VOLUME VII SLICE VII Crocoite to Cuba (continued 11)

Climate.—The climate of Cuba is tropical and distinctively insular in characteristics of humidity, equability and high mean temperature. There are two distinct seasons: a “dry” season from November to April, and a hotter, “wet” season. About two-thirds of the total precipitation falls in the latter. Droughts, extensive in area and in duration, are by no means uncommon. At Havana the mean temperature is about 76° F., with extreme monthly oscillations ranging on the average from 6° to 12° F. for different months, and with a range between the means of the coldest and warmest months of 10° (70° to 80°); temperatures below 50° or above 90° being rare. The mean rainfall at Havana is about 40.6 in. (sometimes over 80), and the mean absolute humidity of different months ranges from 70 to 80%. These figures represent fairly well the conditions of much of the northern coast. In the N.E. the rainfall is much greater. The equability of heat throughout the day is masked and relieved by the afternoon sea breezes. The trades are steady through the year, and in the dry season the western part of the island enjoys cool “northers.” Despite this the interior is somewhat cooler than the coast, and in the uplands frost is not uncommon. The southern littoral is also (except in sheltered points such as Santiago, which is one of the hottest cities of the island) somewhat cooler than the northern.

More than eight or ten years rarely pass without tornadoes or hurricanes of local severity at least. Notably destructive ones occurred in 1768, 1774, 1842, 1844, 1846, 1865, 1870, 1876, 1885 and 1894. Those of 1842 and 1844 caused extreme distress in the island. In 1846, 300 vessels and 2000 houses were destroyed at Havana; in 1896 the banana groves of the N.E. coast were ruined and the banana industry prostrated; and in 1906 Havana suffered damage. The autumn months, particularly October and November, are those in which such storms most frequently occur.

Health.—Convincing evidence is offered by the qualities of the Spanish race in Cuba that white men of temperate lands can be perfectly acclimatized in this tropical island. As for diseases, some common to Cuba and Europe are more frequent or severe in the island, others rarer or milder. There are the usual malarial, bilious and intermittent fevers, and liver, stomach and intestinal complaints prevalent in tropical countries; but unhygienic living is, in Cuba as elsewhere, mainly responsible for their existence. Yellow fever (which first appeared in Cuba in 1647) was long the only epidemic disease, Havana being an endemic focus. Aside from the recurrent loss of life, the pecuniary loss from such epidemics was enormous, and the interference with commerce and social intercourse with other countries extremely vexatious. The Cuban coast was uninterruptedly full of infection, and the danger of an outbreak in each year was never absent, until the work of the United States army in 1901-1902 conclusively proved that this disease, though ineradicable by the most extreme sanitary measures, based on the accepted theory of its origin as a filth-disease, could be eradicated entirely by removing the possibility of inoculation by the Stegomyia mosquito. Since then yellow fever has ceased to be a scourge in Cuba. Small-pox was the cause of a greater mortality than yellow fever even before the means of combating the latter had been ascertained. The remarkable sanitary work begun during the American occupation and continued by the republic of Cuba, has shown that the ravages of this and other diseases can be greatly diminished. Leprosy is rather common, but seemingly only slightly contagious. Consumption is very prevalent.

Agriculture.—Soils are of four classes: calcareous-ferruginous, alluvial, argillous and silicious. Calcareous lands are predominant, especially in the uplands. Deep residual clay soils derived from underlying limestones, and coloured red or black according to the predominance of oxides of iron or vegetable detritus, characterize the plains. A red-black soil known as “mulatto” or tawny is perhaps the best fitted for general cultivation. Tobacco is most generally cultivated on loose red soils, which are rich in clays and silicates; and sugar-cane preferably on the black and mulatto soils; but in general, contrary to prevalent suppositions, colour is no test of quality and not a very valuable guide in the setting of crops. Almost without exception the lands throughout the island are of extreme fertility. The lowlands about Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Mariel and Matanzas are noted for their richness. The census of 1899 showed that farm lands occupied three-tenths of the total area; the cultivated area being one-tenth of the farms or 3% of the whole. At the end of 1905 it was officially estimated that 16% was in cultivation. In 1902 it was officially estimated that the public land available for permanent agrarian cultivation, including forest lands, was only 186,967 hectares (416,995 acres), almost wholly in the province of Oriente. The average size of a farm in 1899 was 143 acres. More than 85% of all cultivated lands were then occupied by whites; and somewhat more than one-half (56.6%) of all occupiers were renters. Holdings of more than 32 acres constituted only 7% of the total. As regards crops, 47% of the cultivated area was given over to sugar, 11% to sweet potatoes, 9% to tobacco and almost 9% to bananas. But owing to the disturbed conditions created by the war it is probable that these figures by no means represent normal conditions. The actual sugar crop of 1899-1900, for example, was not a quarter of that of 1894. With the establishment of peace in 1898 and the influx of American and other capital and of a heavy immigration, great changes took place in agriculture as in other industrial conditions.

Sugar has been the dominant crop since the end of the 18th century. Before the Civil War of 1895-1898 the capital invested in sugar estates was greater by half than that represented by tobacco and coffee plantations, live-stock Sugar. ranches and other farms. Since that time fruit and live-stock interests have increased. The dependence of the island on one crop has been an artificial economic condition often of grave momentary danger to prosperity; but generally speaking, the progress of the industry has been steady. The competition of the sugar-beet has been felt severely. During and after the war of 1868-1878, when many Cuban estates were confiscated, many families emigrated, and many others were ruined, the ownership of plantations largely passed from the hands of Cubans to Spaniards. Under the conditions of free labour, the development of railways abroad, the improvement of machinery both in cane and beet producing countries, the general competition of the beet, and the fall of prices, it was impossible for the Cuban industry to survive without radical betterment of methods. About 1885 began an immense development of centralization (the tendency having been evident many years before this). Plantations have increased greatly in size (and also diminished in number), greater capital is involved, bagasse furnaces have been introduced, double grinding mills have increased by more than a half the yield of juice from a given weight of cane, and extractive operations instead of being carried on on all plantations have been (since 1880) concentrated in comparatively few “centrals” (168 in Feb. 1908). Three-fourths of all are in the jurisdictions of Cienfuegos, Cárdenas, Havana, Matanzas and Sagua la Grande, which are the great sugar centres of the island (three-fourths of the crop coming from Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces). Caibarién, Guantánamo and Manzanillo are next in importance. A comparatively low cost of labour, the fact that labour is not, as in the days of slavery, that of unintelligent blacks but of intelligent free labourers, the centralized organization and modern methods that prevail on the plantations, the remarkable fertility of the soil (which yields 5 or 6 crops on good soil and with good management, without replanting), and the proximity of the United States, in whose markets Cuba disposes of almost all her crop, have long enabled her to distance her smaller West Indian rivals and to compete with the bounty-fed beet. The methods of cultivation, however, are still distinctly extensive, and the returns are much less than they would be (and in some other cane countries are) under more intensive and scientific methods of cultivation. Indeed, conditions were relatively primitive so late as 1880, if compared with those of other sugar-producing countries. More than four-fifths of the total area sown to cane in the island is in the three provinces of Santa Clara, Matanzas and Oriente (formerly Santiago), the former two representing two-thirds of the area and three-fourths of the crop. The majority of the sugar estates are of an area less than 3000 acres, and the most common area is between 1500 and 2000 acres; but the extremes range from a very small size to 60,000 acres. Only a part of the great estates is ever planted in any one season. The most profitable unit is calculated to be a daily consumption of 1500 tons of cane, or 150,000 in a grinding season of 100 days, which implies a feeding area not above 6000 acres. In the season of 1904-1905, which may be taken as typical, 179 estates, with a planted area of 431,056 acres, produced 11,576,137 tons of cane, and yielded—in addition to alcohol, brandy and molasses—1,089,814 tons of sugar. Of this amount 416,862 tons were produced by 24 estates yielding more than 11,000 tons each, including one (planting 28,050 acres) that yielded 33,609, and 4 others more than 22,000 tons each. The production of the island from 1850 to 1868 averaged 469,934 tons yearly, rising from 223,145 to 749,000; from 1869 to 1886 (continuing high during the period of the Ten Years’ War), 632,003 tons; from 1887 to 1907—omitting the five years 1896-1900 when the industry was prostrated by war,—909,827 tons (and including the war period, 758,066); and in the six harvests of 1901-1906, 1,016,899 tons. Prior to 1902 the million mark, was reached only twice—in 1894 and 1895. Following the resuscitation of the industry after the last war, the island’s crop rose steadily from one-sixth to a full quarter of the total cane sugar output of the world, its share in the world’s product of sugar of all kinds ranging from a tenth to an eighth. Of this enormous output, from 98.3% upward went to the United States;1 of whose total importation of all sugars and of cane sugar the proportion of Cuban cane—steadily rising—was respectively 49.8 and 53.7% in the seasons of 1900-1901 and 1904-1905.

