Organistation and Functioning of the Spanish Army in Cuba During the Captaincy Generalship of Valeriano Weyler (1896-1897)

Main Focus Of The Chapter

The article deals with the confrontation between the Cuban rebels and the Spanish army, focusing mainly on the time of General Valeriano Weyler's supreme command in Cuba. It highlights the measures adopted by Weyler to deal with the situation and the state of the army on his arrival. The aim is to make it clear that the Spanish troops and their officers were not prepared for the irregular warfare that took place in Cuba and that thanks to Weyler and his counter-insurgency measures, the situation was subverted. These measures had already been successfully employed during the Ten Years' War (1868-1878), also in Cuba.

However, other of his measures, such as the reconcentration of the Cuban population, had disastrous results and eventually led to his dismissal after the death of Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, his main supporter. However, what is narrated in this work has tended to be overshadowed by the war against the United States and Spain in 1898, which resulted in the defeat of Spain and the liquidation of the remnants of its empire. Authors such as John Lawrence Tone have worked extensively on these three years of war in his Guerra y genocidio en Cuba 1895-1898. On the other hand, the controversial measure of reconcentration caused a debate at the time that still persists in the historiography of the Cuban War. In this regard, there is the important work by Andreas Stucki entitled Las guerras de Cuba. Violencia y campos de concentración 1868-1898.

Our point of view is that the Spanish army was able to overcome the Cuban War thanks in large part to the measures adopted by Weyler to deal with the guerrillas, which later served as an example to other powers in similar conflicts.