SANTIAGO DE CUBA
The relentless commercial rivalry between Spain and England gave rise to the War of Jenkins’ Ear (Guerra del Asiento) during the period of 1739-1748. In 1742, the British navy under the command of admiral Edward Vernon attacked the Guantánamo Bay. In fact, the city of Santiago de Cuba that is 45 km far from the Guantánamo Bay, was on the target due its strategic localization. The British army was faced with an unexpected, serious resistance and could not proceed. They suffered loss on loss due to the guerilla tactics of the Spanish and the outbreak of the diseases, so that British warrior ships had to recede from the waters of the island. The santiaguero corsairs (Vicente López, Francisco Veránes, Bartolomé Valladón, Pedro Acosta etc.) played a significant role in the battle against the British navy.
Nevertheless, the British did not give up on Santiago de Cuba and the British navy under the command of admiral Sir Charles Henry Knowles made an attack to the city 6 years later, but the British couldn't capture the port.
During the process of the conquest of the island, thousands of native Indians had been killed by the Spanish, and thousands of them had escaped to the high mountains nearby, so that the Spanish crown had decided to bring slaves to Cuba from the islands around and from Africa to compensate for the loss in manpower. The Spanish were aware of the importance of the island in terms of sugar cane and coffee. The bounty fields of the province Santiago de Cuba were ideal for sugar cane plantations and for the cattle farms, so that the area became a magnet for the Spaniards to develop sugar plantations. The agricultural productivity in the province of Santiago de Cuba led to a new a boom when the French people took refuge to Cuba with their slaves after the revolution in Haiti in 1791. They knew how to raise the coffee in plantations and how to process it. The cool mountain slopes around Santiago de Cuba proved ideal for growing coffee, so that the French planters, accompanied by their slaves, founded many coffee plantations on the Sierra Maestra mountains that have ideal conditions in terms of climate and soil. On the other hand, they brought a cosmopolitan air and continental elegance with themselves to the city, that was obvious particularly in the neighborhood El Tivoli (barrio El Tivoli). As the result of the refuge of these white people to Cuba, the sugar cane plantations in Santa Domingo, the biggest rival of Cuba, couldn’t be run properly, so that Cuba became the leader country in the sugar market.Santiago de Cuba was given the second title of "hospitalaria de las Americas / hospitable of the Americas" in May 1822, in response to the unconditional support of the people of Santiago to those who migrated from Santa Domingo after the Haitian revolution and shortly afterwards from continental America to Santiago de Cuba and its surroundings.
Santiago de Cuba had fewer Spanish-born inhabitants that made up the ruling elite. This felicitous minority in Santiago de Cuba got rich off the slaves, like in the other parts of the island. These migration influxes that the island faced in the 16-18th centuries, added new cultural dimensions to social life. This is a major reason why the city is famous today for its mix of music, dance, and religious beliefs.
In the 18th century the sources of the wealth in Santiago de Cuba were based on commerce and mining, as well as on agriculture and livestock, but in the 19th century the economic crisis blew up on the island. The Spanish Crown, stopped its ears to the reform requests on the island, was gathering high taxes and the Spanish government on the island was keeping off to make any attempt to distribute the resources equitable. The introduction of the new techniques that facilitate the employment of lesser workers in sugar cane and coffee plantations, the relentless incursion of the slaves that was exceeding the capacity of the island and the increase in the expenses of food and housing of the slaves, all contributed to the appearance of the economic and political crisis. The deepening of the crisis effected particularly the owners of big cattle farms and plantations located mostly in the eastern part of Cuba. The dissatisfaction spread and increased among the owners of big farms in the Oriente and subsequently led to an uprising in the territory. The middle class of the province, the predominant mass of blacks and mulattos (mulatto is a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent), was ready for such a national and revolutionary revolt, as these people were profoundly revolutionary due to the socioeconomic conditions in that they were living, traditionally rebellious since the 16th century and born self-determined.
The relentless commercial rivalry between Spain and England gave rise to the War of Jenkins’ Ear (Guerra del Asiento) during the period of 1739-1748. In 1742, the British navy under the command of admiral Edward Vernon attacked the Guantánamo Bay. In fact, the city of Santiago de Cuba that is 45 km far from the Guantánamo Bay, was on the target due its strategic localization. The British army was faced with an unexpected, serious resistance and could not proceed. They suffered loss on loss due to the guerilla tactics of the Spanish and the outbreak of the diseases, so that British warrior ships had to recede from the waters of the island. The santiaguero corsairs (Vicente López, Francisco Veránes, Bartolomé Valladón, Pedro Acosta etc.) played a significant role in the battle against the British navy.
Nevertheless, the British did not give up on Santiago de Cuba and the British navy under the command of admiral Sir Charles Henry Knowles made an attack to the city 6 years later, but the British couldn't capture the port.