If sugar is the island’s greatest crop, tobacco is her most renowned in the markets of the world. Three-fourths of the tobacco of Cuba comes from Pinar del Rio province; the rest mainly from the provinces of Havana and Tobacco. Santa Clara,—the description de partido being applied to the leaf not produced in Havana and Pinar del Rio provinces, and sometimes to all produced outside the vuelta abajo. This district, including the finest land, is on the southern slope of the Organ Mountains between the Honda river and Mantua; bananas are cultivated with the tobacco. “Vegas” (tobacco fields) of especially good repute are also found near Trinidad, Remedios, Yara, Mayarí and Vicana. The tobacco industry has been uniformly prosperous, except when crippled by the destruction of war in 1868-1878 and 1895-1898. Even in the time of slavery tobacco was generally a white-man’s crop; for it requires intelligent labour and intensive care. In recent years the growth of the leaf under cloth tents has greatly increased, as it has been abundantly proved that the product thus secured is much more valuable—lighter in colour and weight, finer in texture, with an increased proportion of wrapper leaves, and more uniform qualities, and with lesser amounts of cellulose, nicotine, gums and resins. In these respects the finest Cuban tobacco crops, produced in the sun, hardly rival the finest Sumatra product; but produced under cheese-cloth they do. “Cuban tobacco” does not mean to-day, as a commercial fact, what the words imply; for the original Nicotiana Tabacum, variety havanensis, can probably be found pure to-day only in out-of-the-way corners of Pinar del Rio. After the Ten Year’s War seed of Mexican and United States tobaccos was in great demand to re-seed the ruined vegas, and was introduced in great quantities; and although by a later law the destruction of these exotic species was ordered, that destruction was in fact quite impossible. “Lusty growers and coarser than the genuine old-time Cuban ... Mexican tobaccos (Nicotiana Tabacum, variety macrophyllum) are to-day predominant in a large part of Cuban vegas.... Ordinary commercial Cuban seed of to-day is largely, and often altogether, Mexican tobacco.” Though improved in the Cuban environment, the foreign tobaccos introduced after the Ten Years’ War did not lose their exotic character, but prevailed over the indigenous forms: “Tobaccos with exactly the character of the introduced types are now the prevalent forms” (quotation from Bulletin of the Estación Central Agronómica, Feb. 1908). In the markets of the world Cuban tobacco has always suffered less competition than Cuban sugar, and still less has been done than in the case of sugar cane in the study of methods of cultivation, which in several respects are far behind those of other tobacco-growing countries. The crop of 1907 was 201,512 bales (109,562,400 ℔ Sp.).

Coffee-raising was once a flourishing and very promising industry. It first attained prominence with the settlement in eastern Cuba, late in the 18th century, of French refugee immigrants from San Domingo. Some “cafetales” Coffee. were established by the newcomers near Havana, but the industry has always been almost exclusively one of Oriente province; with Santa Clara as a much smaller producer. Before the war of 1868-1878 the production amounted to about 25,000,000 ℔ yearly. The war of 1895-1898 still further diminished the vitality of the industry. In 1907 the crop was 6,595,700 ℔. The berries are of fine quality, and despite the competition of Brazil there is no (agricultural) reason why the home market at least should not be supplied from Cuban estates.

Of other agricultural crops those of fruits are of greatest importance—bananas (which are planted about once in three years), pine-apples (planted about once in five years), coco-nuts, oranges, &c. The coco-nut industry has long been largely confined to the region about Baracoa, owing to the ruin of the trees elsewhere by a disease not yet thoroughly understood, which, appearing finally near Baracoa, threatened by 1908 to destroy the industry there as well. Yams and sweet-potatoes, yuccas, malangas, cacao, rice—which is one of the most important foods of the people, but which is not yet widely cultivated on a profitable basis—and Indian corn, which grows everywhere and yields two crops yearly, may be mentioned also. In very recent years gardening has become an interest of importance, particularly in the province of Pinar del Rio. Save on the coffee, tobacco and sugar plantations, where competition in large markets has compelled the adoption of adequate modern methods, agriculture in Cuba is still very primitive. The wooden ploughstick, for instance—taking the country as a whole—has never been displaced. A central agricultural experiment station (founded 1904) is maintained by the government at Santiago de las Vegas; but there is no agricultural college, nor any special school for the scientific teaching and improvement of sugar and tobacco farming or manufacture.

Stock-breeding is a highly important interest. It was the all-important one in the early history of the island, down to about the latter part of the 18th century. Grasses grow luxuriantly, and the savannahs of central Cuba are, in this respect, excellent cattle ranges. The droughts to which the island is recurrently subject are, however, a not unimportant drawback to the industry; and though the best ranges, under favourable conditions, are luxuriant, nevertheless the pastures of the island are in general mediocre. Practically nothing has yet been done in the study of native grasses and the introduction of exotic species. The possibilities of the stock interest have as yet by no means been realized. The civil wars were probably more disastrous to it than to any other agricultural interest of the island. It has been authoritatively estimated, for example, that from 90 to 95% of all horses, neat cattle and hogs in the entire island were lost in the war years of 1895-1898. In the decade after 1898 particularly great progress was made in the raising of live-stock. The fishing and sponge industries are important. Batabanó and Caibarién are centres of the sponge fisheries.

Manufactures.—The manufacturing industries of Cuba have never been more than insignificant as compared with what they might be. In 1907 48.5% of all wage-earners were engaged in agriculture, fishing and mining, 16.3 in manufactures, and 17.7 in trade and transportation. Such manufactures as are of any consequence are mostly connected with the sugar and tobacco industries. Forest resources have been but slightly touched (more so since the end of Spanish rule) except mahogany, which goes to the United States, and cedar, which is used to box the tobacco products of the island, much going also to the United States. The value of forest products in 1901-1902 amounted to $320,528. There are some tanneries, some preparation of preserves and other fruit products, and some old handicraft industries like the making of hats; but these have been of comparatively scant importance. Despite natural advantages for all meat industries, canned meats have generally been imported. The leading manufactures are cigars and cigarettes, sugar, rum and whisky. The tobacco industries are very largely concentrated in Havana, and there are factories in Santiago de las Vegas and Bejucal. The yearly output of cigars was locally estimated in 1908 at about 500,000,000, but this is probably too high an estimate. In 1904-1906 the yearly average sent to the United States was 234,063,652 cigars, 29,776,429 ℔ of leaf and 14,203,571 packages of cigarettes. The sugar industry is not similarly centralized. With the improvement of methods the old partially refined grades (moscobados) have disappeared.

