1820 A.D. But at this juncture circumstances occurred in Europe whose influences reinforced the patriot cause and led to its early and decisive victory. A revolutionary movement had broken out in Spain, and attained strength so formidable that the Bourbon King was forced to accept universal suffrage. The restored monarchy of France sent an army into Spain to suppress these disorders and re-establish the accustomed despotism. The expedition, led by a French prince, achieved a success which was regarded as brilliant, and which naturally gained for France a large increase of influence in the affairs of the Peninsula. England, not delivered even by Waterloo from her hereditary jealousy of France, regarded this gain with displeasure. Mr. Canning, who then directed the foreign policy of England, resolved that since France now predominated over Spain, it should be over Spain shorn of her American possessions. As he grandly boasted, he “called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.” 1823 A.D. In simple prose, he acknowledged the independence of the revolted Spanish provinces, and entered into relations with them by means of consuls. As a consequence of this recognition, large supplies of money and of arms were received by the insurgents, and many veteran British and French soldiers joined their ranks.
1823 A.D. These reinforcements made it possible for Bolivar to equip a strong force and hasten to the support of the sinking republic of Peru. He arrived at Lima with an army of ten thousand men, many of whom had gained their knowledge of war under Napoleon and Wellington. Here he made his preparations for the arduous undertaking of carrying his army across the Andes. When Pizarro entered upon the same enterprise, he marched across a plain made fertile by the industry of the people; among the mountains his progress was aided by the great roads of the barbarians and the frequent magazines and places of shelter which they had providently erected. But three centuries of Spanish dominion had effaced the works of the Incas, and had carried the land, by great strides, back towards desolation. The roads and the canals for irrigation had fallen into decay; the fruitful plain was now an arid and sterile wilderness. Bolivar had to make roads, to build sheds, to lay up stores of food along his line of march, before he could venture to set out. The toil of the ascent was extreme, and the men suffered much from the cold into which they advanced. The Royalists did not wait for their descent, but met them among the mountains at an elevation of twelve thousand feet above sea-level. During many months there was fighting without decisive result. At length the armies met for a conflict which it was now perceived must be final. Dec. 9, 1824 A.D. On the plain of Ayacucho, twelve thousand Royalists encountered the Republican army, numbering now scarcely more than one-half the opposing forces. The outnumbered Independents fought bravely, but the fortune of war seemed to declare against them, and they were being driven from the field with a defeat which must soon have become a rout. At that perilous moment an English general commanding the Republican cavalry struck with all his force on the flank of the victorious but disordered Spaniards. The charge could not be resisted. The Spaniards fled from the field, leaving their artillery and many prisoners, among whom was the Viceroy. A final and decisive victory had been gained. The war ceased; Peru and Chili were given over by treaty to the friends of liberty, and the authority which Spain had so vilely abused had no longer a foothold on the soil of the great South American Continent.
The process by which Spain was stripped of her American possessions, and of which we have now seen the close, had begun within a hundred years after the conquest. When she ceased to obtain gold and silver from the islands of the Gulf of Mexico, Spain ceased to concern herself about these portions of her empire. The other nations of Europe, guided by a wiser estimate, sought to possess themselves of the neglected islands. Soon after the death of Queen Elizabeth, the English established themselves on Barbadoes, and began industriously to cultivate tobacco, indigo, and the sugar-cane. A little later, the French formed settlements on Martinique and Guadaloupe, as the English did on St. Christopher, and held them against all the efforts of Spain. Oliver Cromwell seized Jamaica, and peopled the island with “idle and disaffected” persons, who were sent out with slight regard to their own wishes.[37] The buccaneers formed many settlements, which were assailed but could not be extirpated. 1665 to 1671 A.D. One of these, on the island of St. Domingo, was taken under the protection of France. The Danes possessed themselves of St. Thomas. During the ceaseless wars of the eighteenth century France and England competed keenly for dominion in the Gulf of Mexico, and the maritime supremacy of England gave her decisive advantage in the contest. Few wars closed without a new cession of colonial lands by France or by Spain to England. 1763 A.D. On the Northern Continent, Florida was added to the English possessions. The vast territory known as Mississippi passed into the hands of the United States. The revolutionary movement of the nineteenth century wrenched from Spain all the rich provinces which she owned on the Southern Continent, and the battle of Ayacucho left her with only an inconsiderable fragment of those boundless possessions which, by a strange fortune, had fallen into her unworthy hands.
