History of Cuba Timetable: 1905 thru 1928

February 24. An attack on the Guanabacoa barracks, just outside Havana, results in the killing of several guards and the taking of arms and horses by the rebels.

April. The few remaining Liberals in congress try (in vain) to declare the elections illegal and void.

April. According to A History of the Cuban Republic, by Chapman, the balance in the Cuban treasury has grown to "approximately $25 million" by this date.

May 20. Tomás Estrada Palma is inaugurated as President for a second term.

July 1 1906 - June 30 1909
In this 3-year period, the government spends a total of $121,000,000 (which includes the tumultuous last months of Estrada Palma and part of the first year of José Miguel Gómez' presidency). In the previous 2 fiscal years the government spent an average of $26,000,000.

July 2. In Havana, a new lease is signed for Guantánamo Bay and Bahía Honda, for which the U.S. will pay $2,000 per year.

August 16. Open rebellion breaks out. By the end of the month armed conflicts are taking place in every province. This becomes known as "the little war of August."

"Once the revolt began," wrote Charles E. Chapman in A History of the Cuban Republic, "business men wanted intervention as soon as possible, but were afraid to speak in a loud voice, as their estates were at the mercy of the contending factions."

August 17. Rural guards engage in battle with rebels lead by General Mesa. Many rebel leaders are arrested throughout the island.

August 19. President Estrada Palma orders the arrest of General José Monteagudo (operating in Santa Clara), General Castillo Duany and Juan Gualberto Gómez (operating in Oriente).

August 20. Estrada Palma orders an increase of 2,000 men in the rural guards.

September. Rebel forces are in control of most of the island.

September 1. General Mario G. Menocal (a veteran of the War of Independence) meets with President Estrada Palma in Havana to discuss a compromise between the Liberals and the Moderates. Menocal suggests a plan in which all officials elected in 1905 resign except for the president and vice-president, and the Liberals unjustly removed from office are restored. He stipulates that the President see that necessary electoral and municipal laws are enacted and new elections held. A truce is enacted while the President considers the proposal.

September 8. Estrada Palma rejects Menocal's compromise proposal of September 1. He says he will not deal with the rebels until they lay down their weapons.

September 8. From Havana, Mr. Frank Maximilian Steinhart, American consul-general, sends a telegraph to the State Department in Washington:
"Absolutely confidential. Secretary of State, Cuba, has requested me in name of President Palma, to ask President Roosevelt send immediately two vessels; one to Habana, other to Cienfuegos; they must come at once. Government forces are unable to quell rebellion. The Government is unable to protect life and property. President Palma will convene Congress next Friday, and Congress will ask for our forcible intervention. It must be kept secret and confidential that Palma asked for vessels. No one here except President, Secretary of State, and myself know about it. Very anxiously awaiting reply."

September 10. Mr. Steinhart sends another message to Washington: "President here worried because no reply received my message, and asks war vessels be sent immediately."

September 10. Pamphlets distributed in Havana accuse Estrada Palma of stalling for time while working to secure U.S. intervention.

September 11. Mr. Steinhart sends a third message to Washington requesting U.S. intervention in Cuba.

September 12. The U.S. cruiser "Denver" arrives in Havana harbor.

September 14. Estrada Palma addresses the Cuban congress.

September 14. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt sends an open letter to Gonzalo de Quesada, the Cuban minister to Washington. He announces that he will send Secretary of War William H. Taft and Assistant Secretary of State Bacon to Cuba as special representatives. He also adds: "Whoever is responsible for armed revolt and outrage, whoever is responsible in any way for the condition of affairs that now obtain, is an enemy of Cuba. For there is just one way in which Cuban independence can be jeoparded, and that is for the Cuban people to show their inability to continue in their path of peaceful and orderly progress. Our intervention in Cuban affairs will only come if Cuba herself shows that she has fallen into the insurrectionary habit, that she lacks the self-restraint necessary to secure peaceful self-government, and that her contending factions have plunged the country into anarchy."

