The island of Cuba was inhabited by various Amerindian cultures prior to the arrival of the explorer Christopher Columbus in 1492. After his arrival, Spain conquered Cuba and appointed Spanish governors to rule in Havana. The administrators in Cuba were subject to the Viceroy of New Spain and the local authorities in Hispaniola. In 1762–63, Havana was briefly occupied by Britain, before being returned to Spain in exchange for Florida. A series of rebellions between 1868 and 1898, led by General Máximo Gómez, failed to end Spanish rule and claimed the lives of 49,000 Cuban guerrillas and 126,000 Spanish soldiers. However, the Spanish–American War resulted in a Spanish withdrawal from the island in 1898, and following three-and-a-half years of subsequent US military rule, Cuba gained formal independence in 1902.
The recorded history of the Dominican Republic began in 1492 when the Genoa-born navigator Christopher Columbus, working for the Crown of Castile, happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who called the eastern part of the island Quisqueya (Kiskeya), meaning "mother of all lands." Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it La Isla Española, later Latinized to Hispaniola. After 25 years of Spanish occupation, the Taíno population in the Spanish-dominated parts of the island drastically decreased through genocide. With fewer than 50,000 remaining, the survivors intermixed with Spaniards, Africans, and others, forming the present-day tripartite Dominican population. What would become the Dominican Republic was the Spanish Captaincy General of Santo Domingo until 1821, except for a time as a French colony from 1795 to 1809. It was then part of a unified Hispaniola with Haiti from 1822 until 1844. In 1844, Dominican independence was proclaimed and the republic, which was often known as Santo Domingo until the early 20th century, maintained its independence except for a short Spanish occupation from 1861 to 1865 and occupation by the United States from 1916 to 1924.
The Spanish–American War began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The war led to the United States emerging predominant in the Caribbean region, and resulted in U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. It also led to United States involvement in the Philippine Revolution and later to the Philippine–American War.
On March 2, 1901, the Platt Amendment was passed as part of the 1901 Army Appropriations Bill. It stipulated seven conditions for the withdrawal of United States troops remaining in Cuba at the end of the Spanish–American War, and an eighth condition that Cuba signs a treaty accepting these seven conditions. It defined the terms of Cuban–U.S. relations essentially to be an unequal one of U.S. dominance over Cuba.
The Cuban Revolution was a military and political effort to overthrow the government of Cuba between 1953 and 1959. It began after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state. After failing to contest Batista in court, Fidel Castro organized an armed attack on the Cuban military's Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953. The rebels were arrested and while in prison formed the 26th of July Movement. After gaining amnesty the M-26-7 rebels organized an expedition from Mexico on the Granma yacht to invade Cuba. In the following years the M-26-7 rebel army would slowly defeat the Cuban army in the countryside, while its urban wing would engage in sabotage and rebel army recruitment. Over time the originally critical and ambivalent Popular Socialist Party would come to support the 26th of July Movement in late 1958. By the time the rebels were to oust Batista the revolution was being driven by the Popular Socialist Party, 26th of July Movement, and the Revolutionary Directorate of March 13.
The Teller Amendment was an amendment to a joint resolution of the United States Congress, enacted on April 20, 1898, in reply to President William McKinley's War Message. It placed a condition on the United States military's presence in Cuba. According to the clause, the U.S. could not annex Cuba but only leave "control of the island to its people." In short, the U.S. would help Cuba gain independence and then withdraw all its troops from the country.
Alfredo de Zayas y Alfonso, usually known as Alfredo de Zayas under Spanish naming customs and also known as Alfredo Zayas, was a Cuban lawyer, poet and political figure. He served as prosecutor, judge, mayor of Havana, secretary of the Constitutional Convention, Senator in 1905, president of the Senate in 1906, Vice President of Cuba from 1909 to 1913 and President of Cuba from May 20, 1921, to May 20, 1925.
Gerardo Machado y Morales was a general of the Cuban War of Independence and President of Cuba from 1925 to 1933.
The Battle of Guantánamo Bay was fought from June 6 to June 14 in 1898, during the Spanish–American War, when American and Cuban forces seized the strategically and commercially important harbor of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Capturing the bay from the Spanish forces was instrumental in the following Battle of Santiago de Cuba and the subsequent invasion of Puerto Rico. Although overshadowed by the land and sea battles at Santiago, the establishment of the United States naval base at Guantánamo Bay and the rout of defending Spanish troops by American and Cuban forces was important in the final Spanish defeat.
The Ten Years' War, also known as the Great War and the War of '68, was part of Cuba's fight for independence from Spain. The uprising was led by Cuban-born planters and other wealthy natives. On 10 October 1868, sugar mill owner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his followers proclaimed independence, beginning the conflict. This was the first of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Little War (1879–1880) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). The final three months of the last conflict escalated with United States involvement, leading to the Spanish–American War.
José Miguel Gómez y Arias was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the rebel forces in the Cuban War of Independence. He later served as President of Cuba from 1909 to 1913.
Aurelio Mario Gabriel Francisco García Menocal y Deop was the 3rd President of Cuba, serving from 1913 to 1921. His term as president saw Cuba's participation in World War I.
The first United States occupation of the Dominican Republic lasted from 1916 to 1924. It aimed to force the Dominicans to repay their large debts to European creditors, whose governments threatened military intervention. On May 13, 1916, Rear Admiral William B. Caperton forced the Dominican Republic's Secretary of War Desiderio Arias, who had seized power from President Juan Isidro Jimenes Pereyra, to leave Santo Domingo by threatening the city with naval bombardment. The Marines landed three days later and established effective control of the country within two months. Three major roads were built, largely for military purposes, connecting for the first time the capital with Santiago in the Cibao, Azua in the west, and San Pedro de Macorís in the east; and the system of forced labor used by the Americans in Haiti was absent in the Dominican Republic.
The Banana Wars were a series of conflicts that consisted of military occupation, police action, and intervention by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934. The military interventions were primarily carried out by the United States Marine Corps, which also developed a manual, the Small Wars Manual (1921) based on their experiences. On occasion, the United States Navy provided gunfire support and the United States Army also deployed troops.
The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista's regime by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in 1959.
The military history of Cuba is an aspect of the history of Cuba that spans several hundred years and encompasses the armed actions of Spanish Cuba while it was part of the Spanish Empire and the succeeding Cuban republics.
The Provisional Government of Cuba lasted from September 1906 to February 1909. This period was also referred to as the Second Occupation of Cuba.
The War of 1912, also known as the Little Race War, the Negro Rebellion, or The Twelve, was a series of protests and uprisings in 1912 in Cuba, which saw conflict between Afro-Cuban rebels and the armed forces of Cuba. It took place mainly in the eastern region of the island, where most Afro-Cubans were employed. After a weeks of fighting, including massacres of Afro-Cubans by the Cuban National Army led by General Jesus Monteagudo and a U.S. military intervention to protect American companies, the rebellion was put down. The leaders of the Afro-Cuban rebels, Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonnet, were killed during the rebellion and their political movement, The Independent Party of Color, was dissolved. Between 3,000 and 6,000 people were killed in the rebellion.
Pedro Betancourt Dávalos (1858–1933) was a medical doctor, major general, diplomat, Secretary of Agriculture, politician, and Cuban revolutionary in the Cuban War of Independence.
The Republic of Cuba had maintained neutrality during much of World War I until German submarine warfare resumed on February 1, 1917. On April 7, one day after the United States entered the war, Cuba declared war on Germany and began to support the Allied war effort. Cuba also declared war on Austria-Hungary later that year, on December 16.
Cubaportal 