Mining.—Mining is of very considerable importance. The Cobre copper mines near Santiago were once the greatest producers of the world. They were worked from 1524 until about 1730, when they were abandoned for almost a century, after which they were reopened and greatly developed. In 1828-1840 about two million dollars’ worth of ore was shipped yearly to the United States alone. After 1868 the mines were again abandoned and flooded, the mining property being ruined during the civil war. Finally, after 1900 they again became prosperous producers. The “Cobre” mine is only the most famous and productive of various copper properties. The copper output has not greatly increased since 1890, and is of slight importance in mineral exports. Iron and manganese have, on the contrary, been greatly developed in the same period. Iron is now the most important mineral product. The iron ores are even more accessible than the famous ones of the Lake Superior region in the United States. No shafts or tunnels are necessary except for exploration; the mining consists entirely in open-cut and terrace work. The cost of exploitation is accordingly slight. Daiquiri, near Santiago, and mines near Nipe, on the north coast, are the chief centres of production. Nearly the entire product goes to the United States. The first exports from the Daiquiri district were made by an American company in 1884; the Nipe (Cagimaya) mines became prominent in promise in 1906. The shipments from Oriente province from 1884 to 1901 aggregated 5,053,847 long tons, almost all going to the United States (which is true of other mineral products also). After 1900 production was greatly increased and by 1906 had come to exceed half a million tons annually. There are small mines in Santa Clara and Camagüey provinces. Manganese is mined mainly near La Maya and El Cristo in Oriente. The traditions as to gold and silver have already been referred to. Evidences of ancient workings remain near Holguin and Gibara, and it is possible that some of these workings are still exploitable. Mining for the precious metals ceased at a very early date, after rich discoveries were made on the continent. Bituminous products, though, as already stated, widely distributed, are not as yet much developed. The most promising deposits and the most important workings are in Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces. Petroleum has been used to some extent both as a fuel and as an illuminant. Small amounts of asphalt have been sent to the United States. Locally, asphalts are used as gas enrichers. Grahamite and glance-pitch are common, and are exported for use in varnish and paint manufactures. The commercial product of stones, brick and cement is of rapidly increasing importance. The foundation of the island is in many places almost pure carbonate of lime, and there are numerous small limekilns. The product is used to bleach sugar, as well as for construction and disinfection purposes. The number of small brick plants is legion, almost all very primitive.

Commerce.—Commerce (resting largely upon specialized agriculture) is vastly more prominent as yet than manufacturing and mining in the island’s economy. The leading articles of export are sugar, tobacco and fruit products; of import, textiles, foodstuffs, lumber and wood products, and machinery. Sugar and tobacco products together represent seven-eighths (in 1904-1907 respectively 60.3 and 27.3%) of the normal annual exports. In the quinquennial period 1890-1894 (immediately preceding the War of Independence) the average yearly commerce of the island in and out was $86,875,663 with the United States; and $28,161,726 with Spain.2 During the American military occupation of the island in 1899-1902, of the total imports 45.9% were from the United States, 14 from other American countries, 15 from Spain, 14 from the United Kingdom, 6 from France and 4 from Germany; of the exports the corresponding percentages for the same countries were 70.7, 2, 3, 10, 4 and 7. No special favours were enjoyed by the United States in this period, and about the same percentages prevailed in the years following. The total commercial movement of the island in the five calendar years 1902-1906 averaged $177,882,640 (for the five fiscal years 1902-1903 to 1906-1907, $185,987,020) annually, and of this the share of the United States was $108,431,000 yearly, representing 45.8% of all imports and 81.9% of all exports. The proportion of imports taken from the United States is greatest in foodstuffs, metals and metal manufactures, timber and furniture, mineral oils and lard. The trade of the United States with the island was as great in 1900-1907 as with Mexico and all the other West Indies combined; as great as its trade with Spain, Portugal and Italy combined; and almost as great as its trade with China and Japan.

Communications.—Poor means of communication have always been a great handicap to the industries of the island. The first railroad in Cuba (and the first in Spanish lands) was opened from Havana to Güines in 1837. In succeeding years a fairly ample system was built up between the cities of Pinar del Rio and Santa Clara, with a number of short spurs from the chief ports farther eastward into the interior. After the first American occupation a private company built a line from Santa Clara to Santiago, more than half the length of the island, finally connecting its two ends (1902). The policy of the railways was always one rather of extortion than of fairness or of any interest in the development of the country, but better conditions have begun. There was ostensible government regulation of rates after 1877, but the roads were guaranteed outright against any loss of revenue, and in fact practically nothing was ever done in the way of reform in the Spanish period. In 1900 the total length of railways was 2097 m., of which 1226 were of 17 public roads and 871 m. of 107 private roads. In August 1908 the mileage of all railways (including electric) in Cuba was 2329.8 m. The telegraph and telephone systems are owned by the government. Cables connect the island with Florida, Jamaica, Haiti and San Domingo, Porto Rico, the lesser Antilles, Panama, Venezuela and Brazil. Havana, Santiago and Cienfuegos are cable ports. Wagon roads are still of small extent and primitive character save in a very few localities. The peculiar two-wheeled carts of the country, carrying enormous loads of 4 to 6 tons, destroy even the finest road. Similar carts, slightly lighter, used in the cities, quickly destroy any paving but stone block. The only good highways of any considerable length in 1908 were in the two western provinces and in the vicinity of Santiago. During the second American occupation work was begun on a network of good rural highways.

Population.—Various censuses were taken in Cuba beginning in 1774; but the results of those preceding the abolition of slavery, at least, are probably without exception extremely untrustworthy. The census of 1887 showed a population of 1,631,687, that of 1899 a population of 1,572,792 (the decrease of 3.6% is explained by the intervening war); and by the census of 1907 there were 2,048,980 inhabitants, 30.3% more than in 1899. The average of settlement per square mile varied from 169.7 in Havana province to 11.8 in Camagüey, and was 46.4 for all of Cuba; the percentage of urban population (in cities, that is, with more than 1000 inhabitants) in the different provinces varied from 18.2 in Pinar del Rio to 74.7 in Havana, and was 43.9 for the entire island. There were five cities having populations above 25,000—Havana, 297,159; Santiago, 45,470; Matanzas, 36,009; Cienfuegos, 30,100; Puerto Príncipe (or Camagüey), 29,616; and fourteen more above 8000—Cardenas, Manzanillo, Guanabacoa, Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande, Sancti Spiritus, Guantánamo, Trinidad, Pinar del Rio, San Antonio de los Baños, Jovellanos, Marianao, Caibarién and Güines. The proportion of the total population which in 1907 was in cities of 8000 or more was only 30.3%; and the proportion in cities of 25,000 or more was 21.4%. Mainly owing to the large element of transient foreign whites without families (long characteristic of Cuba), males outnumber females—in 1907 as 21 to 19. Native whites, almost everywhere in the majority, constituted 59.8% of all inhabitants; persons of negro and mixed blood, 29.7%; foreign-born whites, 9.9%; Chinese less than 0.6%. Foreigners constituted 25.6% of the population in the city of Havana; only 7% in Pinar del Rio province. Native blood is most predominant in the provinces of Oriente and Pinar del Rio. After the end of the war of 1895-1898 a large immigration from Spain began; the inflow from the United States was very small in comparison. The Republic strongly encourages immigration. In 1900-1906 there were 143,122 immigrants, of whom 124,863 were Spaniards, 4557 were from the United States, 2561 were Spanish Americans, and a few were Italian, Syrian, Chinese, French, English, &c. The Chinese element is a remnant of a former coolie population; their numbers in 1907 (11,217) were less than a fourth the number in 1887. Their introduction began in 1847 and ended in 1871. Conjugal conditions in Cuba are peculiar. In 1907 only 20.7% of the total population were legally married; an additional 8.6% were living in more or less permanent consensual unions, these being particularly common among the negroes. Including all unions the total is below the European proportion, but above that of Porto Rico or Jamaica in 1899.

