annexation. As a slave colony which might become a slave state,
the South wanted Cuba, but the majority in the North did not.

After the Civil War in the United States was over, revolution at
length flared forth in 1868, from end to end of the island.
Sympathy with the Cubans was widespread in the United States. The
hand of the Government, however, was stayed by recent history.
Americans felt keenly the right of governments to exert their
full strength to put down rebellion, for they themselves were
prosecuting against Great Britain a case based on what they
contended was her too lax enforcement of her obligations to the
American Government and on the assistance which she had given to
the South. The great issue determined the lesser, and for ten
years the United States watched the Cuban revolution without
taking part in it, but not, however, without protest and
remonstrance. Claiming special rights as a close and necessarily
interested neighbor, the United States constantly made
suggestions as to the manner of the contest and its settlement.
Some of these Spain grudgingly allowed, and it was in part by
American insistence that slavery was finally abolished in the
island. Further internal reform, however, was not the wish and
was perhaps beyond the power of Spain. Although the revolution
was seemingly brought to a close in 1878, its embers continued to
smolder for nearly a score of years until in 1895 they again
burst into flame.

War in Cuba could not help affecting in a very intimate way the
people of the United States. They bought much the greater part of
the chief Cuban crops, sugar and tobacco. American capital had
been invested in the island, particularly in plantations. For