It was about the same time, or just a hundred years before the outbreak of our war with Spain, that sugar became an important article of general commerce.  Even then, however, it was not an article of common consumption, and was held at extravagantly high prices, measured by the present cheapness of the article.  Market reports of the time show that the price approximated forty cents a pound, and this at a time when the purchasing power of money was at least twice as great as it is now.  As the price has fallen, the product and the consumption have increased, until of late years it has been an enormous source of revenue to the Island of Cuba.  When Napoleon Bonaparte abducted the royal family of Spain and deposed the Bourbon dynasty in 1808, every member of the provincial counsel of Cuba took an oath to preserve the island for their legitimate sovereign.  The Colonial government immediately declared war against Napoleon and proclaimed Ferdinand VII. as king.  It was by this action that the colony earned its title of “The ever-faithful isle,” which has been excellent as a complimentary phrase, but hardly justified by the actual facts.  For some years following this action, affairs in the island were in an embarrassing condition, owing to the progress of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, which kept all trade disturbed and Spain in a constant condition of disorder.  If it had not been for the fortunate election of one or two of the governors things might have been even worse than they were, and it was considered that Cuba was enjoying quite as much peace and prosperity as were her neighbor colonies and the mother governments of Europe.  In 1812 a negro conspiracy broke out and attained considerable success, and as a result of it the Spanish governors began to be more and more severe in their administrations.

Under the influence of the spirit of freedom which was spreading all around them, Cubans became more and more restless.  The revolutionary movements in Spanish America had begun in 1810, and after fourteen years of guerrilla warfare, European power had vanished in the Western hemisphere from the Northern boundary of the United States to Cape Horn, except for the Colonies of British Honduras and the Guianas, and a few of the West Indian Islands.  In 1821, Santo Domingo became independent, and in the same year Florida came into the possession of the United States.  Secret societies, with the purpose of revolution as their motive, began to spring up in Cuba, and the population divided into well-defined factions.  There was indeed an attempt at open revolt made in 1823 by one of these societies known as the “Soles De Bolivar,” but it was averted before the actual outbreak came, and those leaders of it who were not able to escape from Cuba were arrested and punished.  It was as a result of these successive events that the office of Captain General was created and invested with all the powers of Oriental despotism.  The functions of the Captain General were defined by a royal decree of May 28,1825, to the following effect: