THE FALL OF AN EMPIRE
THE SUPREMACY OF SPAIN--ENCROACHMENTS OF OTHER NATIONS--CAUSES WHICH LED
TO COLONIAL REVOLT--BIRTH OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS--INSURRECTIONS
IN CUBA--ROBAMOS TODOS
The population of Hayti at the advent of Columbus was estimated to have
been a million, yet, before many years had elapsed, the colonists were
forcibly depopulating the smaller islands to provide a supply of labor
sufficient for their limited requirements. It was the people of the
mainland who might have been expected and who actually did offer the
stoutest resistance. No more wonderful campaign is recorded in military
history than that conducted by Cortes against the Mexicans, and it may
be doubted whether there was another man living who could have carried
it to a successful issue.
Conspicuous as a general, he was unmatched as a diplomatist, whether in
dealing with his own soldiers, his allies, or his enemies. Who else in
that age would have dreamed, after defeating the Tlascalans against
fearful odds, of enlisting them against their deadly foes the Aztecs,
and so humoring them that they never swerved in their loyalty? Or who
could have traded on the superstition, of Montezuma, so as to gain
complete control over his mind, and extract his treasures, valued at
something like seven and a half million dollars, without a blow? But
Montezuma once removed, the people, who had long been accustomed to
render him an unquestioned obedience, and to submit themselves to his
slightest command, were free to follow leaders who evinced more spirit;
and the death of that monarch was speedily followed by the _noche
triste_ with all its attendant horrors. To be captured alive, as many of
the Spanish soldiers were, meant the most terrible of all ends, for they
were hurried away to the temples, and their palpitating hearts torn from
their living bodies, to be offered as a propitiation to the national
deities. Yet even this did not disconcert Cortes and his brave
adherents, who began immediately to concert another plan of campaign.
The difficulties they had first encountered were as nothing compared to
those they had still to face, for they had to deal with a victorious and
determined foe, instead of a beaten and depressed one. Every obstacle,
however, was overcome; and with the energetic assistance of allies, who
little dreamed they were sealing their own doom and forever sacrificing
their independence, the powerful and rich kingdom of Mexico was finally
brought into complete subjection to the Castilian crown.
Of totally different and vastly inferior fiber was the conqueror of
Peru. Pizarro was without either education or address--a rough,
ambitious, and avaricious soldier. He, too, was favored by internal
dissensions, of which he could not possibly have known anything when he
set forth on his errand. After a long period of peaceful and undisputed
sway, the Inca dynasty was split by a feud between two brothers, one of
whom, Atahualpa, had just asserted his superiority by force of arms,
when the European conquerors appeared on the scene. A word from him, and
not a man of them would have escaped alive. But at the critical moment
an unaccountable paralysis overtook him, whether or not arising from a
curiosity to see and interview the strangers it is impossible to say. He
realized his danger too late, for Pizarro, imitating Cortes, seized the
person of the Inca, and the rest was rendered comparatively easy.
Accustomed, like Montezuma, to exact unqualified obedience, he employed
his subjects in collecting his ransom instead of fighting for his
deliverance; and when the debt was almost paid, he found himself doomed
to death instead of released from captivity. The forces of the empire
were then scattered, and without a leader who could assume full
authority. Still, many a desperate bid was subsequently made for
freedom, but each time with less prospect of success, as the conquerors
secured a firmer grip upon the country, until the execution of Tapac
Amara, the last direct descendant of the Incas, in 1571, left that
solitude which Cæsar called peace.
But after all it was not the opposition of the Indians, whether of the
islands, of Mexico, or Peru, that proved the greatest danger to Spanish
sovereignty. Enmity to Columbus, who was the accredited representative
of the crown and legal governor of the Indies, did not necessarily infer
enmity to the crown itself; indeed, those who rebelled against him were
loud in their protestations of loyalty. Nevertheless, the turbulent
factions fought for their own hand, and would have been equally opposed
to any other governor who sought to place the necessary restraint upon
their license. By permitting, and even compelling, many of the
discontented to return home, as well as by the temporary removal of
Columbus himself, something like quiet was restored; but it is more than
probable that had not the colonists been largely dependent upon Spain
for many necessaries, not excluding food, they would have cut themselves
adrift and refused to submit to the exactions upon their industry, or
rather upon that of the natives from which they profited. More than once
in the early days, the home government had to stop cautiously, and
commissions were dispatched to ascertain where the grievances lay, and
if possible redress them. They were mostly connected with labor; the
majority of the clergy, to their credit be it said, ranging themselves
on the side of humanity, and using all their influence to obtain
ordinances favorable to the natives. This difficulty was smoothed away
to a great extent by the introduction of the African negro, which began
as early as the year 1503.
The followers of Cortes were remarkably loyal to him in prosperity and
adversity alike; and though for a long time he was unaware how his
proceedings would be received at court, he remained consistent in his
devotion to his sovereign. His dispatches breathe an almost effusive
submission to their will and interests, and only his enemies ever laid
any charges against him, while his own actions too obviously refuted
them. It was only when some of his officers were removed from his
influence and intrusted with commissions of their own that they thought
of kicking over the traces, and then it invariably happened that they
were not in situations where any great harm could result. Mexico once
subdued, long rendered the most willing obedience of any of the
colonies, partly perhaps because under the direct influence of good and
great viceroys, who acted both with intelligence and discretion.
It was far otherwise in Peru, where the duplicity of Pizarro in
excluding Almagro from his proper share in the governorship roused the
suspicion, then the ire, and finally the opposition of that honest and
gallant soldier. When Pizarro returned from his visit to Spain, he was
either accompanied or immediately followed by several of his brothers,
who, among them, formed a family compact for the protection and
promotion of their own interests. To rid themselves of the rivalry of
Almagro, they obtained for him the governorship of the country which now
comprises the Republic of Chili. This, however, had still to be
conquered, and the obstacles which presented themselves to the
enterprise appeared so insurmountable that Almagro and his followers
abandoned it and returned to Cuzco, the rich capital of Peru, which, the
former maintained, fell within the latitude of the patent granted to
him. This assertion was naturally contested by the Pizarros, and in the
civil war that followed both Francisco Pizarro, the eldest and foremost
of the brothers, and Almagro met with violent deaths. The Indians looked
on with amazement at this strife between the white men, but failed to
profit by it. Had they shown anything like the energy displayed in the
warfare among themselves, or that of their Mexican brothers, they must
inevitably have recaptured their kingdom, which it would have been
extremely difficult to reconquer; but having allowed the golden
opportunity to slip, it never again offered.
But the most serious menace to the supremacy of Spain in the New World
occurred shortly after the promulgation of the edicts of Charles V. in
1542. The clauses guaranteeing the Indians their freedom, and protecting
them against undue imposition, either of taxation or forced labor, were
so obnoxious to the colonists that something like a general rising was
threatened. The tact of the Mexican viceroy pacified those under his
rule, but Peru experienced the full force of an armed rebellion with all
its evil consequences. The leader in this instance was Gonzales Pizarro,
who had inherited the immense estates conferred upon the family by a
grateful sovereign, and who now undoubtedly aimed at establishing a
separate kingdom with himself its supreme head. Fortunately, the right
man was again sent from Spain to deal effectively with this uprising,
and though a cleric, Vaca de Castro exhibited the skill of a general and
the diplomacy of a statesman. With the execution of Gonzales, the last
of the Pizarro brothers, peace was restored; and by the middle of the
sixteenth century the various governments were so effectively
consolidated that not for upward of a hundred and fifty years did any
revolt, Indian or Creole, meet with more than temporary success.
It was far otherwise with the Philippines, which have never been free
for any length of time from disturbances of some kind. No effort indeed
has ever been made to thoroughly subdue the turbulent natives; and there
is no similar extent of territory under the control of a European
government, about which so little is known regarding its natural
resources and mineral wealth as the important islands of Luzon and
Mindanao, which embrace half the total area of the archipelago. The
principal ports have been strongly fortified, and reliance placed upon
them to retain possession. The immunities enjoyed by the natives would,
under ordinary circumstances, offer little inducement to revolt, but
unfortunately the Philippines have from the very first been particularly
subject to ecclesiastical influence and jurisdiction, and in its
missionary and persecuting zeal the priesthood has made itself
thoroughly obnoxious. The religious orders were the special object of
animosity in the latest rising, and unless they are either suppressed or
placed under more effective political control, there will be little
prospect of peace in the islands.
