Cuba

Abstract

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. Cuba, except for a brief period of British occupancy in 1762–63, remained a Spanish possession from its discovery by Columbus in 1492 until 10 Dec. 1898, when the sovereignty was relinquished under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the armed intervention of the U.S.A. in the struggle of the Cubans against Spanish rule. Cuba thus became an independent republic, but the United States stipulated that Cuba must enter into no treaty relations with a foreign power, which might endanger its independence. A convention which assembled on 5 Nov. 1900 adopted the first constitution of the republic on 21 Feb. 1901.