Organized by José Martí (who was killed almost immediately), the war began with the Grito de Baire, February 24, 1895, accompanied by risings in various places in Matanzas and Oriente provinces. A prompt response by the governor, accompanied by an amnesty offer, virtually ended the revolt in Matanzas, but the eastern rebels were soon reinforced by landings by Antonio Maceo on April 1, and by Máximo Gómez and José Martí on the 11th. When the three met to discuss strategy, Maceo advocated a primacy of military control, attributing the failure of the Ten Years’ War to the divided and incompetent civilian command.
Although the question was not wholly resolved, Gómez was made commander in chief, Maceo was made army commander in Oriente, and Martí declared head of the revolution abroad and in non-military matters. Marti’s death only days afterwards, on May 19, was a great blow to morale. But the two generals did not waver, defeating and discouraging the Spanish in repeated attacks. Then they invaded the western provinces, carrying the war into the sugar growing heart of the island. After a bitter campaign in January-March 1896 against larger government forces in Pinar del Río and Havana provinces the rebels seemed victorious, but the tide turned following the appointment of Wéyler as the new governor and Maceo’s death. The arrival of reinforcements from Spain and the policy of reconcentración allowed the government to regain the initiative. Yet it was unable to defeat the rebels or even engage them in a major battle. Gómez retreated to the eastern provinces and continued guerrilla warfare, rejecting all compromise, and categorically opposing the January 1898 concession of home rule (autonomía) within the Spanish Empire.
Then the February 1898 explosion of the USS Maine led to the United States to declare war on Spain. Although the rebel army collaborated with US forces in the resultant Spanish-American War, an independent Cuba was not the United States’ objective, and Spanish capitulation led to the United Sates intervention of 1899. By then the country was devastated, and the US occupation and humanitarian relief saved Cuba from further suffering. American opinion was, however, divided on the question of permanent annexation. Eventually, while annexation was decided upon for Spain’s smaller colony of Puerto Rico, a circumscribed independence was eventually conceded to the “República de Cuba” in 1902.