In an epoch when most of the nations of Europe are struggling to add to
their territories in the remotest corners of the earth, it seems almost
incredible that four centuries ago a single one of them should have been
permitted to annex a whole continent unchallenged. It was not so much
the Pope’s Bull that frightened competitors away as the fact that they
were too deeply absorbed in their own affairs. The importunity of
Columbus had to wear itself nearly out before the fortunate completion
of the Moorish conquest won it a more ready ear; and most other
countries were about the same time either engaged in, or just recovering
from, some similar internecine strife. Moreover, it was the energy of
private adventurers rather than of the Spanish crown which won for the
latter a vast empire beyond the seas; nor was it until its value became
plainly apparent that it was thought worth while to go to any great
amount of trouble or expense in its development.
Similarly, the first external enemies the Spanish colonies had to
encounter were private and unattached adventurers. Piracy was an
institution which had already flourished for many centuries. The Barbary
corsairs were far more feared by the merchants of Venice and Genoa than
the fiercest storms that ever visited the Mediterranean; and they had
their counterpart in the Baltic, where the Hanseatic League carried on
so extensive a commerce. It was only to be expected that they would
sally forth from their inland seas when so much more valuable spoil was
to be secured on the open ocean beyond, but strange to say, with the
rapid decline of the trade which they had so long harried, their
activity slackened, and their principles and profession were largely
inherited by more civilized races. Some excuse was offered for this by
the almost constant warfare that prevailed during the reign of Charles
V., when France and Spain were at perpetual enmity, and England was
found, first on one side, then on the other. The first important loss
that befell Spain was the capture of the vessel conveying home the royal
share of the treasures of Mexico by a French privateer, or pirate, as
the Spaniards always preferred to call the ships which despoiled their
fleets, a designation that was more often than not amply justified.
To begin with, these pirate ships were content to hang about the Azores,
on the chance of meeting a caravel laden with treasure homeward bound.
They gradually ventured further west, until they actually arrived among
the West Indian Islands, where they were surprised to find that
altogether undreamed-of facilities awaited them for the pursuit of their
nefarious trade. Though the entire archipelago belonged nominally to
Spain, only the larger islands were actually occupied, the smaller not
being regarded as worthy of attention, until the Indian population of
Hispaniola, Cuba and Porto Rico began to fail, and then they were raided
for their inhabitants to supply the vacant places. With a scanty Spanish
population, it would have been utterly impossible to fortify and inhabit
all, even had colonists been found so self-denying as to banish
themselves to places where the only chance of accumulating wealth was by
hard work and steady application to agricultural pursuits.
For a long time these scattered islands were merely places of call,
where fresh water and fruit could be obtained. No attempt was made at
annexation in the name of any foreign power, and it would have been
folly for any ship’s company, even had they been disposed to relinquish
their buccaneering career, to settle down and defy the Spanish power,
whose forces would quickly have been put in motion to expel them.
Two events, designed by Philip II. to aggrandize the power of Spain at
the expense of its neighbors, were eventually the means of arousing
enmity against it to such an extent that the opposition of private
adventurers was suddenly backed up by the full weight of the most
rapidly progressing peoples and governments in the Old World.
Many previous efforts had been made to unite the crowns of Spain and
Portugal, but hitherto all had failed. The heroic death of Sebastian,
however, in 1580, left the throne of Portugal without a direct heir, and
among the numerous claimants was Philip, who overreached all his
competitors. He was probably even then meditating that descent upon the
liberties of England which resulted, eight years later, in the dispatch
of the renowned Armada, and the writing of one of the most brilliant
pages of English history. Success in the one instance, no less than
failure in the other, created the most deadly foes that Spain ever had
to encounter, until the persistent antagonism of Holland and England
reduced it at last to a miserable shadow of its former self.
Philip’s ruling passion was an intense bigotry, and from the moment he
assumed sway in Spain and the Low Countries, he sought to exterminate
every trace of the Reformed faith. That brought him into conflict with
the Dutch, whose principal port and city of Amsterdam was fast
concentrating within itself the trade that Bruges and Antwerp had once
commanded as the principal marts of the Hanseatic League. As Portugal
extended its conquests in the East, Lisbon displaced Venice and Genoa,
and became the great emporium of all Eastern produce, whence Amsterdam
drew its supplies for distribution throughout northern Europe. With the
object, therefore, of destroying Dutch trade, Philip closed the port of
Lisbon to it in 1594, fondly imagining that that would ruin his
rebellious subjects, and enforce submission to his will.
