Tomás Estrada Palma
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Tomás Estrada Palma (1835 to 1908) was a Cuban political figure, [1]. He served as the first president of Cuba between 1902 and 1906.
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[edit] Fight for independence
Tomás Estrada Palma was an important Cuban general in the Ten Years' War.
Estrada Palma was captured by Spanish troops and sent into exile. While in exile, he traveled to New York where he worked with José Martí.
After Martí's death, Estrada Palma became the new leader of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
When the revolutionaries established a Government in arms, Estrada Palma was sent to Washington as its diplomat. With the help of an American banker, he tried offering Spain $150 million to give up the island, a plan that failed.
He was, however, successful in getting the US Congress to pass the Joint Resolution. This bill was one of the factors that led the United States to declare war on Spain, demanding that Cuba be freed from Spanish colonial rule[citation needed]. (see Spanish-American War)
[edit] First term
After a few years of General Leonard Wood's rule in Cuba, elections were to be held. The Republican Liberals, headed by José Miguel Gomez, and the National Liberals, headed by Alfredo Zayas, both supported Estrada Palma. He did not campaign though, staying the full time in the U.S., where he was a citizen.
On December 31, 1901, Estrada Palma was elected President. His politics have been likened to those of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.[citation needed]
American troops left after the Cuban government signed a bill lowering tariffs on American products and incorporated the Platt Amendment into their constitution. Many American companies came to do business in Cuba.
On February 16, 1903, Estrada Palma signed the Cuban-American Treaty, agreeing to lease the Guantanamo Bay area to the United States, in perpetuity, for use as a naval base and coaling station.
[edit] Second term
Estrada Palma was reelected in 1906, but this time against violent opposition by the Liberals, who claimed election fraud. U.S. troops were not needed to put down the Liberal revolt, since the military leaders of the successful revolt [2], negotiated nominally with William H. Taft and Robert Bacon [3] but in reality with U.S. General Frederick Funston who had also been at Mambi, took their "borrowed" horses and went home. Soon Estrada Palma resigned, against the wishes of Roosevelt, and another American government was established in Cuba under Charles Magoon [4].
[edit] Statue
A statue of Estrada Palma was erected in the "Avenida de los Presidentes" in Havana. It was pulled down by Fidel Castro's revolutionaries, reportedly because they blamed Estrada Palma for starting the trend of U.S. intervention in Cuba. The plinth, with a pair of shoes, remains.
| Preceded by None |
President of Cuba 1902–1906 |
Succeeded by José Miguel Gómez |
