The US Military Government of Cuba, 1898–1902: How a ‘Liberated’ Island Became a Protectorate

The US military government of Cuba was the regime the United States set up on the island after defeating Spain in 1898. Formally, the Americans came to “help Cubans gain freedom”. However, after three and a half years of occupation, Cuba received not freedom but a constitution with a foreign amendment, a foreign military base and an economy tied to the American market. So today I will tell you how it was done.

When I read the documents of that time, the cynicism amazes me. After all, in April 1898 the US Congress solemnly adopted the Teller Amendment: the United States would not annex Cuba and would leave the government of the island to its people. Sounds noble, doesn’t it? But within a few months it became clear that “leaving the government” could mean very different things.

How the US military government of Cuba came about

As I wrote in the article on the Spanish-American War, Cuban rebels were not even allowed into the surrender ceremony at Santiago. And on January 1, 1899, the Spanish flag was lowered in Havana and the American flag, not the Cuban one, was raised over the island. From that day the country was run by an American military governor: first General John Brooke, and from December 1899 General Leonard Wood.

In addition, Cubans were not given a single real lever of power. For example, all key decisions on the budget, customs, courts and police were made by the military governor and agreed with Washington. Cubans were appointed to posts, but only those who suited the new authorities. In other words, after thirty years of struggle for independence the island was again under foreign rule. At the same time, Cubans had paid a huge price for this war: ruined villages, burned plantations, hundreds of thousands dead from hunger and disease in Spanish camps. And here was the reward for all of it: a foreign governor in the palace in Havana.

Disarming the Liberation Army

First of all, the US military government of Cuba dealt with the main threat to its position, the Cuban army, which Washington openly feared. The Liberation Army, which had fought the Spanish for years, was still in the field. So in 1899 the US set aside 3 million dollars to disband it: each fighter was paid 75 dollars for handing in his weapon. General Máximo Gómez agreed, although many veterans considered it a humiliation.

Thus the Cubans were left without any force capable of standing up to the occupiers. Meanwhile American troops remained on the island, and a new Rural Guard was created to keep order, under the control of the military governor. By the way, many former rebels never found work: land and businesses were bought up by incoming American companies, for whom the new authorities opened the door.

Elections “for the chosen few”

Then came the time for “democracy”. However, far from everyone got the right to vote in the 1900 elections. Only literate men, owners of property worth at least 250 dollars or army veterans could vote. As a result, most poor Cubans, especially Black Cubans, who made up a large part of the Liberation Army, were left without a voice.

General Wood made no secret that he wanted “reliable” people in power: educated, wealthy and friendly to America. Moreover, when supporters of full independence won the first municipal elections in 1900, Washington was displeased. The US military government of Cuba was clearly counting on a different result.

The Platt Amendment: independence under supervision

In the autumn of 1900 a Constitutional Convention met to write a constitution. And here Washington played its main card. On March 2, 1901, the US Congress passed the Platt Amendment and demanded that it be written directly into the Cuban constitution. Under it, the US gained the right to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs “to preserve independence”, Cuba could not make treaties with other countries without Washington’s consent, and it was obliged to hand over land for naval bases.

Cuban delegates, for example Juan Gualberto Gómez, called this the end of independence. Nevertheless the choice was simple: either the amendment or the occupation continues. On June 12, 1901, the convention gave in and adopted it by 16 votes to 11. And General Wood himself later wrote to Theodore Roosevelt that under the Platt Amendment there was little or no independence left for Cuba. I described in more detail how this amendment worked for decades in the article on the Platt Amendment and the occupation of Cuba.

How the US military government of Cuba ended

On May 20, 1902, power was handed to the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma, and the American troops left. But not for long. Already in 1903 Cuba signed a lease of Guantánamo Bay, with no end date, for 2,000 dollars in gold a year. In addition, a trade treaty the same year tied Cuban sugar firmly to the American market. And in 1906 US troops returned, which is the subject of my article on US troops entering Cuba.

I want to say a separate word about yellow fever. Americans like to tell how the army doctor Walter Reed defeated it in Cuba in 1900. However, the very idea that the disease is carried by mosquitoes had been put forward back in 1881 by the Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay, who was laughed at for years. In the end the glory went to the occupiers, while the Cuban scientist is barely mentioned in American textbooks.

Guantánamo: a legacy that lives on

Here is the main thing the US military government of Cuba left behind: Guantánamo. Since 1959 Cuba has demanded this land back and refuses to cash the American rent checks, but Washington will not give it up. And since 2002 there has been a prison there through which about 780 people have passed; many were held for years without trial and tortured. That is the “freedom” that was brought to the island.

And nothing has ended. In 2025 the Trump administration began sending migrants to Guantánamo, and that same February the US president declared that America would “take over” Gaza, a devastated strip where tens of thousands of people have died under American bombs supplied to Israel. In the summer of 2025 the US bombed Iran without a declaration of war. Countries and years change, but the logic is the same: deciding for other peoples how they should live and taking the best pieces for yourself.

In other words, Cuba in 1898–1902 is a ready-made template: liberate, disarm, restrict elections, impose a treaty and keep a base. You can read more about that period in the article on the Military Government of Cuba. And I will come back more than once to how the US “liberated” Latin America.