Only Cuba and Puerto Rico remain, to preserve the humiliating memory of a magnificent colonial dominion gained and held without difficulty; governed in shameless selfishness; lost by utter incapacity. Puerto Rico is an inconsiderable island, scarcely larger than the largest of our English counties, lying off the northern shores of the continent. It holds a population of six or seven hundred thousand persons, one-half of whom are slaves.[38] Its people occupy themselves in the cultivation of sugar and tobacco, and are still governed by Spain according to the traditions which guided her policy during the darkest period of her colonial history.
Cuba is the noblest of all the islands which Columbus found in the West. It lies in the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, where Yucatan on the Southern Continent draws towards Florida on the Northern to form the seaward boundaries of the Gulf. Its area is about one-half that of Great Britain. Its population is one million four hundred thousand,[39] of whom one-fourth are slaves. The rich soil yields two and even three crops of corn annually; the perpetual summer of its genial climate clothes in blossom throughout the whole year the aromatic plants and trees which beautify its plains. The sugar-cane, whose cultivation is the leading industry of the island, is a source of vast wealth. To the extent of one-half its area the island is covered with dense forests of valuable timber still untouched by the axe. The orange tree, the citron, the pomegranate yield, spontaneously, their rich harvest of precious fruits.
But the bounty of Nature has been neutralized by the unworthiness of man. The blight of Spanish government has fallen heavily on this lovely island. When the other American possessions of Spain threw aside the yoke, the leading Cubans assembled and swore solemnly to maintain for ever the authority of the parent State. They still plume themselves on their loyalty, and speak fondly of Cuba as “the ever-faithful isle.” But neither the obedience of Cuba nor the rebellion of the other colonies moved the blind rulers of Spain to mitigate the evils which their authority inflicted. The ancient system was enforced on Cuba when she became the sole care of Spain precisely as it had been when she was still a member of a great colonial dominion. All offices were still occupied by natives of Spain; all Spaniards born in Cuba were still regarded with contempt by their haughty countrymen from beyond the sea. Governors still exercised a purely despotic authority; the home Government still claimed a large gain from the colonial revenue; all religions but one were still excluded. The loss of a continent had taught no lesson to incapable Spain.
After the successful assertion of independence by the continental States, frequent insurrections testified to the presence of a liberal spirit in Cuba. These were suppressed without difficulty, but not without much needless cruelty. 1868 A.D. At length there burst out an insurrection which surpassed all the others in dimensions and duration. It continued to rage during eight years; it cost Spain one hundred and fifty thousand of her best soldiers; nearly one-half the sugar plantations of the island were destroyed; population decreased; trade decayed; poverty and famine scourged the unhappy island.
1876 A.D. Spain was able at length to crush out the rebellion and maintain her grasp over this poor remnant of her American empire. Cuba emerged from those miserable years in a state of utter exhaustion. Many of her people had perished by famine or by the sword; many others had fled from a land blighted by a government which they were not able either to reject or to endure. Spain sought to make Cuba defray the costs of her own subjugation, and taxation became enormous. The expenditure of Cuba is at the rate of fifteen pounds for each of the population, or six times the rate of that of Great Britain. Only three-fourths of the total sum can be wrung from the impoverished people, even by a severity of taxation which is steadily crushing out the agriculture of the island; and a large annual deficit is rapidly increasing the public debt.[40] Already that debt has been trebled by the rebellion and its consequences. None of the devices to which distressed States are accustomed to resort have been omitted, and an inconvertible currency, so large as to be hopelessly unmanageable, presses heavily upon the sinking industries of Cuba.[41]
Spain is the largest producer and the smallest consumer of sugar. A Spaniard uses only one-sixth of the quantity of sugar which is used by an Englishman. Spain has made the article high-priced, in utter disregard of colonial interests, for the purpose of cherishing her home production. The sugar of Cuba, loaded with heavy taxes before shipment, and further discouraged in the markets of Spain by excessive import duties, is unable to support those iniquitously imposed burdens, and this great industry is falling into ruin.