History 230M

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History 230-M
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News of the South
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Cuba

• The ever faithful isle
• Independence why not?
• Naval base royal garrison fleet
• Fear of race war
• Spanish rule conciliatory
• Economic ties beneficial to both
• Agriculture
• Tobacco - small landownership
• Sugar bought in slaves

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Steps Toward Independence

• Economic ties becoming a burden
• US markets opening
• Decline of Spain led to frustrations
• Alternate slackness and ferocious opression
• Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdes (Placido)
• Black abolitionist
• Poet
• Patriot
• Shot 1844

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Spains Problems Not Enough

• 1848 US attempt to purchase for 120 mil.
• 1854 3 US ministers
• Act on own
• Manifesto to Spain
• Annexation tied to slavery issue in US

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Narciso Lopez

• Venezuelan filibuster
• Encouraged by southerners looking to expand slave
  states
• Several hundred left New Orleans
• 1850 land no rebellion
• 1851 tried again and is caught and killed

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10 Years War

• 1868 rebellion begins doesnt end until 1878
• Cubans called for independence
• Spain held Havana, rural areas to rebels
• No real winner
• Thousands into exile
• Some Spanish concessions

• Results
• Abolish slavery
• Tobacco down and sugar up
• Large landowners over small farms
• No one satisfied
• Cuba devastated
• US opinion begins to form

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US Involvement

• US has the technology to get more juice out of
  sugar cane more investment in 1880s
• Spain allows trade with US
• 1890 US grants preferential trade
• Economy booms
• 1894 US raises tariffs
• Beet growers in Colorado
• Louisiana sugar

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New Rebellion

• Veterans in exile come home
• Antonio Maceo Afro-Cuban
• War of Cuban Liberation
• Invaded western Cuba
• Covered 1,000 miles in 92 days
• Finally captured and shot

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Jose Martí

• I Cultivate a White Rose
• By Jose Marti
• I cultivate a white roseIn July as in
  JanuaryFor the sincere friendWho gives me his
  hand frankly.And for the cruel person who tears
  outthe heart with which I live,I cultivate
  neither nettles nor thornsI cultivate a white
  rose.

Guantanamera (Celia Cruz)
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Martí

• Not as peaceful as preceding
• Great writer and poet
• Helped influence US sentiment
• Certainly knew the danger of US influence and
  interest
• Shot when landed with invasion

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Spain Invades

• Thought death of Martí meant death of revolt
• General Veleriano Weyler
• Scorched earth policy
• Resettlement
• Disease and famine in camps
• Held Havana Rebels held countryside
• Sugar industry devastated

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Spanish-American War

• USS Maine sent to Havana
• Threaten Spain
• Protect US citizens
• Blew up 1898
• Lasted 3 months long

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San Juan Hill

• Teddy Roosevelt gets the headlines
• Buffalo soldiers right alongside
• 9th and 10th cavalry
• 24th and 25th infantry
• Not the majority but significant fighting

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US Involvement

• Stay in Cuba after war
• Pacify rural areas
• Buy back weapons
• Built roads and telephone system
• 3000 buildings for schools
• Sent Cubans to US for teacher training

• Platt Amendment
• Article III gives US right to intervene
• No treaties that might impair independents
• Couldnt make debts that couldnt be paid back
  with normal revenues
• Must expand sanitation
• Had to sell or lease naval stations to US
• Not abrogated until 1934

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Independence

• Begins as others
• Ill prepared
• Economic devastation
• Caudillo theme still alive and well a number of
  military men from the rebellion
• US presence
• Boom time despite chaos sugar
• Wilson corallary
• Wouldnt recognize anyone who didnt come to
  power without election

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Gerardo Machado

• Elected president 1925
• Dictator until 1933
• US admired because brought stability
• But reports of riots, bloody strikes, terrorism
• October 1929 sugar down and defects become
  apparent

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Machado Years

• Americas winter playground
• No prohibition
• Race tracks, hotels, casinos, night clubs and
  bordellos
• Railroads, and highways
• Built 750 mile highway across island
• Bragged there were more teachers than soldiers

• Plutocracy run by corrupt
• Majority uneducated and very poor
• Place for US to exploit
• Ley del fuego
• ABC group rebellion dealt with brutally

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Another Intervention

• Machado mess
• Foreign trade down 90 since 1929
• 1933 Roosevelt sends Sumner Welles to clean up.
• Easily found the disenchanted
• General strike
• Got Roosevelt to abrogate the Platt Amendment

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Fulgencio Batista

• Provisional Govt. lasted 24 days
• Revolt of the sergeants
• To protect rights of the noncommissioned officers
• Batista one of the sergeants
• Poor rural family
• Barber and cane cutter
• Finally military career
• Stayed in the background

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The Batista years

• 1933-1940 7 presidents in 7 years
• Not classic dictator then
• Women right to vote
• Both pro-Axis and Communists operated in the open
• Unionization
• Law to establish true public education
• Popular in US
• Accepted loans
• Accepted Guantanamo

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Dr. Grau San Martín

• Was 1st president in the 7 for 7 years
• Socialist
• Dean of medical school
• 1944 runs against Batista pick and wins
• Ruined reputation
• Prosperity continues
• Built air-conditioned palace with zoo and racing
  stable
• Minister drove truck into treasury, loaded it up,
  went to the airport, and flew to Miami
• 175,000,000 stolen

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1950s

• Sin to the Rhumba beat
• Batista back in 1952
• Shut down dissent
• July 26, 1953 hair brained attack on the Moncada
  barracks in eastern Cuba

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1950s
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The Batista 50s continued

• Sugar 1
• Army, police, bureaucracy paid well
• Absentee landowners 75
• Poor labor conditions
• Schools poor and insufficient
• US control
• Gangsters abound

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Vocabulary
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History 230-M