The negro element is strongest in the province of Oriente and weakest in Camagüey; in the former it constituted 43.1% of the population, in the latter 18.3%, and in Havana City 25.5%. In Guantánamo, in Santiago de Cuba, and in seven other towns they exceeded the whites in number. Caibarién and San Antonio de los Baños had the largest proportion of white population. The position of the negroes in Cuba is exceptional. Despite the long period of slavery they are decidedly below the whites in number. The Spanish slave laws (although in practice often frightfully abused) were always comparatively generous to the slave, making relatively easy, among other things, the purchase of his freedom, the number of free blacks being always great. Since the abolition of slavery the status of the black has been made more definite, and his rights naturally much greater. The wars of 1868-1878 and 1895-1898 and the threatened war of 1906 all helped to give to the negro element its high position. There is no antagonism between the divisions of the coloured race. All hold their own with the white in industrial usefulness to the community, and though the blacks are more backward in education and various other tests of social advancement, still their outlook is full of promise. There is practically no colour caste in Cuba; politically the negro is the white man’s equal; socially there is very little ostensible inequality and almost perfect toleration. The negro in Cuba shows promising though undeveloped traits of landlordship. Women labour habitually in the fields. Miscegenation of blacks and whites was extremely common before emancipation. It is sometimes said that since then there has been a counter-tendency, but it is impossible to prove such a statement conclusively except with the aid of future censuses. Few of the negroes are black; some of the blackest have the regular features of the Caucasian; and racial mixtures are everywhere evidenced by colour of skin and by physiognomy. Its seems certain that the African element has been holding its own in the population totals since emancipation.

Cuba is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic in religion, but under the new Republic there is a complete separation of church and state, and liberalism and indifference are increasing. Illiteracy is extremely widespread. In 1907 the census showed 56.6% (43.3 in 1899) of persons above ten years who could read. Of the voting population 53.2% of native white, and 37.3% of coloured Cuban citizens, and 71.6% of Spanish citizens could read. A revolution in education was begun the first year of the United States military occupation and continued under the Republic.

Constitution.—The constitution upon which the government of Cuba rests was framed during the period of the United States military government; it was adopted the 21st of February 1901, and certain amendments or conditions required by the United States were accepted on the 12th of June 1901. The constitution is republican and modelled on the Constitution of the United States, with some marked differences of greater centralization, due to colonial experience under the rule of Spain, notably as regards federalism; the provinces of the island being less important than the states of the American Union. The president of the Republic, who is elected for four years by an electoral college, and cannot hold office for more than two successive terms, has a cabinet whose members he may appoint and remove freely, their number being determined by law. He sanctions, promulgates and executes the laws, and supplements them (partly co-ordinately with congress) by administrative regulations in harmony with their ends; holds a veto power and pardoning power; controls with the senate political appointments and removals; and conducts foreign relations, submitting treaties to the senate for ratification. Congress consists of two houses. The senate contains four members from each province, chosen for eight years by a provincial electoral board, which consists of the provincial councilmen plus a double number of electors (half of them paying high taxes) who are selected at a special election by their fellow citizens. Half of the senators retire every four years. The senate is the court of trial for the president, officers of the cabinet, and provincial governors when accused of political offences. It also acts jointly with the president in political appointments and treaty making. The house of representatives, whose members are chosen directly by the citizens for four years, one-half retiring every two years, has the special power of impeaching the president and cabinet officers. Congress meets twice annually, in April and November. Its powers are extensive, including, in addition to ordinary legislative powers, control of financial affairs, foreign affairs, the power to declare war and approve treaties of peace, amnesties, electoral legislation for the provinces and municipalities, control of the electoral vote for president and vice-president, and designation of an acting president in case of the death or incapacity of these officers. The subjects of legislative power are very similar to those of the United States congress; but control of railroads, canals and public roads is explicitly given to the federal government. Justice is administered by courts of various grades, with a supreme court at Havana as the head; the members of this being appointed by the president and senate. This court passes on the constitutionality of all laws, decrees and regulations.

There are six provinces—Pinar del Rio, Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara, Camagüey or Puerto Príncipe, and Oriente. Each has a provincial governor and assembly chosen directly by the people, generally charged with independent control of matters affecting the province; but the president may interfere against an abuse of power by either the governor or the assembly. Municipalities are administered by mayors (alcaldes) and assemblies elected by the people, and control strictly municipal affairs. The “termino municipal” is the chief political and administrative civil division. It is an urban district together with contiguous rural territory. Its divisions are “barrios.” The president may interfere if necessary in the municipality as in the province; and so may the governor of the province. But all interference is subject to review of claims by the courts. Both provinces and municipalities are forbidden by the constitution to contract debts without a coincident provision of permanent revenue for their settlement.

The franchise is granted to every male Cuban twenty-one years of age, not mentally incapacitated, nor previously a convict of crime, nor serving in the army or navy of the state. Foreigners may become citizens in five years by naturalization. Church and state are completely separated, toleration being guaranteed for the profession and practice of all religious beliefs, and the government may not subsidize any religion.

Primary education is declared by the constitution to be free and compulsory; and its expenses are paid by the central government so far as it may be beyond the power of the province or municipality to bear them. Secondary Education. and advanced education is controlled by the state. In the last days of Spanish rule (1894), there were 904 public and 704 private schools, and not more than 60,000 pupils enrolled; in 1000 there were 3550 public schools with an enrolment of 172,273 and an average attendance of 123,362. In the four school years from 1903-1904 to 1906-1907 the figures of enrolment and average attendance were: 201,824 and 110,531; 194,657 and 105,706; 186,571 and 98,329; and 189,289 and 93,865. In 1906-1907 the percentage (31.6) of attendants to children of school age was twice as large as in 1898-1899. Private schools, some of very high grade, draw many pupils. Almost all schools are primary. The university of Havana (founded 1728) was given greatly improved facilities, especially of material equipment, by the American military government, and seems to have begun an ambitious progress. In 1907 the number of students was 554. Below the university there are six provincial institutes, one in each province, in each of which there is a preparatory department, a department of secondary education, and (this due to peculiar local conditions) a school of surveying; and in that of Havana commercial departments in addition. In Havana, also, there is a school of painting and sculpture, a school of arts and trades, and a national library, all of which are supported or subventioned by the national government, as are also a public library in Matanzas, and the Agricultural Experiment Station at Santiago de las Vegas. In connexion with the university is a botanical garden; with the national sanitary service, a biological laboratory, and special services for small-pox, glanders and yellow fever. Independent of the government are various schools and learned societies in Havana (q.v.). A school was established by the government in Key West, Florida (U.S.A.), in 1905, for the benefit of the Cuban colony there. Finally, the government sustains about two score of penal establishments, reform schools, hospitals, dispensaries and asylums, which are scattered all over the island,—every town of any considerable size having one or more of these charities.

Under the colonial rule of Spain the head of government was a supreme civil-military officer, the governor and captain-general. His control of the entire administrative life of the island was practically absolute. Originally Former government. residents at Santiago de Cuba, the captains-general resided after 1589 at Havana. Because of the isolation of the eastern part of the island, the dangers from pirates, and the important considerations which had caused Santiago de Cuba (q.v.) to be the first capital of the island, Cuba was divided in 1607 into two departments, and a governor, subordinate in military matters to the captain-general at Havana, was appointed to rule the territory east of Puerto Príncipe. In 1801, when the audiencia—of which the captain-general was ex officio president—began its functions at that point, the governor of Santiago became subordinated in political matters as much as in military. Two chief courts of justice (audiencias) sat at Havana (after 1832) and Puerto Príncipe (1800-1853); appeals could go to Spain; below the audiencias were “alcaldes mayores” or district judges and ordinary “alcaldes” or local judges. The audiencias also held important political powers under the Laws of the Indies. The captaincy-general of Cuba was not originally, however, by any means so broad in powers as the viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru; and by the creation in 1765 of the office of intendant—the delegate of the national treasury—his faculties were very greatly curtailed. The great powers of the intendant were, however, merged in those of the governor-general in 1853; and the captain-general having been given by royal order in 1825 (several times later explicitly confirmed, and not revoked until 1870) the absolute powers (to be assumed at his initiative and discretion) of the governor of a besieged city, and by a royal order of 1834 the power to banish at will persons supposed to be inimical to the public peace; and being by virtue of his office the president and dominator of all the important administrative boards of the government, held the government of the island, and in any emergency the liberty and property of its inhabitants, in his hand. The royal orders following 1825 developed a system of extraordinary and extreme repression. In 1878, as the result of the Ten Years’ War, various administrative reforms, of a decentralizing tendency, were introduced. The six provinces were created, and had governors and assemblies (“diputaciones”); and a municipal law was provided that in many ways was a sound basis for local government. But centralization remained very great. In the municipality the alcalde (mayor) was appointed by the governor-general, and the ayuntamiento (council) was controlled by the veto of the provincial governor and by the assembly of the province. The deputation was subject in turn to the same veto of the provincial governor, and he controlled by the governor-general. There was besides a provincial commission of five lawyers named by the governor-general from the members of the deputation, who settled election questions, and questions of eligibility in this body, gave advice as to laws, acted for the deputation when it was not sitting, and in general facilitated centralized control of the administrative system. The character of this body was altered in 1890, and in 1898, in which latter year its functions were reduced to the essentially judicial. Despite superficial decentralization after 1878 any real growth of local self-government was rendered impossible. Moreover, no great reforms were made in the abuses naturally incident to the old personal system. Exile and imprisonment at the will of the government and without trial were common. Personal liberty, liberty of conscience, speech, assembly, petition, association, press, liberty of movement and security of home, were without real guarantee even within the extremely small limits in which they nominally existed. Under the constitution of the Republic the sphere of individual liberty is large and constitutionally protected against the government.

