Spanish-American War: Cuba, Philippines, and the Aftermath of 1898
The Liquidation of the Colonial Empire: Cuba and the Philippines
The Spanish Colonial Empire Overseas
After the independence of most of the empire in the early nineteenth century (Ayacucho, 1824), only the Antillean islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the archipelago of the Philippines in Southeast Asia remained part of the Spanish Empire. Cuba and Puerto Rico based their economies on agriculture for export, mainly sugar cane and snuff, using black slave labor. These colonies achieved major development and were very lucrative for the metropolis. Cuba became the largest sugar producer in the world. The harsh tariff laws imposed by Madrid turned these territories into a “captive market” for Catalan or Castilian textiles and goods. This clearly affected the Antillean islands, as they could find better and cheaper products in the neighboring United States. In Cuba and Puerto Rico, Spanish hegemony was increasingly based on defending the interests of a small oligarchy of slavery, which benefited from the business relationship with the metropolis. The Philippines’ case was very different. The Spanish population was sparse, and very little capital was invested. Spanish domination relied on a small military presence and the power of religious orders.
The Cuban Problem and the War with the U.S.
The Long War (1868-1878), settled with the Peace of Zanjón, was the first serious warning of Cuban independence aspirations. The absence of reforms fueled anti-colonialism despite repression. José Rizal in the Philippines and José Martí in Cuba became key figures of Philippine independence and Cuban nationalism. In 1895, independence insurrections broke out again in the Philippines and Cuba. A harsh and cruel war resulted in tens of thousands of soldiers from the lower classes being shipped to these distant islands. The significant development was U.S. aid to the Cuban rebels. Washington helped the Caribbean insurgents for two main reasons:
- Mining and agricultural economic interests. Cuba was the world’s leading sugar producer.
- Geostrategic interest. The nascent U.S. imperialism sought control of the Caribbean and Central America, what they called their backyard.
The approaching confrontation in Cuba revealed the conflict between a dying empire, the Spanish, and a rising one, the American. The still-unexplained explosion of the U.S. ship Maine in Havana harbor, killing 260 U.S. Marines, led to a furious media campaign by the Hearst and Pulitzer chains. The U.S. government of President McKinley, bolstered by an increasingly hawkish public, declared war on Spain. The conflict was a cakewalk for the United States, which conquered Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Spain signed the Treaty of Paris in December 1898. By this agreement, Spain ceded the island of Puerto Rico (which remains a U.S. commonwealth), the Philippines, and Guam Island in the Pacific to the U.S. Cuba gained independence under U.S. protection (Platt Amendment and Guantanamo Bay). The replacement of Spanish rule with American rule spawned deep discontent in the former colonies. The U.S. faced a war in the Philippines (1899-1902), and anti-American sentiment spread widely in Cuban society. From the Spanish perspective, the loss of the last colonies became known as the Disaster of ’98 and had a major influence on the national consciousness. The irresponsibility of the Restoration governments led to a situation that cost the lives of tens of thousands of Spaniards, first in the war against the Cuban insurgents, then in a war against the United States they could not afford.
The 98 and its Aftermath
Although from an economic perspective, we cannot talk of disaster:
- “The end of the war allowed Minister Fernández Villaverde to address some necessary reforms in the tax system and the issuance of debt, representing an improvement of the Treasury’s situation. For the first time in a long time, the Spanish state had a surplus in the early twentieth century.”
- “The loss of the colonies represented a major repatriation of capital that was invested in the mainland economy.”
- “Spain did not miss the rare presence it already had in Latin American markets.”
However, the crushing defeat by the U.S. and the loss of over 50,000 combatants caused intense excitement in Spanish society in all areas. Political figures like Francisco Silvela, who wrote “Spain without a pulse”; opposition Socialists or Republicans; intellectuals like Joaquín Costa, everyone felt the loss of the colonies as the Disaster of ’98. This national commotion caused a deep crisis of national consciousness, marked by the critical work of various authors who make up the Generation of ’98 (Unamuno, Baroja, Maeztu…).
- Proposals for political reform and modernization, such as Regenerationism, with two aspects: political reform and educational reform.
- Major thrust and presence of peripheral nationalisms, with an evident crisis of “the idea of Spain.” The defeat of 1898 had highlighted tragically and suddenly all the limitations of the Restoration system and its paralysis in addressing social problems and modernizing the country.
Joaquín Costa’s Regenerationism was the main expression of a renewed national consciousness that sought to reform the country. Costa’s thought was based on a radical critique of the cacique system that had prevented the implementation of a true democracy based on the middle classes and the economic and social modernization of the country.