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Colonial wars in Cuba and the Philippines in the Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

Alistair Hennessy
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Extract

The wars in which Spain was involved in the nineteenth century were those of a declining, not an expanding imperialism. They were not frontier wars, nor wars of conquest but rather wars of national liberation, comparable to the War of American Independence, the Haitian Revolution or the wars of Latin American Emancipation at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , July 1984 , pp. 59 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1984

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References

Notes

1. For example Spanish losses in the Cuban wars were 9,000 killed in battle, 13,000 died from yellow fever, and 40,000 from other diseases - 60,000 out of 200,000 troops sent to the island. Thomas, H., Cuba or the Pursuitof Freedom, London, 1971, p. 414.Google Scholar

2. Standard accounts of modern Spanish history are R. Carr, Spain, 1808-1975, Oxford, 2nd. edition 1982 and of the military, Payne, S., Politics and the military inmodern Spain, Stanford, 1967.Google Scholar

3. Varying interpretations are discussed in Perez, L., “Cuba between empires, 1898-1899” in The PacificHistorical Review XLVIII. 4.1979, and at greater length in his book of the same title, published by Pittsburgh University Press, 1983. A useful comparative article analysing forms and degrees of collaboration isGoogle ScholarDominguez, J.I., “Response to occupation by the United States: Caliban's dilemma,” Pa-cificHistorical Review, op. cit. For the occupation in Cuba, seeGoogle ScholarGillette, H., “The Military Occupation of Cuba, 1899-1902: a Workshop for American Progressivism,” American Quarterly XXV, 10, 1973Google Scholar.

4. The most accessible account of the war in English is in Thomas, op. cit. The major Cuban works are Sanchez, R. Guerra, Guerra de los diez años La Habana, 1960;Google ScholarDominguez, F.J. Ponte, Historiade la guerrade los diez años, La Habana, 1944, andGoogle ScholarLeuchsenring, E. Roig de, Laguerra libertadora de los treinta años, La Habana, 1958Google Scholar.

5. A foreign observer noted the extraordinary way in which the guerrillas were able to utilize leaf and plant for food and medecine. There is an interesting account of survival in the wilds by a maroon in Montejo, E., Autobio-graphyof a Runaway Slave, London, 1968.Google Scholar

6. There is a biography in English of Maceo, Foner, P., Antonio Maceo: the bronze Titan, New York, 1977Google Scholar and an article analysing the variety of interpretations of his role in the war by Fagen, P., “Antonio Maceo: a Hero, History and Historiography1. Latin American Research Review, 11, 1976Google Scholar . The savagery of the war is graphically conveyed in two Cuban films, the first part of Lucia and in El primer cargadel machete. The standard account in English of the Spanish army is Payne, S., op.citGoogle Scholar.

7. A comprehensive account of Philippine nationalism is Mahajani, Usha, Philippine Nationalism, University of Queensland, 1971Google Scholar . The origin of the religious and land problem is discussed in Roth, D.M., The Friars Estates of the Philippines, University of New Mexico, 1977 and inGoogle ScholarPhelan, J., The Hispanicization of the Philippines, University of Wisconsin, 1959Google Scholar . The literature on Rizal is enormous. A useful biography is Coates, A., Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr. Oxford, 1968Google Scholar.

8. Sans, Mas y, de, S., Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas, 2 vols., Madrid, 1843, passim.Google Scholar

9. Mahan's, CaptainThe Interest of America in SeaPower, Past, Present and Future was published in 1897Google Scholar . The war generated a huge literature. Among these, useful succinct analyses of US policy are Morgan, H. Wayne, America's Road to Empire:the War with Spain and Overseas Expansion, New York, 1968 andGoogle ScholarMay, E.R., Imperial Democracy: the Emergence of Americaas a Great Power, New York, 1961Google Scholar.

10. Glenn May, “Why did the United States win the Philippines American War?” PacificHistorical Review op. cit. A standard English book on the Philippines has one sentence on the “pacification” -Lightfoot, K., The Philippines, London, 1973, p. 112Google Scholar. See R. Hilman, “Internal war: the New Communist tactic” in Modern Warfare:Fighting Communist Guerrilla Movements, 1941–61. F.M. Osanka, ed. New York, 1970. Freidel, F.. “The Spanish American war and the Philippine Insurrection” in Dissent in Three American Wars eds. Morison, S.E., Merk, F. and Freidel, F., , Harvard, 1970.Google Scholar

11. A detailed study on Batangas, the province most affected by the war, and on which the following points are largely based is Glenn A. May, “Filipino Resistance to American Occupation: Batangas, 1899-1902.” Pacific Historical Review, op.cit.

12. Norman G. Owen, “Winding down the War in Albay, 1900-1903” PacificHistorical Review, op.cit.