Decades before Nazi Germany’s atrocities, there were concentration camps in Cuba. Spanish overlords resorted to this tactic in late 19th Century as a series of uprisings threatened their grip on the island.
It was 1895, and then-Cuban governor-general Arsenio Martínez Campos found himself at a moral impasse. On one hand, he expressed a degree of admiration for the Cuban revolutionaries fighting for their independence. He deemed them honorable adversaries due to their humane treatment of Spanish prisoners of war. Rather than execute or torture these soldiers, the Cuban rebels returned unharmed in an act of clemency.
While Martínez Campos respected their mercy, he also believed the most effective path to quashing the Cuban resistance would be to respond with calculated acts of cruelty. As the Spanish had little control over rural areas, the countryside became a sanctuary for guerilla fighters to garner support, strategize, and thrive. In these remote locations, sympathetic campesinos offered food and lodging, sometimes even joining the movement. Likewise, hiding among the rural populations allowed these fighters to evade Spanish detection.
Martínez Campos recognized the crippling effect destroying these resources would have on the rebel movement. Therefore, he wrote to the Spanish prime minister to relay his ideas, simultaneously requesting excusal from his post as he did not want to be the one to inflict such atrocities. Honoring his request, Spain sent Captian General Valeriano Weyler to take over the reins of Cuba along with reinforcements, placing all hope that he would retain the colony by any means necessary.
Upon reaching Cuba, Weyler immediately got to work forcing campesinos out of the rural areas and into urban reconcentration camps, fortified by the fairly recent inventions of barbed wire and machine guns. Spanish troops then stormed the countryside, destroying crops, livestock, and housing. Heavily inspired by General William Sherman’s “March to the Sea” approach during the American Civil War, Weyler’s tactic separated rebel fighters from civilians who aided them and the additional resources they offered.
Primarily concerned with glory, Weyler failed to provide provisions for the reconcentration camps, creating a dismal living situation for the interred. According to Pulitzer Prize winning Cuban scholar Ada Ferrer, estimates suggest perhaps as many as 170,000 people perished in these makeshift prisons due to malnutrition or disease from the unsanitary conditions. Neglecting these prisoners created a situation tantamount to mass execution.
Though Weyler’s campaign temporarily stymied the guerilla tactics rebels relied on, it backfired spectacularly, ending in Weyler’s prompt resignation and Spain’s loss of the colony a few years later. First, it served to unite Cubans in the quest for independence against what they could then agree to be a cruel and tyrannical ruler. It also divided Spanish politicians, as some, particularly the Liberals, saw this approach as a step too far. Finally, politicians and the press in the United States widely publicized their condemnation of concentration camps in Cuba, which won some popular support for the U.S. officials getting involved in Cuba’s struggle against Spain.
Once Spain was finally out of the picture, Cuba did not have complete autonomy. Five years after Cuba gained its independence, the U.S. Congress intervened in its constitutional convention, demanding that the island include the Platt Amendment in its constitution, effectively making Cuba a protectorate of the United States. Though the Platt Amendment’s supporters argued it protected Cuba’s stability, it also denied Cuba the autonomy its revolutionaries truly sought, setting the stage for decades of tension between the two nations.
