I've never written a very in depth timeline before but was recently struck by an idea to create a truly independent Cuba without the trappings of US intervention and the Platt Amendment. The main POD is probably going to be José Martí living through the Battle of Dos Ríos and thus maintaining the military junta governing the revolutionary movement. I'm also envisioning heightened resistance to the US in Hawaii and more intense strikes in the early 1890's culminating in a disastrous version of the Pullman Strike keeping American eyes focused on domestic problems. Any ideas on this being feasible and plausible? Any help for a lowly newbie would be much appreciated.
Cuba Libre Discussion
- Thread starter blindgoose
- Start date
You completely underestimate the power of the Cuban Revolutionaries. Antonio de Maceo y Grajales and Maximo Gomez were tantamount to military geniuses of the time. The current development of military theory around insurgency and insurrection comes directly from the methods of Maximo Gomez. With Jose Marti alive and keeping the politicians in check and Maceo not being betrayed by the white politicians who took over after Marti died, it is entirely plausible that Spain is forced to leave the island of Cuba by 1897, 1898 at the latest. Maceo and Gomez were already taking the revolution to the west and being successful in 1895, having reached Pinar del Rio. Their inability to take the west in the Ten Years War was why that revolution failed in 1878.
Perhaps I am, but I was thinking something like Puerto Rico, where thanks to the effort of people like Luis Muñoz Rivera, Puerto Rico became an autonomous province of Spain. Had there been no US intervention, Puerto Rico would most likely remain an autonomous province of Spain.
The problem is that they were offered that in the Pact of Zanjon and the Spaniards never followed through. They mistrust any offers such as that and follow leaders who have said things such as "I shall reach the pedestal of freedom or I shall perish fighting for my country's redemption." Minus US intervention it's pretty much independence or nada.