September 16. Aware that Taft and Bacon are on their way to Cuba, Estrada Palma issues a decree suspending hostilities and releases some political prisoners. Zayas comes out of hiding once its established that he will not be arrested.

September 19. Taft and Bacon arrive in Havana on the S.S. Des Moines. They spend several days in conversation with Liberal and Moderate Party leaders and soon come to believe (and communicate to the U.S. President) that the 1905 elections were dishonest.

September 20. U.S. sailors land in Cienfuegos.

September 24. Taft and Bacon submit their proposal to Estrada Palma (based on the compromise proposal suggested by Menocal on September 1). Estrada Palma completely rejects the plan.

September 26. Alfredo Zayas writes to Taft and Bacon: "The Government of Cuba having granted to the United States the right of intervention in accordance with Clause III of the Constitutional Appendix, it would seem but natural that the exercise of this right should not be hindered or resisted by the Government of Cuba."

September 28. Estrada Palma convenes congress and submits his own and his cabinet's immediate resignation. He hands custody of the treasury to Taft and Bacon.

September 29. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt names Taft "U.S. Governor of Cuba." Taft, who has previously served as military Governor of the Philippines, publishes a Proclamation, thereby taking control of the Cuban government.

"When the intervention came," wrote Charles E. Chapman in A History of the Cuban Republic, "with the proclamation of September 29, it came, not as a result of official request, but because there was no Cuban government at all."

September. Theodore Roosevelt: "I am so angry with that infernal little Cuban republic that I would like to wipe its people off the face of the earth. All we have wanted from them is that they would behave themselves and be prosperous and happy so that we would not have to interfere. And now, lo and behold, they have started an utterly unjustifiable and pointless revolution and may get things into such a snarl that we have no alternative…"

October 2. Ex-president Estrada Palma leaves Havana by train. He takes his family to Matanzas. They later continue to his old home in Bayamo, Oriente.

October 9. U.S. citizen Charles E. Magoon arrives in Havana to replace Taft as head of the provisional government of Cuba.

"Magoon was an honest man," wrote Charles E. Chapman in A History of the Cuban Republic, "and as a provisional governor of Cuba he merely reflected Secretary Taft."

October 10. Taft issues an amnesty proclamation covering crimes committed in connection with the revolt.

Estrada Palma writes to a personal friend. The letter is later published in Cuban newspapers.

October 12. Taft issues a decree asking that congress will remain in recess during the continuance of the provisional government. This leaves the executive and legislative power in the hands of the provisional governor.

October 13. Magoon replaces Taft as Military Governor of Cuba. [On two other occasions, in 1912 and 1917, U.S. military forces take control of the Cuban government.]

October 23. U.S. President Roosevelt issues an executive order in which Cuba's provisional governor comes under the direct supervision of the Secretary of War (Taft).

October 24. All weapons turned in by the insurgents are towed out of Havana harbor and thrown into the Gulf of Mexico.

November. In Cuba, a movement starts asking that the island be declared a protectorate of the U.S. In the U.S., annexationists revive their enthusiasm for Cuba: Senator J.T. Morgan of Alabama renews his effort to have Isle of Pines declared U.S. territory, and Senator Cullom, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, again voices his support for annexation.

November 3. The Moderate Party is formally dissolved.

November 27. Magoon organizes a commission to investigate claims for damages due to the "little war of August."

December 3. Under instructions from U.S. President Roosevelt, Taft decrees that the terms of all representatives elected on December 1 1905 and March 19 1906 are terminated as of October 12 1906. [Senators elected in 1902 and 1904 continue to draw full salaries until their terms expire.] He adds that new elections are to be held when "tranquility and public confidence are fully restored."

December 24. Magoon appoints an Advisory Law Commission to study legislative matters. It consists of 9 Cubans and 3 Americans. Colonel Enoch Herbert Crowder serves as presiding officer. Among the Cuban members are Alfredo Zayas and Juan Gualberto Gómez (who serves as secretary of the commission.).