Cuban insurgency

Today's selection -- from President McKinley by Robert W. Merry. In both 1868 and 1895, many decades before Fidel Castro, rebels in Cuba rose up against its government: "Cuba was threatened by an insurgency that began in February 1895 with the aim of ripping this 'ever faithful isle,' as it was called in Madrid, from Spanish dominion and giving it sovereign independence. Spain almost lost the island during an earlier rebellion, from 1868 to 1878, that claimed almost 260,000 lives on both sides. But eventually a new government in Madrid, product of a Spanish revolution that replaced the old absolute monarchy with a constitutional structure, negotiated a settlement with the Cuban insurgency that granted am­nesty to its leaders and offered concessions on some grievances. Now the same leaders were back in the fight with a fearsome resolve.