He had entirely mistaken Dutch character, however; for in the following
year the services were enlisted of Cornelius Hautmann, who had been a
pilot in the Portuguese service; and he conducted the first Dutch
expedition round the Cape of Good Hope on its way to open up a direct
trade with the Spice Islands and India, which of course had become the
property of Spain along with its own Philippines. Thus modestly was laid
the foundation of the Dutch Empire in the East Indies, and when Portugal
regained its freedom in 1640, under the House of Braganza, it found
itself stripped of most of its former colonies, which were never to be
restored.
Not content merely with retaining their former trade, the Dutch sought
to extend it in other directions; and the incorporation of their East
India Company in 1602 was followed by that of the West India Company in
1621, the operations of which were to embrace the west coast of Africa
as well as the whole of Spanish America, in which the Brazils had then
to be included. They had been preceded many years earlier by the
English, who commenced operations in good earnest some time before the
date of the Armada; indeed, those two great figures in English naval
history, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, had then already
performed their greatest exploits. As early as 1572, the latter gave a
good account of himself on the Spanish Main, but his most daring feat
was accomplished in 1578, when he sailed through the Straits of Magellan
and appeared off the coast of Peru. Francisco Draques was the terror of
Spanish America, and his was the name used to frighten Spanish-American
children when they were naughty.
A new danger thus became apparent, as the Spaniards had never dreamed
before of reaching their West Coast possessions by the southern route.
Lest other foreign adventurers should follow in the wake, an expedition
under Pedro Sarmiento was dispatched from Chili to explore the Straits
and the adjoining territory, with the view, if practicable, of founding
a strong colony and erecting substantial fortifications. Sarmiento’s
zeal outran his discretion, and after accomplishing his task he sailed
for Spain, where he gave an exaggerated account, not only of the danger
of leaving the Straits unprotected, but of the ease with which they
could be rendered impregnable to all unfriendly visitors. A colony
consisting of about four hundred souls was actually sent out in 1528,
though from the very first it met with nothing but dire misfortune.
The captain-general commissioned to take charge of the undertaking,
Diego Flores, disliked the job, and began by chartering the worst ships
he could find. His lieutenant, Sarmiento, was more discreet in the
choice of the embryo colonists, most of whom were skilled mechanics; but
the fleet had scarcely left San Lucar on the outward voyage, when half
of them were shipwrecked and drowned. Though replaced, disaster
continued to follow upon disaster, the voyage being very much a
repetition of the previous one made by Magellan, only in this instance
the commander was himself the leading obstructionist. Eventually, rather
more than two hundred souls sailed from the Bio de la Plata, and
forty-five of these were drowned ere the Straits were reached. All but
eight of the survivors subsequently perished, and the last of them was
taken off in 1589 by the “Delight,” commanded by Sir John Cavendish, who
appropriately named the spot where he found him “Port Famine.”
The advent of the English and Dutch, followed half a century later by
the French, led to the settlement of some of the unoccupied islands.
They rapidly became something more than mere provisioning depots, though
several of them, and notably the island of Tortuga, were nothing else
than the lairs of desperate crews of pirates, as reckless of their own
lives as of those who were unfortunate fall into their clutches. But
Barbadoes and St. Christopher, St. Eustatius and Curaçoa, Martinique and
Guadalupe, became the center of something more legitimate, if quite as
illegal, as sinking galleons and purloining their treasure, though that
business was never missed either when the opportunity presented itself;
and the Dutch West India Company alone is said to have been responsible
for the capture of between five and six hundred Spanish vessels.
The English secured their first foothold in the neighborhood by
occupying the Bermudas in 1621, though this hardly brought them into
direct contact with the West Indies. This was speedily followed by
settlements in some of the unoccupied islands further south. Barbadoes
was taken possession of in 1625, and the same year St. Christopher, or
St. Kitts, as it is now called, was divided between the English and
French. The former continued to add to their territory, taking Nevis in
1628, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632; and all these islands are so
essentially English, as to prove conclusively that, although once
nominally owned by Spain, Spanish influence was never exerted in them.
