I submit the work with a full realization that some of its views and some of its statements may come perhaps as a surprise to many, perhaps as an offence to others. To many it will, I believe, furnish the key to, and the explanation of, features in that complex situation which they have hitherto been unable clearly to understand. If I shall have accomplished that, and if I have contributed anything which shall make for a better and a clearer understanding of those "relations which ought to exist between Cuba and the United States," I shall feel that my work has not been done in vain. ALBERT GARDNER ROBINSON. X THE SECOND YEAR OF OCCUPATION—Continued 157 XI THE THIRD YEAR OF OCCUPATION XII THE END OF THE INTERVENTION XIII THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION XIV THE QUESTION OF "RELATIONS" XV EFFECT of the Platt AMENDMENT XVI ACCEPTANCE OF THE PLATT AMENDMENT. STANFORD LIBRARY 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. |