Atlas of Hispanic-American History

Believing that the guerrillas could

not survive without the aid of peasants in

the countryside, Weyler rounded up civil-

ians and placed them in concentration

camps. Those who resisted were shot.

The farms they left behind were burned.

Disease, starvation, and inhuman condi-

tions killed more than 100,000 of the

reconcentrados, or “reconcentrated peo-

ple,” in the camps, rousing humanitarian

sentiment worldwide, particularly in the

United States. Amplified by the yellow

press, the clamor for the United States to

enter the war grew louder.

By the end of 1896, Weyler drove the

rebels back to the eastern end of Cuba,

but the United States made clear to Spain

that his brutality was raising the risk of

American intervention. To try to avert

this outcome, in 1897 Spain recalled

Weyler, closed the concentration camps,

and offered home rule to Cuba. Still,

American war fever against Spain grew.

President William McKinley resisted the

cries for intervention, hoping that

Spanish reforms would suffice to keep the

United States at peace. But war fever

erupted into war when the battleship

USS Maine was destroyed in 1898.

Remember the MAINE

On January 25, 1898, the battleship USS

Mainesteamed into Havana harbor on

what was officially billed as a “friendly

call,” a courtesy visit made with the con-

sent of the Spanish government.

Unofficially, the United States wanted its

armed forces close at hand in case

American property and persons in Cuba

were endangered by the tumult on the

island.

On the night of February 15, 1898,

while the ship was still in the harbor, an

explosion sank the Maine, and 260 crew

members died. The yellow press had no

doubt about the cause: “THE MAINE

120 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY

The Cuban War of Independence, 1895–1897

The Cuban War of Independence began in 1895 when José Martí, as well as Máximo Gómez y Báez and Antonio Maceo, returned to

Cuba to wage a guerrilla war against the Spanish colonial government. Although the inexperienced Martí was killed shortly after

arriving in Cuba, Gómez and Maceo were veterans of the Ten Years’ War of 1868–1878. Making their way across Cuba, they

launched surprise attacks on Spanish infantry, and in an effort to destroy any economic benefit that Spain might reap from its Cuban

colony, they burned railways, factories, and plantations. The route they followed across Cuba is shown above, as is the route of Martí.