Cuba Independence Day – October 10, 2024

History of Cuba Independence Day

The Peninsular Wars in Europe at the turn of the 19th century concluded with Napoleon’s brother Joseph becoming King of Spain. Many Spanish colonies in South and Central America sprang independence movements after feeling betrayed by the new rule.

Cuba remained loyal to Spain, but as the century progressed, so did the passion for independence and a rising disdain for corrupt and authoritarian Spanish rule. Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a wealthy sugar mill owner, and his allies declared independence on October 10, 1868. The Grito de Yara (Yara’s Cry) signaled the commencement of the Ten Years’ War. Though the first war for freedom ended in May 1878 with a surrender to the Spanish, it was pivotal in Cuba’s lengthy battle for independence from Spain, eventually achieved in December 1898.

The events of October 1868 paved the way for Cuba’s abolition of slavery in 1886. Between 1868 and 1898, a series of rebellions led by Dominican General Máximo Gómez failed to abolish Spanish power and killed hundreds of thousands of Cubans. The Spanish–American War, however, ended in a Spanish evacuation from the island in 1898, and Cuba obtained official independence in 1902 after three and a half years of U.S. military occupation.
In 1902, President Tomás Estrada Palma was elected and Cuban independence was declared, albeit the Platt Amendment leased Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. Until 1925, when the United States formally acknowledged Cuban sovereignty over the island, the status of the Isle of Pines as Cuban territory was unclear. Estrada Palma, a thrifty man, reigned well for four years, but when he attempted to prolong his tenure, he was met with a revolution.

Despite its apparent independence, one historian determined that the United States’ sustained military presence and economic supremacy had rendered Cuba “a colony in everything but name.”