XV EFFECT OF THE PLATT AMENDMENT XVI ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLATT AMENDMENT. CUBA AND THE INTERVENTION CHAPTER I CUBAN DISCONTENT THE Island of Cuba became a Republic as an indirect result of revolt against a system of government which was deemed oppressive, and as a direct result of American intervention in Cuban affairs. It is probable that, without the American intervention, Cuba's revolt of 1895 would have failed as did its predecessors. Contrary to a prevailing belief, Cuba has not been a land of revolutions. Its history offers no parallel with that of Hayti or Santo Domingo, or with that of the Central and South American Republics. Revolts, local in character, have played their part in Cuba's experience, but the history of the Island shows no general or national uprising until that of 1895. The most important and extensive of these revolts was the Ten Years War (1868-1878), entirely an affair of the eastern provinces. The revolt of 1895 was nationalized by what may be called artificial conditions. It is an important fact, though generally overlooked, that repressive economic laws have been in every case the provoking cause of Cuban revolt. Unlike those of her neighbors in Latin America, Cuba's insurrections have never been the outcome of purely political conditions. Nor have they ever been the result of individual ambition. Spain's colonial policy as in every instance, the cause of Cuban revolt. In that policy, she violated a fundamental principle of exernment She assumed that the subject existed solely for the benefit of the sovereign. In establishing her colony she sought only her own financial advantage. Other colonizing countries learned, through experience, the folly of such a policy. Spain never learned it, and has now lost her insular possessions. Three factors have contributed to Cuba's frequent protests and occasional revolts. These are: Second. An arbitrary and unscientific system of taxation; Third. Retention of all government and of political patronage in the hands of Spaniards, to the exclusion of Cubans. To these causes may be traced a large measure of the long-existing Cuban disaffection. To them, also, may be attributed Cuba's failure to attain that position in the world to which, because of her natural resources, her people rightly aspired. At the very beginning of Spain's colonial history, closely restrictive laws were promulgated for the regulation of commerce with and between her colonies. In 1503, a royal ordinance established the Casa de la Contratacion, or House of Commerce, at Seville. This body was empowered to grant licenses, to despatch fleets, and to regulate and control Spanish colonial trade, of which it held an exclusive monopoly. In 1717, the institution was transferred to the port of Cadiz. The colonial trade was thus confined to a single Spanish port. Further restrictions prohibited both intercolonial trade and trade with any country other than Spain. For a period during the seventeenth century, such trade was made an offence punishable by the death of the trader, and the confiscation of the property involved. As a natural result, smuggling became an established institution. For the first fifty years of Cuba's history, Santiago was the only port on the Island through which merchandise could be either imported or exported without violation of the law. With the establishment of Havana as the capital of the Island, that city became the sole port officially recognized for over-sea trade. This condition held until the close of the eighteenth century, with the exception of the brief term of British occupation (1762-1763), during which Havana was made an open port. The limitation was removed by a royal order, issued in 1801, by which the Island ports were opened to foreign trade, subject only to the general conditions of world commerce. This system lasted only a few years. In 1809, foreign commerce was again prohibited. Much difficulty was encountered during the early years of the nineteenth century in the enforcement of prohibitive laws against a trade which had become fairly established, and no little opposition was manifested by the Island people. A new policy was then adopted, less harsh in its appearance but almost equally restrictive in its results. It took the form of a discriminating tariff, applied to both imports and exports. That continued, subject only to sundry modifications from time to time, until the execution, in 1891, of the reciprocity treaty with the United States. That treaty lasted for three years only. It proved a marked benefit to Cuban-American commerce, though detrimental to Spanish trade. With the termination of the treaty, in 1894, there came a reversion to the system of discriminating, differential, and special tariffs in favor of trade with the peninsula as against that of all other countries. The second of these factors in Cuban discontent was the |