Finance.—There has been a great change in the budget of Cuba since the advent of the Republic. In 1891-1896 the average annual income was $20,738,930, the annual average expenditure $25,967,139. More than half of the revenue was derived from customs duties (two-thirds of the total being collected at Havana). Of the expenditure more than ten million dollars annually went for the public debt, 5.5 to 6 millions for the army and navy, as much more for civil administration (including more than two millions for purely Peninsular services with which the colony was burdened); and on an average probably one million more went for sinecures. Every Cuban paid about twice as heavy taxes as a Spaniard of the Peninsula. Very little was spent on sanitation, roads, other public works and education. The revenue receipts under the Republic have increased especially over those of the old régime in the item of customs duties; and the expenditure is very differently distributed. Lotteries which were an important source of revenue under Spain were abolished under the Republic. The debt resting on the colony in 1895 (a large part of it as a result of the war of 1868-1878, the entire cost of which was laid upon the island, but a part as the result of Spain’s war adventures in Mexico and San Domingo, home loans, &c.) was officially stated at $168,500,000. The attainment of independence freed the island from this debt, and from enormous contemplated additions to cover the expense incurred by Spain during the last insurrection. The debt of the Republic in April 1908 was $48,146,585, including twenty-seven millions which were assumed in 1902 for the payment of the army of independence, four for agriculture, and four for the payment of revolutionary debts, and $2,196,585, representing obligations assumed by the revolution’s representative in the United States during the War of Independence. United States and British investments, always important in the agriculture and manufactures of the island, greatly increased following 1898, and by 1908 those of each nation were supposed to exceed considerably $100,000,000.

Archaeology.—Archaeological study in Cuba has been limited, and has not produced results of great importance. Almost nothing is actually known of prehistoric Cuba; and a few skulls and implements are the only basis existing for conjecture. Very little also is known as to the natives who inhabited the island at the time of the discovery. They were a tall race of copper hue; fairly intelligent, mild in temperament, who lived in poor huts and practised a limited and primitive agriculture. How numerous they were when the Spaniards first came among them cannot be said; undoubtedly tradition has greatly exaggerated their number. They are supposed to have been practically extinct by 1550. Even in the 19th century reports were spread of communities in which Indian blood was supposedly still plainly dominant; but the conclusion of the competent scientists who have investigated such rumours has been that at least absolutely nothing of the language and traditions of the aborigines has survived.

History.—Cuba was discovered by Columbus in the course of his first voyage, on the 27th of October 1492. He died believing Cuba was part of a continent. In 1508 Sebastian de Ocampo circumnavigated it. In 1511 Diego Velazquez began the conquest of the island. Baracoa (the landing point), Bayamo, Santiago de Cuba, Puerto Príncipe, Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad and the original Havana were all founded by 1515. Velazquez’s reputation and legends of wealth drew many immigrants to the island. From Cuba went the expeditions that discovered Yucatan (1517), and explored the shores of Mexico, Hernando Cortés’s expedition for the invasion of Mexico, and de Soto’s for the exploration of Florida. The last two had a pernicious effect on Cuba, draining it of horses, money and of men. At least as early as 1523 the African slave trade was begun. In 1544 the Indians, so far as they had not succumbed to the labour of the mines and fields to which they were put by the Spaniards, were proclaimed emancipated. The administration in the 16th century was loose and violent. The local authorities were divided among themselves by bitter feuds—the ecclesiastical against the civil, the ayuntamiento against the governors, the administrative officers among themselves; brigandage, mutinies and intestinal struggles disturbed the peace. As a result of the transfer of Jamaica to England, the population of Cuba was greatly augmented by Jamaican immigrants to about 30,000 in the middle of the 17th century.

The activity of English and French pirates began in the 16th century, and reached its climax in the middle of the 17th century. So early also began dissatisfaction with the economic regulations of the colonial system, even grave resistance to their enforcement; and illicit trade with privateers and foreign colonies had begun long before, and in the 17th and 18th centuries was the basis of the island’s wealth. In 1762 Havana was captured after a long resistance by a British force under Admiral Sir George Pocock and the earl of Albemarle, with heavy loss to the besiegers. It was returned to Spain the next year in exchange for the Floridas. From this date begins the modern history of the island. The British opened the port to commerce and the slave trade and revealed its possibilities. The government of Spain, beginning in 1764, made notable breaches in the old monopolistic system of colonial trade throughout America; and Cuba received special privileges, also, that were a basis for real prosperity. Spain paid increasing attention to the island, and in harmony with the policy of the Laws of the Indies many decrees intended to stimulate agriculture and commerce were issued by the crown, first in the form of monopolies, then with increased freedom and with bounties. Various colonial products and the slave trade were favoured in this way. After the cession of the Spanish portion of San Domingo to France hundreds of Spanish families emigrated to Cuba, and many thousand more immigrants, mainly French, followed them from the entire island during the revolution of the blacks. Most of them settled in Oriente province, where their names and blood are still apparent, and with their cafetales and sugar plantations converted that region from neglect and poverty to high prosperity.

Under a succession of liberal governors (especially Luis de las Casas, 1790-1796, and the marqués de Someruelos, 1799-1813), at the end of the 18th century and the first part of the 19th, when the wars in Europe cut off Spain almost entirely from the colony, Cuba was practically independent. Trade was comparatively free, and worked a revolution in culture and material conditions. General Las Casas, in particular, left behind him in Cuba an undying memory of good efforts. Free commerce with foreigners—a fact after 1809—was definitely legalized in 1818 (confirmed in 1824). The state tobacco monopoly was abolished in 1817. The reported populations by the (untrustworthy) censuses of 1774, 1792 and 1817 were 161,670, 273,301 and 553,033. Something of political freedom was enjoyed during the two terms of Spanish constitutional government under the constitution of 1812. The sharp division between creoles and peninsulars (i.e. between those born in Cuba and those born in Spain), the question of annexation to the United States or possibly to some other power, the plotting for independence, all go back to the early years of the century.

