The Politics of Intervention

128 THE POLITICS OF INTERVENTION

Another of the multiple factors which influenced the
physical occupation was the geographical origins of the
August Revolution. A province-by-province breakdown (by
troop strength and number of posts) reveals that of the three
most rebellious provinces (Pinar del Rio, Havana, and Santa
Clara), Santa Clara represented the Army of Cuban Pacifica­
tion's major provincial investment. There was both a political
and economic reason for this pattern. In area Santa Clara was
as large as both Pinar del Rio and Havana, about 8,300
square miles. The four garrisons in Pinar del Rio and Havana
(Pinar del Rio, Guanajay, Guines, Camp Columbia) could
adequately perform their jobs because of the area's good rail­
road net. In Santa Clara, the Army of Cuban Pacification
high command placed fourteen posts, manned by four Army
battalions and five companies of Marines. Discounting head­
quarters, artillery, and service troops at the Army headquar­
ters, the number of combat units in Santa Clara equalled
those in Pinar del Rio and Havana together. A major reason
for this troop concentration in Santa Clara is that it was the
territorial base of Jose Miguel Gomez and his most ardent
Liberal supporters, who were particularly numerous and
violence-prone in the Cienfuegos area. A politico-economic
explanation for the large number of posts is obvious upon
examining the Military Information Division's 1907 map of
Cuban sugar mills: Santa Clara was the site of the greatest
concentration of sugar mills, many foreign-owned. As an epi­
logue to the August Revolution, the centrales "Constancia"
and E. F. Atkins' "Soledad" got a troop of cavalry each.
The possibility of active operations in Cuba dictated the
types of units occupying the Cuban posts. The provinces torn
by rebellion in 1906 were garrisoned by the Army's four cav­
alry squadrons with infantry support. All battalion-squadron
posts had pack trains. This organization provided for both
mobile operations and base security. The Army of Cuban
Pacification headquarters kept a reserve of combined arms
(infantry, Marines, cavalry, artillery, and support troops)
concentrated at Camp Columbia near Havana. This force,
centered in the troubled western provinces, had good railroad