Editing History of Cuba (section)

===Escalation of the war===
[[File:Judge-2-6-1897.jpg|thumb|Rebel leaders engaged in extensive propaganda to get the U.S. to intervene, as shown in this cartoon in an American magazine. [[Columbia (name)|Columbia]] (the American people) reaches out to help oppressed Cuba in 1897 while [[Uncle Sam]] (the U.S. government) is blind to the crisis and will not use its powerful guns to help. [[Judge (magazine)|''Judge'' magazine]], 6 February 1897.]]

Martí was killed on 19 May 1895, but [[Máximo Gómez]] (a Dominican) and [[Antonio Maceo Grajales|Antonio Maceo]] (a mulatto){{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=308}} fought on. Gómez used scorched-earth tactics, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and burning the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Howard |title=Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913 |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=270}}</ref> By the end of June all of Camagüey was at war. Continuing west, Gómez and Maceo joined up with veterans of the 1868 war, Polish internationalists, General [[Carlos Roloff]] and Serafín Sánchez in Las Villas. In mid-September, representatives of the five Liberation Army Corps assembled in [[Jimaguayú]] to approve the Jimaguayú Constitution. This constitution established a central government, which grouped the executive and legislative powers into one entity, the Government Council, which was headed by [[Salvador Cisneros]] and [[Bartolomé Masó]].

After a period of consolidation in the three eastern provinces, the liberation armies headed for Camagüey and then for [[Matanzas]], outmanoeuvring and deceiving the Spanish Army. The revolutionaries defeated the Spanish general [[Arsenio Martínez Campos]] and killed his most trusted general at [[Peralejo]]. Campos tried the same strategy he had employed in the Ten Years' War, constructing a broad defensive belt across the island, about {{convert|80|km}} long and {{convert|200|m}} wide. This line, called the ''trocha'', was intended to limit rebel activities to the eastern provinces, and consisted of a [[railroad]], from Jucaro in the south to Moron in the north, on which armored railcars could travel. At various points along this railroad there were fortifications, posts and barbed wire; [[booby trap]]s were placed at the locations most likely to be attacked.

For the rebels, it was essential to bring the war to the western provinces of Matanzas, Havana and Pinar del Río, where the island's government and wealth was located.<ref name="wqswxw"/> In a successful cavalry campaign, overcoming the ''trochas'', the rebels invaded every province. Surrounding all the larger cities and well-fortified towns, they arrived at the westernmost tip of the island on 22 January 1896.<ref name=spanamwar-timeline>{{cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/timeline.htm|title=Spanish American War Chronology|publisher=SpanAmWar.com|access-date=30 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023061035/http://www.spanamwar.com/timeline.htm|archive-date=23 October 2007|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. pp. 64–65.</ref>

[[File:Weyler reconcentrados.png|thumb|Cuban victims of Spanish reconcentration policies]]

Unable to defeat the rebels with conventional military tactics,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tucker |first1=Spencer |title=The encyclopedia offers two complete volumes of alphabetically organized entries ... Philippine- American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, Volume 1 |date=2009 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=246}}</ref> the Spanish government sent Gen. [[Valeriano Weyler, 1st Duke of Rubí|Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau]] (nicknamed ''The Butcher''), who reacted to these rebel successes by introducing terror methods: periodic executions, mass exiles, and the destruction of farms and crops. These methods reached their height on 21 October 1896, when he ordered all countryside residents and their livestock to gather in various fortified areas and towns occupied by his troops. Hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes, creating appalling conditions of overcrowding. This was the first recorded and recognized use of concentration camps where non-combatants were removed from their land to deprive the enemy of succor and then the internees were subjected to appalling conditions.<ref name="wrap_warwick_ac_uk" /> It is estimated that this measure caused the death of at least one-third of Cuba's rural population.<ref>Canalejas, José in Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. p. 66.</ref> The forced relocation policy was maintained until March 1898.<ref name="wqswxw"/>

Since the early 1880s, Spain had also been suppressing an independence movement in the [[Philippines]], which was intensifying; Spain was thus now fighting two wars, which placed a heavy burden on its economy. In secret negotiations in 1896, Spain turned down the United States' offers to buy Cuba.

Maceo was killed on 7 December 1896.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/maceodeath.htm|title=The Death of Cuban General Antonio Maceo|publisher=SpanAmWar.com|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108015028/http://www.spanamwar.com/maceodeath.htm|archive-date=8 November 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> As the war continued, the major obstacle to Cuban success was weapons supply. Although weapons and funding came from within the United States, the supply operation violated American laws, which were enforced by the [[United States Coast Guard|U.S. Coast Guard]]; of 71 resupply missions, only 27 got through.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spanamwar.com/chadwickcoastguard.htm|title=The Role of US Coast Guard 1895–1898 before entry of US in the war|author=French Ensor Chadwick|publisher=SpanAmWar.com|access-date=2 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071108014338/http://www.spanamwar.com/chadwickcoastguard.htm|archive-date=8 November 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1897, the liberation army maintained a privileged position in Camagüey and Oriente, where the Spanish only controlled a few cities. Spanish liberal leader Praxedes Sagasta admitted in May 1897: "After having sent 200,000 men and shed so much blood, we don't own more land on the island than what our soldiers are stepping on".<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. p. 69.</ref> The rebel force of 3,000 defeated the Spanish in various encounters, such as the battle of La Reforma and the surrender of Las Tunas on 30 August, and the Spaniards were kept on the defensive.

As stipulated at the Jimaguayú Assembly two years earlier, a second Constituent Assembly met in La Yaya, Camagüey, on 10 October 1897. The newly adopted constitution decreed that a military command be subordinated to civilian rule. The government was confirmed, naming Bartolomé Masó as president and Domingo Méndez Capote as vice president. Thereafter, [[Madrid]] decided to change its policy toward Cuba, replacing Weyler, drawing up a colonial constitution for Cuba and [[Puerto Rico]], and installing a new government in Havana. But with half the country out of its control, and the other half in arms, the new government was powerless and rejected by the rebels.