Partly because of political and social divisions thus revealed, conspiracies being rife in the decade 1820-1830, and partly as preparation for the defence against Mexico and Colombia, who throughout these same years were threatening the island with invasion, the captains-general, in 1825, received the powers above referred to; which became, as time passed, monstrously in disaccord with the general tendencies of colonial government and with increasing liberties in Spain, but continued to be the spiritual basis of Spanish rule in the island. Among the governors of the 19th century Miguel Tacon, governor in 1834-1839, a forceful and high-handed soldier, deserves mention, especially in the annals of Havana; he ruled as a tyrant, made many reforms as regarded law and order, and left Havana, in particular, full of municipal improvements. The good he did was limited to the spheres of public works and police; in other respects his rule was a pernicious influence for Cuba. Politically his rule was marked by the proclamation at Santiago in 1836, without his consent, of the Spanish constitution of 1834; he repressed the movement, and in 1837 the deputies of Cuba to the Cortes of Spain (to which they were admitted in the two earlier constitutional periods) were excluded from that body, and it was declared in the national constitution that Cuba (and Porto Rico) should be governed by “special laws.” The inapplicability of many laws passed for the Peninsula—all of which under a constitutional system would apply to Cuba as to any other province, unless that system be modified—was indeed notorious; and Cuban opinion had repeatedly, through official bodies, protested against laws thus imposed that worked injustice, and had pleaded for special consideration of colonial conditions. The promise of “special laws” based upon such consideration was therefore not, in itself, unjust, nor unwelcome. But as the colony had no voice in the Cortes, while the “special laws” were never passed (Cuba expected special fundamental laws, reforming her government, and the government regarded the old Laws of the Indies as satisfying the obligation of the constitution) the arbitrary rule of the captains-general remained quite supreme, under the will of the crown, and colonial discontent became stronger and stronger. The rule of Leopoldo O’Donnell was marked in 1844 by a cruel and bloody persecution of negroes for a supposed plot of servile war; O’Donnell’s actions being partly due to the inquietude that had prevailed for some years over the supposed machinations of English abolitionists and even of English official residents in the island, and also over the mutual jealousies and supposed annexation ambitions of Great Britain and the United States.

A Cuban international question had arisen before 1820. Spain, the United States, England, France, Colombia and Mexico were all involved in it, the first four continually. In the eighteen-fifties a strong pro-slavery interest in the United States advocated the acquisition of the island. One feature of this was the “Ostend Manifesto” (see Buchanan, James), in which the ministers of the United States at London, Paris and Madrid declared that if Spain refused a money offer for the colony the United States should seize it. Their government gave this document publicity. The Cuban policy of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan (during 1853-1861) was vainly directed to acquiring the island. From 1849 to 1851 there were three abortive filibustering expeditions from the United States, two being under a Spanish general, Narciso Lopez (1798-1851). The domestic problem, the problem of discontent in the island, had become acute by 1850, and from this time on to 1868 the years were full of conflict between liberal and reactionary sentiment in the colony, centreing about the asserted connivance of the captains-general in the illegal slave trade (declared illegal after 1820 by the treaties of 1817 and 1835 between Great Britain and Spain), the notorious immorality and prodigal wastefulness of the government, and the selfish exploitation of the colony by Spaniards and the Spanish government. From early in the 19th century there had always been separatists, reformists and repressionists in the island, but they were individuals rather than groups. The last were peninsulars, the others mainly creoles, and among the wealthy classes of the latter the separatists gradually gained increasing support.

An ineffective and extremely corrupt administration, a grave economic condition, new and heavy taxes, military repression, recurring heavy deficits in the budget, adding to a debt (about $150,000,000 in 1868) already very large and burdensome, and the complete fiasco of the junta of inquiry of Cuban and Porto Rican representatives which met in Madrid in 1866-1867—all were important influences favouring the outbreak of the Ten Years’ War. Among those who waged the war were men who fought to compel reforms, others who fought for annexation to the United States, others who fought for independence. The reformists demanded, besides the correction of the above evils, action against slavery, assimilation of rights between peninsulars and creoles and the practical recognition of equality, e.g. in the matter of office-holding, a grievance centuries old in Cuba as in other Spanish colonies, and guarantees of personal liberties. The separatists, headed by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1819-1874), a wealthy planter who proclaimed the revolution at Yara on the 10th of October, demanded the same reforms, including gradual emancipation of the slaves with indemnity to owners, and the grant of free and universal suffrage. War was confined throughout the ten years almost wholly to the E. provinces. The policy of successive captains-general was alternately uncompromisingly repressive and conciliatory. The Spanish volunteers committed horrible excesses in Havana and other places; the rebels also burned and killed indiscriminatingly, and the war became increasingly cruel and sanguinary. Intervention by the United States seemed probable, but did not come, and after alternations in the fortunes of war, Martinez Campos in January 1878 secured the acceptance by the rebels of the convention (pacto) of Zanjón, which promised amnesty for the war, liberty to slaves in the rebel ranks, the abolition of slavery, reforms in government, and colonial autonomy. A small rising after peace (the “Little War” of 1879-1880) was easily repressed. Gradual abolition of slavery was declared by a law of the 13th of February 1880; definitive abolition in 1886; and in 1893 the equal civil status of blacks and whites in all respects was proclaimed by General Calleja. There is no more evidence to warrant the wholly erroneous statement sometimes made that emancipation was an economic set-back to Cuba than could be gathered to support a similar statement regarding the United States. Coolie importation from China had been stopped in 1871.

As for autonomy and political reforms it has already been remarked that the change from the old régime was only superficial. The Spanish constitution of 1876 was proclaimed in Cuba in 1881. In 1878-1895 political parties had a complex development. The Liberal party was of growing radicalism, the Union Constitutional party of growing conservatism; and after 1893 a Reformist party was launched that drew the compromisers and the waverers. The demands of the Liberals were as in 1868; those for personal and property rights were much more definitely stated, and among explicit reforms demanded were the separation of civil and military power, general recognition of administrative responsibility under a colonial autonomous constitutional régime; also among economic matters, customs reforms and reciprocity with the United States were demanded. As for the representation accorded Cuba in the Spanish Cortes, as a rule about a quarter of her deputies were Cuban-born, and the choice of only a few autonomists was allowed by those who controlled the elections. Reciprocity with the United States was in force from 1891 to 1894 and was extremely beneficial to Cuba. Its cessation greatly increased disaffection.

Discontent grew, and another war was prepared for. On the 23rd of February 1895 General Calleja suspended the constitutional guarantees. The leading chiefs of the Ten Years’ War took the field again—Máximo Gómez, Antonio Macéo, Jose Martí, Calixto García and others. Unlike that war, this was carried to the western provinces, and indeed was fiercest there. Among the military means adopted by the Spaniards to isolate their foe were “trochas” (i.e. entrenchments, barbwire fences, and lines of block-houses) across the narrow parts of the island, and “reconcentracion” of non-combatants in camps guarded by the Spanish forces. The latter measure produced extreme suffering and much starvation (as the reconcentrados were largely thrown upon the charity of the beggared communities in which they were huddled). In October 1897 the Spanish premier, P. M. Sagasta, announced the policy of autonomy, and the new dispensation was proclaimed in Cuba in December. But again all final authority was reserved to the captain-general. The system was never to have a practical trial, although a full government was quickly organized under it. The American people had sent food to the reconcentrados; President McKinley, while opposing recognition of the rebels, affirmed the possibility of intervention; Spain resented this attitude; and finally, in February 1898, the United States battleship “Maine” was blown up—by whom will probably never be known—in the harbour of Havana.

On the 20th of April the United States demanded the withdrawal of Spanish troops from the island. War followed immediately. A fine Spanish squadron seeking to escape from Santiago harbour was utterly destroyed by the American blockading force on the 3rd of July; Santiago was invested by land forces, and on the 15th of July the city surrendered. Other operations in Cuba were slight. By the treaty of Paris, signed on the 10th of December, Spain “relinquished” the island to the United States in trust for its inhabitants; the temporary character of American occupation being recognized throughout the treaty, in accord with the terms of the American declaration of war, in which the United States disclaimed any intention to control the island except for its pacification, and expressed the determination to leave the island thereupon to the control of its people. Spanish authority ceased on the 1st of January 1899, and was followed by American “military” rule (January 1, 1899-May 20, 1902). During these three years the great majority of offices were filled by Cubans, and the government was made as different as possible from the military control to which the colony had been accustomed. Very much was done for public works, sanitation, the reform of administration, civil service and education. Most notable of all, yellow fever was eradicated where it had been endemic for centuries. A constitutional convention sat at Havana from the 5th of November 1900 to the 21st of February 1901. The provisions of the document thus formed have already been referred to. In the determination of the relations that should subsist between the new republic and the United States certain definite conditions known as the Platt Amendment were finally imposed by the United States, and accepted by Cuba (12th of June 1901) as a part of her constitution. By these Cuba was bound not to incur debts her current revenues will not bear; to continue the sanitary administration undertaken by the military government of intervention; to lease naval stations (since located at Bahía Honda and Guantánamo) to the United States; and finally, the right of the United States to intervene, if necessary, in the affairs of the island was explicitly affirmed in the provision, “That the government of Cuba consents that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the protection of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property and individual liberty, and for discharging the obligations with respect to Cuba imposed by the treaty of Paris on the United States, now to be assumed and undertaken by the government of Cuba.” The status thus created is very exceptional in the history of international relations. The status of the Isle of Pines was left an open question by the treaty of Paris, but a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has declared it (in a question of customs duties) to be a part of Cuba, and though a treaty to the same end did not secure ratification (1908) by the United States Senate, repeated efforts by American residents thereon to secure annexation to the United States were ignored by the United States government.

