1902
Cuban Republic established
Cuba becomes formally independent, though the Platt Amendment leaves the U.S. with significant control, including the Guantánamo lease.
On May 20, 1902, the Republic of Cuba was formally established, and the island governed itself for the first time. But the independence was qualified from the start.
The Platt Amendment
As a condition of ending U.S. occupation, Cuba was required to write the Platt Amendment into its constitution. It gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to lease land for naval bases — including the lease at Guantánamo Bay that endures, contentiously, to this day.
A fragile sovereignty
The early republic saw real progress alongside chronic instability: economic dependence on sugar and on the U.S. market, recurring political corruption, and periodic American intervention. Sovereignty existed, but always with an asterisk.
Why it matters
The compromised independence of 1902 helps explain the intensity of Cuban nationalism later in the century. The promise of true self-determination — long deferred — became a powerful rallying cry that revolutionaries would seize.