From 1650 until the period of his death, Oliver Cromwell, having
established his authority at home, pursued an active foreign policy, and
it was only natural that he should find himself in conflict with Spain,
whose maxims of government, both civil and religious, were so utterly
at variance with his. Thus, in 1654, a somewhat formidable fleet, under
the command of the admirals Penn and Venables, sailed for Barbadoes,
where they would be ready for any emergency. Early the following year
they made a descent upon Hispaniola, selecting the capital, San Domingo,
as the object of attack. On the approach of the ships, the inhabitants,
white and black alike, fled inland, but the affair was sadly mismanaged
and somehow miscarried. Not wishing the expedition to prove a complete
failure, the admirals set sail for the adjoining island of Jamaica,
which did not then contain, at the outside, more than fifteen hundred
whites, and perhaps as many blacks. This time, no difficulty was
experienced, and the island was taken formal possession of, this being
the first loss of occupied territory inflicted upon Spain, as well as
the most important acquisition ever made in the West Indies by England.
In 1658 the Spaniards attempted to drive the intruders out but failed,
and in 1670 a treaty was entered into between the two countries, in
which Spain recognized the rights of England both in Jamaica and the
smaller islands of which possession had been previously taken.
About this time, also, the French West India Company was incorporated,
the brilliant finance minister of Louis XIV., Colbert, not liking to be
without a hand in the game. He began in a more legitimate fashion than
his competitors, and in 1664 purchased the rights of the settlers in
Martinique, Guadalupe, St Lucia, Grenada, and a few other islands for
about a million livres. Spanish tyranny, however, afforded an excuse for
more high-handed proceedings, and the company secured a footing on the
western side of Hispaniola, Spanish interests being concentrated almost
entirely on the eastern. The settlements so established became little
more than a rallying-point and shelter for buccaneers, who, in
consequence of their roving habits, were difficult to eject, until
eventually this intermittent occupation of a portion of the island
induced France to lay claim to the whole, but the cession was only
formally recognized by Spain more than a century later. Thus the four
predominant powers of Europe all had a stake in the Western Hemisphere.
Nearly a hundred and fifty years elapsed without witnessing any further
important changes. The very vastness of the Spanish-American empire was
its principal protection. Europe was growing thoroughly accustomed to
immense armies, but they could only be moved on land, and there was no
means for transporting them across the sea. What chance was there then
of conquering a territory which extended uninterruptedly from California
to Chili, and from Florida to the Rio de la Plata, even had there been
much inclination? The idea, it is true, occurred more than once, and
especially in 1702, when--the death of Charles II. of Spain having
brought to an end the Hapsburg dynasty, and the Wars of the Spanish
Succession being entered upon--an alliance was formed between England,
Holland and the German Empire for the conquest of the Spanish colonies,
but like others it came to nothing. Again, in 1739, Spain, alarmed at
the growing contraband trade, insisted very justifiably on searching
English ships in American waters, but this was resented and led to war,
in which Porto Bello was captured; and that had something to do with the
permission granted a few years later to trade by the longer, but safer
and more convenient route round Cape Horn.
Once more, in 1762, what was known as the Family Compact involved the
rest of Europe in hostilities against the Bourbon dynasties in France,
Spain, and Italy, and the war was carried both to the East and West
Indies. Havana and Manila were captured by the English, and might have
become English possessions, had not the Treaty of Paris, concluded in
1763, brought the campaign to an end, and made it a condition that all
colonial conquests were to be restored to their original owners. Minor
changes were frequent and numerous, but they were generally a mere
shuffling of the cards between England, Holland, and France, leaving the
Spanish possessions much as they were.
The eighteenth century, as it drew to its close, found the Spanish
occupation of America almost as it had been in the first half of the
seventeenth. Then a mighty upheaval was witnessed both in North America
and Europe, and the War of Independence in the United States, together
with the French Revolution, provide the sequel for what followed in
South America. Scarcely a murmur was heard in the principal Spanish
colonies while these great events were changing the destinies of the
civilized world, and an onlooker who had time to think must have been
astonished at their apparent loyalty to the mother country, oppressed
though they had been, and still were, while everywhere else the blow for
freedom was being struck. Perhaps another conclusion might have been
arrived at; namely, that the ancient Spanish stock had so degenerated,
and had become such a mean-spirited race, that it dare not act like its
neighbors further north; but subsequent events disproved this
hypothesis. The Girondists and the Mountain rose and fell; Napoleon
became successively director, dictator, emperor--still no sign of
movement. Then the moment arrived for the arch-disturber of Europe to
overthrow the ancient monarchy of Spain, and to establish a brand-new
one with his brother Joseph at its head. That was the supreme crisis to
make a move, or forever to remain still. Spain almost to a man resented
the affront. Spanish America joined the mother country, and refused to
recognize the upstart dynasty.
