, with the end goal of quashing any dissent. The heavy handedness of the Spanish military drew the attention of the American press, and by extension the American government. Because of Cuba’s strategic location in the Caribbean the United States always sought to wrangle it away from its present owners. Cuba’s thriving plantations were equally attractive, which is why annexing the island was a recurring theme in American foreign policy circles.
“THE HEAVY HANDEDNESS
