um between 1834 and 1838, during thedespotic governorship of the captain general Miguel de Tacn. Revolts andconspiracies against the Spanish regime dominated Cuban political lifethroughout the remainder of the century. In 1844 an uprising of black slaves wasbrutally suppressed. A movement during the years 1848 to 1851 for annexationof the island to the United States ended with the capture and execution of itsleader, the Spanish-American general Narciso Lpez. Offers by the U.S.government to purchase the island were repeatedly rejected by Spain. In 1868revolutionaries under the leadership of Carlos Manuel de Cspedes proclaimedCuban independence. The ensuing Ten Years' War, a costly struggle to bothSpain and Cuba, was terminated in 1878 by a truce granting many importantconcessions to the Cubans.In 1886 slavery was abolished. Importation of cheap labor from China wasended by 1871. In 1893 the equal civil status of blacks and whites wasproclaimed.Independence Although certain reforms were inaugurated after the successful revolt, theSpanish government continued to oppress the populace. On February 23, 1895,mounting discontent culminated in a resumption of the Cuban revolution, underthe leadership of the writer and patriot Jos Mart and General Mximo Gmez yBez. The U.S. government intervened on behalf of the revolutionists in April1898, precipitating the Spanish-American War. Intervention was spurred by thesinking of the battleship Maine in the harbor of Havana of February 15, 1898, forwhich Spain was blamed. By the terms of the treaty signed December 10, 1898,terminating the conflict, Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba. An Americanmilitary government ruled the island until May 20, 1902, when the Cubanrepublic was formally instituted, under the presidency of the former postmastergeneral Toms Estrada Palma. The Cuban constitution, adopted in 1901,incorporated the provisions of the Platt Amendment, U.S. legislation thatestablished conditio...
