Cuban independence, granted by the Treaty of Paris (Dec. 10, 1898), began Jan. 1, 1899, under U.S. occupation. The military governor, General John Brooke, tried to exclude Cubans from government. He disbanded the Cuban army and conducted a census before being replaced by General Leonard Wood, a former military governor of Santiago City. Wood sought to mitigate political division and supervised elections that gave Cuba its first elected president, Tomás Estrada Palma.
The military occupation restored normality. The
Americans built a number of schools, roads, and bridges; they modernized
Havana and deepened its harbour. But Americans were
primarily interested in preparing the island for incorporation into the U.S.
economic, cultural, and educational systems, and the franchise was designed to
eliminate Afro-Cubans from politics. The Platt Amendment (1901) gave the
United States the right to oversee Cuba's international commitments, economy,
and internal affairs and to establish a naval station at Guantánamo Bay.
A republican administration that began on May 20, 1902, under Tomás Estrada Palma faced difficulties over U.S. influence. Estrada Palma tried to retain power in the 1905 and 1906 elections, which were contested by the Liberals, leading to rebellion and a second U.S. occupation on Sept. 29, 1906. U.S. secretary of war William Howard Taft failed to resolve the dispute, and Estrada Palma resigned. For the United States Charles Magoon administered a provisional government of Cuban civilians under the Cuban flag and constitution. An advisory law commission revised electoral procedures, and on Jan. 28, 1909, Magoon handed over the government to the Liberal president, José Miguel Gómez. Meanwhile, Cuba's economy grew steadily, as sugar prices rose continually until the 1920s.
The Gómez administration (1909–13) set a pattern of graft, corruption, maladministration, fiscal irresponsibility, and social insensitivity—especially toward Afro-Cubans—that characterized Cuban politics until 1959. The Afro-Cubans, led by Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet, organized to secure better jobs and more political patronage and to protest a ban of political associations based on colour and race. In 1912 government troops put down large demonstrations in Oriente. The pattern of corruption was followed by Mario García Menocal (1913–21), Alfredo Zayas (1921–25), Gerardo Machado (1925–33), Fulgencio Batista (through puppets 1934–39 and himself 1940–44 and 1952–59), Ramón Grau San Martín (1944–48), and Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948–52). Machado and Batista, who overthrew Machado in 1933 with U.S. support, were the most notorious, holding power through manipulation, troops, and assassins.
The income from sugar was augmented by vigorous tourism based on hotels, casinos, and brothels; Havana became especially attractive during the years of U.S. Prohibition (1919–33). Yet the prosperity of the 1920s, '40s, and '50s enriched only a few Cubans. For the majority, poverty (especially in the countryside) and lack of public services were appalling: with a national per capita income of $353 in 1958—among the highest in Latin America—unemployment and underemployment were rife, and the average rural worker earned $91 per year. Foreign interests controlled the economy, owning about 75 percent of the arable land, 90 percent of the essential services, and 40 percent of the sugar production. Nevertheless, there was no widespread discontent on Jan. 1, 1959, when Fidel Castro supplanted Batista.