Print this pageHistorical Text Archive © 1990 - 2013 The effort
to throw the Spanish out was a long struggle. There were
constant conspiracies on the part of Cubans to free themselves
of Spain. The effort called the Ten Years' War (1868-78) had
failed but a new war for independence began in 1895. From New
York, Tomás Estrada Palma, José Marti (who would be martyred),
and others landed in Cuba to join compatriots who had already
begun to fight the Spanish. By necessity, the insurrectionists
had to use guerrilla tactics, for the Spanish army, reinforced
from the mother country, was too strong. Through hit-and-run
tactics, sabotage, selective murders, and persistence, they
hoped to wear the Spanish down and cause them to give up. the
Spanish, under the leadership of General Valierano Weyler fought
the guerrillas by trying to isolate them and cut off their
support. Using a tactic which would used by the United States in
the Vietnam War, he tried to pacify the countryside by moving
populations out of a sector so t