The first Cuban congress met on the 5th of May 1902, prepared to take over the government from the American military authorities, which it did on the 20th of May. Tomas Estrada Palma (1835-1908) became the first president of the Republic. In material prosperity the progress of the island from 1902 to 1906 was very great; but in its politics, various social and economic elements, and political habits and examples of Spanish provenience that ill befit a democracy, led once more to revolution. Congress neglected to pass certain laws which were required by the constitution, and which, as regards municipal autonomy, independence of the judiciary, and congressional representation of minority parties, were intended to make impossible the abuses of centralized government that had characterized Spanish administration. Political parties were forming without very evident basis for differences outside questions of political patronage and the good or ill use of power; and, in the absence of the laws just mentioned, the Moderates, being in power, used every instrument of government to strengthen their hold on office. The preliminaries of the elections of December 1905 and March 1906 being marked by frauds and injustice, the Liberals deserted the polls at those elections, and instead of appealing to judicial tribunals controlled by the Moderates, issued a manifesto of revolution on the 28th of July 1906.3 This insurrection rapidly assumed large proportions. The government was weak and lacked moral support in the whole island. After repeated petitions from President Palma for intervention by the United States, commissioners (William H. Taft, Secretary of War, and Robert Bacon, Acting Secretary of State) were sent from Washington to act as peace mediators.

All possible efforts to secure a compromise that would preserve the Republic failed. The president resigned (on the 28th of September), Congress dispersed without choosing a successor, and as an alternative to anarchy the United States was compelled to proclaim on the 29th of September 1906 a provisional government,—to last “long enough to restore order and peace and public confidence,” and hold new elections. The insurrectionists promptly disbanded. Government was maintained under the Cuban flag,—the diplomatic and consular relations with even the United States remaining in outward forms unchanged; and the regular forms of the constitution were scrupulously maintained so far as possible. No use was made of American military force save as a passive background to the government. The government of intervention at first directed its main effort simply to holding the country together, without undertaking much that could divide public opinion or seem of unpalatably foreign impulse; and later to the establishment of a few fundamental laws which, when intervention ceased, should give greater simplicity, strength and stability to a new native government. These laws strictly defined the powers of the president; more clearly separated the executive departments, so as to lessen friction and jealousies; reformed the courts; reformed administrative routine; and increased the strength of the provinces at the expense of the municipalities. On the 28th of January 1909 the American administration ceased, and the Republic was a second time inaugurated, with General José Miguel Gomez (b. 1856), the leader of the Miguelista faction of the Liberal party, as president, and Alfredo Zayas, the leader of the Zayista faction of the same party, as vice-president. The last American troops were withdrawn from the island on the 1st of April 1909.

Authorities.—General Description.—There is no trustworthy recent description. The best books are E. Pechardo, Geografía de la isla de Cuba (4 tom., Havana, 1854); M. Rodriguez-Ferrer, Naturaleza y civilización de ... Cuba, vol. i. (Madrid, 1876). See also United States Geological Survey, Bulletin 192 (1902), H. Gannett, “A Gazetteer of Cuba.” Of general descriptions in English, in addition to travels cited below, may be cited R. T. Hill, Cuba and Porto Rico with the other West Indies (New York, 1898).

Fauna and Flora.—A. H. R. Grisebach, Catalogus plantarum Cubensium (Leipzig, 1866), and F. A. Sauvalle, Flora Cubana: revisio catalogi Grisebachiani (Havana, 1868); and Flora Cubana: enumeratio nova plantarum Cubensium (Havana, 1873); F. Poey et al., Repertorio fisico-natural de la isla de Cuba (2 vols., Havana, 1865-1868), and F. Poey, Memorias sobre la historia natural de ... Cuba (3 tom., Havana, 1851-1860); Ramon de la Sagra, with many collaborators, Historia física, política y natural de ... Cuba (Paris, 1842-1851, 12 vols.; issued also in French; vols. 3-12 being the “Historia Natural”); Anales of the Academia de Ciencias (Havana, 1863- , annual); M. Gomez de la Maza, Flora Habanera (Havana, 1897); S. A. de Morales, Flora arborícola de Cuba aplicada (Havana, 1887, only part published); D. H. Seguí, Ojeado sobre la flora médica y tóxica de Cuba (Havana, 1900); J. Gundlach, Contribucion à la entomología Cubana (Havana, 1881); J. M. Fernandez y Jimenez, Tratado de la arboricultura Cubana (Havana, 1867).

Geology and Minerals.—M. F. de Castro, “Pruebas paleontologicas de que la isla de Cuba ha estado unida al continento americano y breve idea de su constitucion geologica,” Bol. Com. Mapa Geol. de Esp. vol. viii. (1881), pp. 357-372; M. F. de Castro and P. Salterain y Legarra, “Croquis geologico de la isla de Cuba,” ibid. vol. viii. pl. vi. (published with vol. xi., 1884). Many articles in Anales of the Academy; also, R. T. Hill in Harvard College Museum of Comparative Zöology, Bulletin, vol. 16, pp. 243-288 (1895); United States Geological Survey, 22nd Annual Report, 1901, C. W. Hayes et al., “Geological Reconnaissance of Cuba”; Civil Report of General Leonard Wood, governor of Cuba (1902), vol. v., H. C. Brown, “Report on Mineral Resources of Cuba.”

Climate.—See the Boletin Oficial de la Secretaria de Agricultura, and publications of the observatory of Havana. Sanitation.—For conditions 1899-1902, see Civil Reports of American military governors. For conditions since 1902 consult the Informe Mensual (1903- ) of the Junta Superior de Sanidad.

Agriculture.—Consult the Boletin above mentioned, publications of the Estación Central Agronómica, and current statistical serial reports of the treasury department (Hacienda) on natural resources, live-stock interests, the sugar industry (annual), &c.

Industries, Commerce, Communications.—See the works of Sagra and Pezuela. For conditions about 1899 consult R. P. Porter (Special Commissioner of the United States government), Industrial Cuba (New York, 1899); W. J. Clark, Commercial Cuba (New York, 1898); reports of foreign consular agents in Cuba; and the statistical annuals of the Hacienda on foreign commerce and railways.

Population.—The early censuses were extremely unreliable. Illuminating discussions of them can be found in Humboldt’s Essay, Saco’s Papeles and Pezuela’s Diccionario. See United States Department of War, Report on the Census of Cuba 1899 (Washington, 1899); U.S. Bureau of the Census, Cuba: Population, History and Resources, 1907 (1909).

