The military occupation, justified by the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, constituted the experimental framework for the implementation of policy toward Cuba. For the United States, this was a period of intense internal and external tensions, tempered by internal pressures and negotiations surrounding government decision-making.
One of the alternatives to eliminate the existing Cuban instability reached its peak in the final months of the administration of John Brooke, the island’s first military governor. It consisted of transferring Cuban sovereignty to a civilian government that would, in one fell swoop, turn Cuba into a U.S. territory. This idea gained traction among expansionist circles and their main spokespeople.
The first President of the Republic, Tomás Estrada Palma, counted on the support of the North American authorities as a possible check on the rise of the most radical military leadership in the country’s political life. At the same time, Estrada Palma’s prestige within revolutionary circles made José Martí’s replacement as PRC delegate one of the favorite candidates among the broadest sectors of the Cuban population, regardless of political affiliation. The existing disunity was accentuated by the failure of the candidacy proposed by Máximo Gómez, in which Estrada Palma would be President and Bartolomé Masó, who had been the last President of the Republic in Arms, would be Vice President. This failure occurred as a consequence of the formation of an alliance in favor of Masó to propose his candidacy for the Presidency and the latter’s subsequent withdrawal.
This first government would have the difficult and unpleasant task of establishing ties of dependence with the United States. To this end, a series of treaties were signed, including the Trade Reciprocity Treaty, which ensured the United States control of the Cuban market and consolidated the single-product structure of the Cuban economy; the Permanent Treaty, which gave legal form to the provisions of the Platt Amendment; and the Treaty defining the location of U.S. naval stations.
The failure to resolve the fundamental problems affecting the country during its reconstruction and the continuation and intensification of its structural formations fostered an atmosphere of social unrest among the various strata of society. Low wages, long workdays, and discrimination against native workers, who were displaced from better-paying jobs, were among the main demands of the nascent labor movement, which led to significant strikes, such as the so-called “Apprentices’ Strike,” shortly after the inauguration of the Republic on May 20, 1902.
Under the authority of the Platt Amendment, the Liberal and Conservative political parties, based on local bosses, vied for power through electoral fraud. The winner’s prize was the public treasury, a source of enrichment for a political class that, given the growing control of the Cuban economy by US capital, could find no other sphere in which to more profitably apply its talents. Government management thus gave rise to frequent scandals.
Such scandals continued during the regime of José Miguel Gómez (1909-1913), whose performance would be marked by the cruel repression of the uprising of the Independientes de Color (Independents of Color), a movement through which many Black and mixed-race people attempted to fight racial discrimination, although without a clear understanding of how to do so. Mario García Menocal (1913-1920), his successor, was unable to hide his numerous corruption incidents, which were encouraged by the economic boom brought about by the First World War. Menocal managed to be reelected through the usual procedures, which provoked a new rebellion by the Liberals and the subsequent interventionist preparations of the United States.
The Washington government, concerned about the political unrest in its neo-colony, had designed a policy of true tutelage, the so-called preventive diplomacy, which reached its climax with the appointment of General Enoch Crowder as virtual proconsul, to supervise and oversee the government of Alfredo Zayas (1921-1925), whose administration would be the scene of transcendental neo-political movements.
The rejection of American intrusion and government corruption sparked diverse currents of expression for nationalist and democratic demands. The student movement displayed a marked radicalism that, based on university reform, achieved clear revolutionary projections under the leadership of Julio Antonio Mella. The labor movement, whose roots dated back to the final decades of the 19th century, had also followed an upward trend, materialized by various strikes, the most important of which were the apprentice strike in 1902 and the currency strike in 1907, which later grew into a wave of protests due to the inflation generated by World War I. As an expression of the union of the movement’s most radical political currents, represented by Mella and Carlos Baliño, the first Communist Party was founded in Havana.
The arrival of Gerardo Machado to the presidency in 1925 represented the oligarchy’s alternative to the latent crisis. The new regime attempted to accommodate the interests of the various sectors of the American bourgeoisie and capital in its economic program, offering guarantees of stability to the middle classes and new jobs to the working classes, all combined with selective but fierce repression against political adversaries and opposition movements. Under the guise of administrative efficiency, the government sought to curb the struggles of the traditional parties, ensuring their access to the state budget through the cooperative system. With the consensus he achieved, Machado decided to reform the constitution to perpetuate himself in power.
Despite the successes achieved during the first years of his term, the Machado dictatorship failed to silence the dissent of excluded politicians, much less crush the popular movement. These forces showed increasing reluctance, as a consequence of the excesses committed by the ruling regime and the rapid deterioration of the economic situation under the effects of the global crisis of 1929. Together with students and the proletariat, opposition to the Machado government unleashed an endless succession of strikes, insurrection attempts, attacks, and sabotage. The dictatorship responded with increased repression, which reached intolerable levels. By 1933, the faltering Machado regime was on the verge of giving way to a revolution.