Still, in the midst of this death-like calm, some presages of the coming
storm were discernible. In the first place, France, by the Treaty of
Basle in 1795, secured the cession of the whole of Hispaniola, only,
however, in a few years to lose it again by its declaration of
independence, and the formation of a black republic. In the naval
conflicts so frequent during that disturbed period England both lost and
gained. The Dutch and Spanish were both unwilling confederates of
Napoleon, but their connection with him, nevertheless, exposed their
foreign possessions to the attack of his declared enemies; and England
captured Demerara and Essequibo in Guiana from the former, and the
island of Trinidad from the latter. All these were trivial acquisitions,
compared with the vast extent of Mexico and Central America, Peru, and
New Granada, and the eastern province of Buenos Ayres. Brazil had
reverted to Portugal with the firm establishment of the Braganza
dynasty, and was nearly all there was left of its once great colonial
empire. In March, 1808, the ill fortune of the royal family drove them
from their own kingdom to find refuge beyond the seas, and Brazil became
an independent empire under the fugitive Portuguese sovereign, whose
descendants remained in peaceable and prosperous possession until the
revolution which dethroned the late ill-fated Dom Pedro.
These changes were due entirely to foreign intervention and not to
domestic unrest. The first sign of this was when Francisco Miranda, a
Spanish-American who had fought under Washington, conceived the idea of
freeing his fellow-countrymen, and took steps toward that end by
founding a “Gran Reunion Americana” in London in 1806. But so
unresponsive were the inhabitants of the Spanish Main that the first
active movement of the league resulted in dead failure. It attracted the
sympathy and support, however, of two active and capable men, Bolivar
and San Martin, who were destined to do so much for the emancipation of
South America from European bondage, and whose advent brought a rapid
change in the feeling of indifference with which the movement was
regarded.
Still, the loyalty of the colonists might have been proof against their
blandishments had the government of Ferdinand VII., established at Cadiz
in opposition to that of Joseph Bonaparte, shown itself in any way
conciliatory toward them. Loyal though the Spaniards at home were to the
Bourbon dynasty, they were only willing to rally round it on condition
of the carrying out of many important reforms in consonance with the
spirit of the age; and the colonists likewise demanded that, as the
price of their adhesion, they should be put upon an equality with Spain,
and be accorded perfect liberty in their agricultural and manufacturing
industries; that trade should be thrown open between all the countries
on the American Continent and with the Philippines; and that all
restrictions and monopolies should be abolished, and fixed duties
substituted in their place. Reasonable though these demands now appear,
they were indignantly rejected, and with one consent nearly every
country in Spanish America was ablaze with revolution.
One of the earliest outbreaks was in Mexico, the near proximity of the
United States having perhaps inspired in that country a more intense
longing for freedom than elsewhere. A small band of patriots had for
some time been watching an opportunity for asserting themselves, and
with Hidalgo and Allende at their head, took the extreme step of issuing
a declaration of independence on the 16th of September, 1810. Spanish
influence was still strong; and in less than a year the outbreak was
suppressed, and the leaders executed. Others rose to take their places,
and just three years after the declaration of independence, the first
Mexican Congress was summoned to meet at the town of Chilpantzongo,
which was in the hands of the insurgents. Morelos, the principal actor
at this stage of the drama, was captured and shot in December, 1815; but
that only imposed a temporary check on the movement. In the delusive
hope of regaining full control, Ferdinand, then firmly re-established on
his throne, offered concessions in 1820, but it was too late, and they
failed to effect a pacification. Independence was once more declared in
1821, but this time at the instigation of a dictator who aimed at
founding an empire for himself, and who did for a short period sway the
destinies of his country as the Emperor Iturbide I. His reign was
brief, and a republic was definitely established on the 16th of
December, 1823, the subsequent career of which has been so checkered
until quite recent times. Having been recognized by the principal courts
of Europe, Spain itself accredited an embassador in 1839, and made no
further efforts to reassert its former title.