Education.—See Civil Reports of the American military government, 1899-1902; United States commissioner of education, Report, 1897-1898; current reports in Informe del superintendente de escuelas de Cuba ... (Havana, 1903- ). On Letters and Culture.—E. Pechardo y Tapia, Diccionario ... de voces Cubanas (Havana, 1836, 4th ed., 1875; all editions with many errors); Antonio Bachiller y Morales, Apuntes para la historia de las letras y de la instrucción pública de Cuba (3 tom., Havana, 1859-1861); J. M. Mestre, De la filosofía en la Habana (Havana, 1862); A. Mitjans, Estudio sobre el movimiento científico y literario de Cuba (Havana, 1890); biographies of Varela and Luz Caballero by Rodriguez (see below); files of La Revista de Cuba (16 vols., Havana, 1877-1884) and La Revista Cubana (21 vols., Havana, 1885-1895). The literature of Travel is rich. It suffices to mention Letters from the Havannah, by the English consul (London, 1821); E. M. Masse, L’Île de Cuba (Paris, 1825); D. Turnbull, Travels in the West (London, 1840), and R. R. Madden, The Island of Cuba (London, 1853)—two very important books regarding slavery; J. B. Rosemond de Beauvallon, L’Île de Cuba (Paris, 1844); J. G. Taylor, The United States and Cuba (London, 1851); F. Bremer, The Homes of the New World (2 vols., New York, 1853); M. M. Ballou, History of Cuba, or Notes of a Traveller (Boston, 1854); R. H. Dana, To Cuba and Back (Boston, 1859); J. von Sivers, Die Perle der Antillen (Leipzig, 1861); A. C. N. Gallenga, The Pearl of the Antilles (London, 1873); S. Hazard, Cuba with Pen and Pencil (Hartford, Conn., 1873); H. Piron, L’Île de Cuba (Paris, 1876). Of later books, F. Matthews, The New-Born Cuba (New York, 1899); R. Davey, Cuba Past and Present (London, 1898). Among the writers who have left short impressions are A. Granier de Cassagnac (1844), J. J. A. Ampère (1855), A. Trollope (1860), J. A. Froude (1888).

Administration.—Consult the literature of history and colonial reform given below. Also: Leandro Garcia y Gragitena, Guia del empleado de hacienda (Havana, 1860), with very valuable historical data; Carlos de Sedano y Cruzat, Cuba desde 1850 à 1873. Coleccion de informes, memorias, proyectos y antecedentes sobre el gobierno de la isla de Cuba (Madrid, 1875); Vicente Vasquez Queipo, Informe fiscal sobre fomento de la poblacion blanca (Madrid, 1845); Informacion sobre reformas en Cuba y Puerto Rico celebrada en Madrid en 1866 y 67 por los representantes de ambas islas (2 tom., New York, 1867; 2nd ed., New York, 1877); and the Diccionario of Pezuela. These, with the works of Saco, Sagra, Arango and Alexander von Humboldt’s work, Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba (2 vols., Paris 1826; Spanish editions, 1 vol., Paris, 1827 and 1840; English translation by J. S. Thrasher, with interpolations, New York, 1856), are indispensable. For conditions at the end of the 18th century, Fran. de Arango y Parreño, Obras (2 tom., Havana, 1888). For later conditions, E. Valdes Dominguez, Los Antiguos Diputados de Cuba (Havana, 1879); B. Huber, Aperçu statistique de l’île de Cuba (Paris, 1826); Humboldt; Sagra, vols. 1-2 of the book cited above, being the Historia física y política, and also the earlier work on which they are based, Historia económica-política y estadística de ... Cuba (Havana, 1831); treatises on administrative law in Cuba by J. M. Morilla (Havana, 1847; 2nd ed., 1865, 2 vols.) and A. Govin (3 vols., Havana, 1882-1883); A. S. Rowan and M. M. Ramsay, The Island of Cuba (New York, 1896); Coleccion de reales ordenes, decretos y disposiciones (Havana, serial, 1857-1898); Spanish Rule in Cuba. Laws Governing the Island. Reviews Published by the Colonial Office in Madrid ... (New York, for the Spanish legation, 1896); and compilations of Spanish colonial laws listed under article Indies, Laws of the. On the new Republican régime: Gaceta Oficial (Havana, 1903- ); reports of departments of government; M. Romero Palafox, Agenda de la republica de Cuba (Havana, 1905). See also the Civil Reports of the United States military governors, J. R. Brooke (2 vols., 1899; Havana and Washington, 1900), L. Wood (33 vols., 1900-1902; Washington, 1901-1902).

History.—The works (see above) of Sagra, Humboldt and Arango are indispensable; also those of Francisco Calcagno, Diccionario biográfico Cubano (ostensibly, New York, 1878); Vidal Morales y Morales, Iniciadores y primeros mártires de la revolución Cubana (Havana, 1901); José Ahumada y Centurión, Memoria histórica política de ... Cuba (Havana, 1874); Jacobo de la Pezuela, Diccionario geográfico-estadístico-histórico de ... Cuba (4 tom., Madrid, 1863-1866); Historia de ... Cuba, (4 tom., Madrid, 1868-1878; supplanting his Ensayo histórico de ... Cuba, Madrid and New York, 1842); and José Antonio Saco, Obras (2 vols., New York, 1853), Papeles (3 tom., Paris, 1858-1859), and Coleccion postuma de Papeles (Havana, 1881). Also: Rodriguez Ferrer, op. cit. above, vol. 2 (Madrid, 1888); P. G. Guitéras, Historia de ... Cuba (2 vols., New York, 1865-1866). Of great value is J. Zaragoza, Las Insurrecciones en Cuba. Apuntes para la historia política (2 tom., Madrid, 1872-1873); also J. I. Rodriguez, Vida de ... Félix Varela (New York, 1878), and Vida de D. José de la Luz (New York, 1874; 2nd ed., 1879). On early history see Coleccion de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento ... de ultramar (series 2, vols. 1, 4, 6, Madrid, 1885-1890). On archaeology, N. Fort y Roldan, Cuba indigena (Madrid, 1881); M. Rodriguez Ferrer (see above); and especially A. Bachiller y Morales, Cuba primitiva (Havana, 1883). For the history of the Cuban international problem consult José Ignacio Rodriguez, Idea de la anexion de la isla de Cuba à los Estados Unidos de America (Havana, 1900), and J. M. Callahan, Cuba and International Relations (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1898), which supplement each other. On the domestic reform problem there is an enormous literature, from which may be selected (see general histories above and works cited under § Administration of this bibliography): M. Torrente, Bosquejo económico-político (2 tom., Madrid-Havana, 1852-1853); D. A. Galiano, Cuba en 1858 (Madrid, 1859); José de la Concha, twice Captain-General of Cuba, Memorias sobre el estado político, gobierno y administración de ... Cuba (Madrid, 1853); A. Lopez de Letona, Isla de Cuba, reflexiones (Madrid, 1856); F. A. Conte, Aspiraciones del partido liberal de Cuba (Havana, 1892); P. Valiente, Réformes dans les îles de Cuba et de Porto Rico (Paris, 1869); C. de Sedano, Cuba: Estudios políticos (Madrid, 1872); H. H. S. Aimes, History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511-1868 (New York, 1907); F. Armas y Cèspedes, De la esclavitud en Cuba (Madrid, 1866), and Régimen político de las Antillas Españolas (Palma, 1882); R. Cabrera, Cuba y sus Jueces (Havana, 1887; 9th ed., Philadelphia, 1895; 8th ed., in English, Cuba and the Cubans, Philadelphia, 1896); P. de Alzola y Minondo, El Problema Cubano (Bilbao, 1898); various works by R. M. de Labra, including La Cuestion social en las Antillas Españolas (Madrid, 1874), Sistemas coloniales (Madrid, 1874), &c.; R. Montoro, Discursos ... 1878-1893 (Philadelphia, 1894); Labra et al., El Problema colonial contemporánea (2 vols., Madrid, 1894); articles by Em. Castelar et al., in Spanish reviews (1895-1898). On the period since 1899 the best two books in English are C. M. Pepper, To-morrow in Cuba (New York, 1899); A. G. Robinson, Cuba and the Intervention (New York, 1905).

(F. S. P.)

1 Other countries taking only 27,462 long tons out of a total of 5,719,777 in the seven fiscal years 1899-1900 to 1905-1906.

2 In these same years the trade of the United States with Cuba and Porto Rico was: importations from the islands, $59,221,444 annually; exportations to the islands, $20,017,156. The corresponding figures for Spain were $7,265,142 and $20,035,183; and for the United Kingdom, $714,837 and $11,971,129, the trade with other countries being of much less amount.

3 In the preliminary registration by Moderate officials a total electorate was registered of 432,313,—about 30% of the supposed population of the island.