Tomás Estrada Palma

Cuban-born Cuban president (1902-1906), military leader, and activist

• Born: July 9, 1835
• Birthplace: Bayamo, Cuba
• Died: November 4, 1908
• Place of death: Santiago de Cuba, Cuba

Estrada Palma was the first president of the Cuban republic and played an important role in that country’s struggle for independence from Spain. A general in the Liberation Army, he later headed the Cuban Revolutionary Party in the United States and secured U.S. support for the second war of independence.

Early Life

Tomás Estrada Palma (toh-MAHS ehs-TRAH-dah PAHL-mah) was born in Bayamo in eastern Cuba to Maria Candelaria de Palma y Tamayo and Andrés Duque de Estrada y Palma. His father died when Estrada Palma was still a boy. After attending schools in Havana, he was sent to Spain in 1852 to study law at the University of Seville. He left before graduating and returned to Cuba to take over the family estate following the death of his guardian.

In 1868, Oriente landowner Carlos Manuel de Céspedes proclaimed the island’s independence, calling on his compatriots to fight against the Spaniards. Estrada Palma was part of a delegation sent to persuade the rebels to lay down arms. Instead, he joined them and fought in the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878). Rapidly rising to the rank of general, Estrada Palma also was elected president of the “Republic in Arms.” In October, 1877, he was captured by Spanish forces and imprisoned in Havana and then in Spain, where he remained until the war ended.

Upon his release, Estrada Palma refused to accept the terms of the peace agreement and return to Cuba. Instead, he went to France, the United States, and Central America. He met and married the daughter of the Honduran president, Genoveva Guardiola y Arbizu, with whom he would have six children. He was appointed postmaster general, but in 1883, the family left Honduras and moved to the United States. They settled in Central Valley, New York, where Estrada Palma established a school for Latin American boys.

Life’s Work

The exiled Cuban writer and revolutionary José Martí had made New York a center of operations for the independence struggle. Martí appointed Estrada Palma adviser to the Cuban Revolutionary Party, which they founded in 1892. Plans for another war were laid in Central Valley, and in April, 1895, Martí returned to Cuba to fight. After Martí’s death in battle in May, Estrada Palma assumed leadership of the party. In September, he formed the Cuban Junta, an association of naturalized Cuban Americans, to garner support for the revolutionary cause. Leaving his family in Central Valley, Estrada Palma moved to New York City and then to Washington, D.C. There, he opposed Spanish attempts to grant autonomy to the island, successfully lobbying Congress to pass the Joint Resolution—a bill that led the United States to declare war on Spain in April, 1898.

The Spanish were quickly defeated, but Cuban independence did not immediately follow. The island experienced a period of U.S. occupation, and the first republican elections were only called at the end of 1901. There were two candidates: Estrada Palma and General Bartolomé Masó. Masó was more popular, as Estrada Palma was almost unknown in Cuba; however, Estrada Palma had the support of prominent figures such as Máximo Gomez, former commander of the Liberation Army. More importantly, he had the backing of the U.S. government. When the outgoing U.S. governor Leonard Wood appointed supporters of Estrada Palma to the electoral commission, Masó withdrew his candidacy. Estrada Palma won the election unopposed and returned to Cuba to take office in May, 1902.

Estrada Palma’s administration began well. An honest and well-intentioned man, he continued programs initiated under U.S. occupation, including public education and improvements in public services. His prudent personal financial habits carried over into government policy, producing a budget surplus. However, his administration disappointed the former freedom fighters who had imagined a very different independent Cuba. None of the ministers Estrada Palma chose was a war veteran or revolutionary émigré. Spanish colonial legislation remained in place because of his failure to mobilize his congress to approve the new constitution. He sought foreign investment to promote the island’s economic recovery, but this resulted in U.S. control of land and the sugar industry and Spanish domination of commerce.

Estrada Palma was most heavily criticized for introducing legislation that placed independent Cuba under the protection of the United States. He supported the Platt Amendment, an appendix to the Cuban Constitution that gave the United States the right to intervene militarily if order or stability was threatened. It also leased areas of Cuban territory, including Guantánamo Bay, to the United States for military bases.

In 1905, Estrada Palma sought reelection, this time as the candidate of the Moderate Party. His opponent was General José Miguel Gomez, the popular candidate of the Liberal Party. Estrada Palma was not expected to win the election, but government resources were used to ensure his victory. He might not have been aware of the scale of the fraud, but Estrada Palma was keen to win a second term in order to continue his program to develop Cuba. The Liberals withdrew their campaign in protest and Estrada Palma was reelected in December.

In August, 1906, the Liberals organized an armed uprising in protest of the corrupt election. Estrada Palma attempted unsuccessfully to crush the revolt, and fighting spread throughout the island. In September, he appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt to intervene. Rather than send troops, Roosevelt appointed a commission headed by Secretary of War William H. Taft to investigate. Taft recommended a compromise that would recognize some of the Liberal demands, but Estrada Palma refused to negotiate. He resigned as president on September 28, leaving the country with no government and forcing the United States to intervene. Estrada Palma left Havana on October 2 and returned to his family estate at Bayamo. He remained there, living in reduced circumstances, until his death on November 4, 1908.

Significance

Estrada Palma dedicated much of his life to obtaining independence for Cuba, the last Spanish colony. He held high-ranking military and civilian positions in the revolutionary movement. After the death of José Martí, Estrada Palma was responsible for managing the movement from outside of Cuba and, importantly, obtaining U.S. involvement in the final war against Spain. His correspondence with Cuban and American military men and politicians is an important chronicle of events of the time. Don Tomás, as he was affectionately known, was regarded as the most honest president of the republican era. However, his reputation suffered because he approved legislation that ensured Cuban political and military dependence on the United States.

Bibliography

Hernández, José M. Cuba and the United States: Intervention and Militarism, 1868-1933. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. A good analysis of Estrada Palma’s time in the United States and how this influenced his adminstration.

Keenan, Jerry. “Tomás Estrada Palma.” In Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Brief entry on Estrada Palma that discusses his role in the run-up to the Spanish-American War.

Millett, Allan Reed. The Politics of Intervention: The Military Occupation of Cuba, 1906-1909. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1968. Covering the background to the second U.S. intervention in Cuba, this book provides a detailed account of Estrada Palma, the man and the president.

Pérez, Louis A., Jr. Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 1902-1934, Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986. A history of U.S.-Cuba relations in the early years of the republic that discusses Estrada Palma’s presidency.

Thomas, Hugh. Cuba or the Pursuit of Freedom, New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. This wide-ranging study of Cuban history has a detailed chapter on Estrada Palma’s time as President.