Elsewhere the struggle was less prolonged, though, while it lasted,
quite as exciting. At the instigation of Bolivar, Venezuela proclaimed
its independence in July, 1811, and several years later united with New
Granada as the Republic of Colombia. Buenos Ayres established a junta in
1810, a Constituent Assembly was called in January, 1813, and entire
independence of Spain was declared, July, 1816. The insurrection in
Chili likewise began in 1810, when a National Congress was summoned to
meet at Santiago; but the Spanish interest was strong on the west coast,
and it was not until San Martin crossed the Andes from La Plata in 1817
that independence was made good. Material assistance was afforded by the
famous Admiral Cochrane (Lord Dundonald), who, driven in disgrace from
his native country, placed his services at the disposal of the revolting
Chilians, and gave them that naval pre-eminence in South America which
they have ever since retained.
Peru proved an even tougher job, but the combined forces of San Martin
and Cochrane proved irresistible, and both Lima and Callao were taken in
1821. Lima, however, was recaptured by the Spaniards in 1823, but
Bolivar, marching against it from Colombia, was appointed dictator, and
gained so decisive a victory in 1824 that the Spanish army was forced
to capitulate, and by 1826 the connection with the mother country was
completely and finally severed. Spain had vainly striven against these
successive misfortunes, and in 1815 sent out a considerable force under
Marshal Morillo, who gained a few temporary successes; but his cruelties
and atrocious conduct only exasperated the colonists, and instigated
them to greater exertions. The various countries of Central America were
quietly federated into the Republic of Guatemala in 1823, in the absence
of any Spanish troops to oppose; and thus, from the northern borders of
Mexico to the southern confines of Chili and La Plata, the conquerors of
the New World were forever ejected. England was the first to recognize
the South American republics, and entered into commercial treaties with
several of them in 1825, after which date Spain can no longer be said to
have been able to claim ownership of a single acre on the American
Continent.
Meanwhile of a once vast colonial empire but Cuba and Porto Rico
remained. What were the forces at work which there prevented secession?
The political economist Mr. R. J. Root, to whom and to whose work on
this subject we are already much indebted, states that the conditions
were different. The predominant feature of the islands was negro
slavery, whereas the wealth of the Spanish-American colonist lay in
lands which, if subject to alienation, were at least impossible of
removal. The Cuban planter reckoned as his most precious possession the
flesh and blood attached to his estates, and the very words “freedom”
and “independence” stank in his nostrils. Whatever inconvenience,
therefore, he suffered from his political connection with an effete
monarchy and a decaying or decayed empire, he at least felt that, while
he clung to it, it would afford him protection for his property.
A steady flood of immigration from the mother country maintained this
connection down to the recent war. The wealthiest merchants and planters
have invariably been of pure Spanish blood, and their contempt for the
Cuban Creoles, though many of them are as pure-blooded as themselves,
and have no taint whatever of the “tar-brush,” has helped to maintain
them as a separate class, regarded as intruders by all of Cuban birth,
and hated accordingly. They have of necessity invoked Spanish aid and
relied on Spanish authority, and have, for nearly a hundred years,
provided the basis for Spanish rule in the island. Many of them made
their fortunes and returned home, leaving room for others to follow.
Some made Cuba their permanent domicile, but invariably with fatal
effects upon their offspring, for Cuban birth is almost synonymous with
Cuban sympathies, and, in any rising, the father, who has been on the
side of the crown, has witnessed his sons throwing in their lot with the
rebels.
Ever since the emancipation of the Spanish Main, Cuba has been in a
state of political unrest. Various secret societies have been
constituted, and have received advice and assistance from Mexicans,
Chilians, and others who had already succeeded in throwing off their own
fetters. In 1823 the Society of Soles struck a blow for liberty; six
years later it was the Company of the Black Eagle which attempted
success where its predecessor had failed. Both were essentially Creole
risings, and although those who participated in them freely gave
expression to their abhorrence of slavery, no assistance was either
asked or received from the negroes. For these unfortunates, however,
failure meant the tightening of their bonds; and it is not surprising to
find that, in 1844, goaded to despair by their sufferings, they tried an
insurrection on their own account, though of course it ended
disastrously.
