republic · Mesoamerica and the Caribbean
Republic of Cuba in Arms
Origins
On 10 October 1868 the planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes freed his enslaved workers and proclaimed independence at La Demajagua, starting the Ten Years' War. In April 1869 an assembly at Guáimaro adopted a constitution creating the Republic of Cuba in Arms, with Céspedes as president.
Rule and society
The republic had no fixed capital; its government moved through the eastern countryside held by rebel armies. A legislative House of Representatives often clashed with the president and deposed Céspedes in 1873. Generals Máximo Gómez and Antonio Maceo led the fighting. After the Pact of Zanjón of 1878 the republic lapsed. José Martí's Cuban Revolutionary Party relaunched the war in 1895, and new constitutions at Jimaguayú in 1895 and La Yaya in 1897 revived it.
Decline and legacy
The United States intervened in 1898 and defeated Spain, but excluded the Cuban republic from the peace talks. Its assembly dissolved itself in 1899, and Cuba passed under the United States Military Government in Cuba.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →More states of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Republic of Cuba in Arms. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-cuba-in-arms
- MLA
- “Republic of Cuba in Arms.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-cuba-in-arms. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Republic of Cuba in Arms.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-cuba-in-arms.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Republic of Cuba in Arms’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/republic-of-cuba-in-arms (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