During the process of the conquest of the island, thousands of native Indians had been killed by the Spanish, and thousands of them had escaped to the high mountains nearby, so that the Spanish crown had decided to bring slaves to Cuba from the islands around and from Africa to compensate for the loss in manpower. The Spanish were aware of the importance of the island in terms of sugar cane and coffee. The bounty fields of the province Santiago de Cuba were ideal for sugar cane plantations and for the cattle farms, so that the area became a magnet for the Spaniards to develop sugar plantations. The agricultural productivity in the province of Santiago de Cuba led to a new a boom when the French people took refuge to Cuba with their slaves after the revolution in Haiti in 1791. They knew how to raise the coffee in plantations and how to process it. The cool mountain slopes around Santiago de Cuba proved ideal for growing coffee, so that the French planters, accompanied by their slaves, founded many coffee plantations on the Sierra Maestra mountains that have ideal conditions in terms of climate and soil. On the other hand, they brought a cosmopolitan air and continental elegance with themselves to the city, that was obvious particularly in the neighborhood El Tivoli (barrio El Tivoli). As the result of the refuge of these white people to Cuba, the sugar cane plantations in Santa Domingo, the biggest rival of Cuba, couldn’t be run properly, so that Cuba became the leader country in the sugar market.Santiago de Cuba was given the second title of "hospitalaria de las Americas / hospitable of the Americas" in May 1822, in response to the unconditional support of the people of Santiago to those who migrated from Santa Domingo after the Haitian revolution and shortly afterwards from continental America to Santiago de Cuba and its surroundings.
Santiago de Cuba had fewer Spanish-born inhabitants that made up the ruling elite. This felicitous minority in Santiago de Cuba got rich off the slaves, like in the other parts of the island. These migration influxes that the island faced in the 16-18th centuries, added new cultural dimensions to social life. This is a major reason why the city is famous today for its mix of music, dance, and religious beliefs.
In the 18th century the sources of the wealth in Santiago de Cuba were based on commerce and mining, as well as on agriculture and livestock, but in the 19th century the economic crisis blew up on the island. The Spanish Crown, stopped its ears to the reform requests on the island, was gathering high taxes and the Spanish government on the island was keeping off to make any attempt to distribute the resources equitable. The introduction of the new techniques that facilitate the employment of lesser workers in sugar cane and coffee plantations, the relentless incursion of the slaves that was exceeding the capacity of the island and the increase in the expenses of food and housing of the slaves, all contributed to the appearance of the economic and political crisis. The deepening of the crisis effected particularly the owners of big cattle farms and plantations located mostly in the eastern part of Cuba. The dissatisfaction spread and increased among the owners of big farms in the Oriente and subsequently led to an uprising in the territory. The middle class of the province, the predominant mass of blacks and mulattos (mulatto is a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent), was ready for such a national and revolutionary revolt, as these people were profoundly revolutionary due to the socioeconomic conditions in that they were living, traditionally rebellious since the 16th century and born self-determined.
When the first step of the liberation war, the Ten Years War,
was initiated by
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Manzanillo, the neighbor city of
Santiago de Cuba, in 1868, the santiagueros were caught on the
wrong foot, because the revolt was brought forward by Céspedes
to an earlier date to frustrate the raid of the Spanish
soldiers. Thinking about a later date for the uprising, the santiagueros didn’t specify any detail about any action. Even
though this prevented Santiago de Cuba to join the fight in an
organized manner, the santiagueros didn’t hesitate to spread out
on the county to recruit men and to requisition weapons, horses,
and other equipment that they would use against the soldiers of
the regime. Despite the repression and the surveillance on the
santiagueros, this general movement has provided great support
to the forces of Céspedes in Bayamo.When the uprising has started, the regime forces were consisted of about 1.000 regular soldiers, the police force, and about two battalions of volunteers. All of them were quartered in several barracks and the defense system of the city was quite strong because the Spanish were expecting an attack from the sea. When the Liberation army became a serious threat in the territory for the Spanish authority in Santiago de Cuba, the Spanish revised their expectation and built a system of forts around the urban district. The Prince Alfonso Military Hospital, the Queen Mercedes Barracks and the Tower of the Doves were built in consequence of this consideration. This chain of forts was considered to drive back any attack of the rebels. It was intended also to impede the communication of the inhabitants of the city with the rebels on the countryside. The main streets and the plazas were continuously patrolled by the police forces and the cavalry. The crowded places, such as Plaza de Armas (now Céspedes Park), the Concha Market (Mercado La Concha), the train station, and the strategic points such as the gas factory, the port, as well as the administrative buildings and the access roads to the city were under strict control of the regime forces and some volunteers to avoid possible actions against the regime. Despite all the efforts of surveillance and repression of the colonial regime forces, the communication between the interior of the city and the countryside has been never interrupted.
In 1871 the head of the armed forces in Santiago de Cuba ordered to clear all the houses and buildings outside of the city to create an empty area that would facilitate to peer the surrounding. It was also prohibited to set up new bars and equivalents outside of the city, and the existed ones were closed. In 1875, the Spanish administration made one step further, and ordered to build a wide street around the city, a totally clean road, to improve the surveillance.
Many people all over the world felt sympathy for the uprising in Cuba, as its objectives were to free all the slaves on the island and to gain the independence of the country. Therefore, many volunteers from different countries joined the fight against the regime. A side-wheel steamship, named Virginius, was very popular in transporting these volunteers, the weapons, and the diminution to Cuba, because it was very successful in escaping from the Spanish patrol ships since a long time, due to its powerful engines. Unfortunately, in 1873, it was captured by the Spanish warship Tornado after a fight of 6 hours. The surrendered crew and all people in the ship brought to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, where the captain Joseph Fry and the crew, consisting of 36 sailors, and 16 rebels were executed following a court-martial. Hereupon, the British warship, named HMS Niobe, arrived at the port of Santiago de Cuba and the commander of the warship, Sir Lambton Lorain, demanded to stop this “dreadful butchery” immediately. Sir Lambton didn’t leave the office of the Spanish governor until he received a reply to his letter. Thus, his valiant obstinacy rescued the lives of many Cubans, Americans, and Britons.
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (1819-1874)
the steamship Virginius and Captain
Joseph Fry