These outbreaks were all more or less localized, and it was not until
1868 that a revolution broke out, destined to involve the entire island,
and to occupy long and weary years in suppressing, if, indeed, the
smoking embers can be said ever to have been quenched. It was
undoubtedly instigated by the American Civil War, which had ended in the
uncompromising abolition of slavery, and so raised the hopes of the
friends of liberty in Cuba. Though the planters and slave-owners ranged
themselves, as was natural, on the side of law and order, their
enthusiasm was no longer of the keenest. They realized that the
institution to which they clung so tenaciously was doomed, and it became
a question with them of doing the best they could for themselves.
Emancipation in the British West Indies had for a time added enormously
to their prosperity, until the value of slaves underwent so great an
appreciation that it no longer became profitable to purchase them, and
only actual owners derived any benefit. For, it must be remembered,
there was a distinct difference between the slave-trade and slavery, and
long after public opinion revolted against, and prohibited the
kidnapping and traffic in human flesh, it continued to tolerate its
ownership, and recognized natural increase as legitimate property. That
African negroes were smuggled into Cuba is tolerably certain;
nevertheless, the numbers were too small to prevent the gradual increase
in value of an able-bodied male slave from $250 to something like $1,750
or $2,000. This was the surest means of eventual abolition; for while
this high price set upon the black made him valuable property, and
insured his better treatment, it tended to make the luxury too costly,
and one that could eventually no longer be indulged in, as the point
must be reached where free labor would become cheaper.
About the time of the rebellion, the number of slaves in Cuba was
between 350,000 and 400,000, and their value on paper was simply
enormous. The $100,000,000 voted by the British Parliament as
compensation to the disinherited slave-owners in the British West Indies
would have been but a drop in the ocean in any scheme for Cuban
emancipation by purchase. Indeed, to do the planters justice, they never
expected anything of the sort, and all the more practical of them asked,
was to be let down gently. This was effected by the proclamation of what
was known as the Moret Law in 1870, which at once declared free all
slaves over sixty years of age, and decreed that every child born after
that year should be free likewise. In the first instance, the planters
registered a distinct gain, as they got rid of a number of old and
decrepit dependants no longer fit for work; but this was offset by the
compulsory maintenance, until their eighteenth year, of all the free
offspring of their slaves. Under this law, the odious institution
perished in something like twenty years, because its burdens gradually
outweighed its benefits, until the low wage for which the free negro is
willing to work became the more economical method of production.
Thus the strongest tie between Spain and Cuba was snapped, and the party
of independence gained force, as many planters found no longer any
advantage in supporting the authority of the crown. The rebellion
dragged on; the Spanish troops continually poured in having to encounter
the guerrilla warfare, for which the division of the island afforded so
many opportunities. For, considerable though the population is,
two-thirds of it has always been concentrated in the western corner, of
which Havana is the capital, the remaining districts being very sparsely
peopled. It is in these rebellion always throve; and the policy adopted
by General Weyler, when in supreme command, was to make them a desert by
destroying all sustenance, and forcibly removing the inhabitants, who,
under the name of Reconcentrados, aroused so much sympathy.
Though the outbreak of 1868 was eventually suppressed, it left a legacy
of bitter memories and still bitterer exactions. For, true to its policy
of four centuries, Spain determined that it at least would not be a
loser, and saddled the entire cost of the military operations, and
nobody knows what else besides, on the unfortunate island, in the form
of a debt amounting to about four hundred million dollars. Even this
might have been tolerated had any attempt been made to establish an
equitable system of government, because an era of prosperity set in
which culminated in 1891, when the total exports were valued at no less
than $100,000,000, and there was ample margin for interest on an
inflated debt. But the rapacity of Catalan manufacturers, no less than
of government officials, upset everything; and from the captain-general
down to the humblest trader in Barcelona, all expected to pocket
something out of the spoils of Cuba. Nor was the plunder limited to
Spaniards. Despite the restrictions against trading by foreigners,
adventurers of all nationalities managed to get a foothold in Havana,
and corruption preyed on corruption. No one, in fact, was expected to be
honest, and a stranger remarking upon the rascality prevailing in high
places, would as likely as not be met with a shrug of the shoulders and
the reply, Robamos todos, “We are all thieves.”