Tomás Estrada Palma

Infobox President
name = Tomás Estrada Palma


caption =
order = 1st
office = President of Cuba
term_start = 20 May 1902
term_end = 28 September, 1906
vicepresident =Luis Estévez Romero and Domingo Méndez Capote
predecessor = None
successor = José Miguel Gómez
birth_date = 9 July 1832
birth_place = Bayamo, Cuba
death_date = 4 November 1908
death_place = Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
nationality = flagicon|Cuba Cuban
party = Moderate Party
otherparty =Cuban Revolutionary Party.
spouse = Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu
relations =
children =Jose M. Estrada-Palma Guardiola
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =Attorney
profession =


website =
footnotes =

Tomás Estrada y Palma (Bayamo, July 9, 1832 – Santiago de Cuba, November 4, 1908) was a Cuban political figure,. [ [http://digital.library.miami.edu/chcdigital/chc0460/chc0460_series_1.shtml CHC Digital: Online Resources for Cuban and Cuban American Studies ] at digital.library.miami.edu] He served as the first President of Cuba between 1902 and 1906.

Fight for independence

Tomás Estrada Palma was an important Cuban general in the Ten Years' War.

Estrada Palma was captured by Spanish troops and sent into exile. While in exile, he traveled to New York where he worked with José Martí.

After Martí's death, Estrada Palma became the new leader of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.

When the revolutionaries established a Government in arms, Estrada Palma was sent to Washington as its diplomat. With the help of an American banker, he tried offering Spain $150 million to give up the island, a plan that failed.

He was, however, successful in getting the US Congress to pass the Joint Resolution. This bill was one of the factors that led the United States to declare war on Spain, demanding that Cuba be freed from Spanish colonial rule Fact|date=February 2007. (see Spanish-American War)

First term

After a few years of General Leonard Wood's rule in Cuba, elections were to be held. The Republican Liberals, headed by José Miguel Gómez, and the National Liberals, headed by Alfredo Zayas, both supported Estrada Palma. He did not campaign though, staying the full time in the U.S., where he was a citizen.

Palma's opponent, General Bartolomé Masó withdrew his candidacy in protest against favoritism by the occupational government and the manipulation of the political machine by Estada Palma's followers. Thus Palma was left as the only candidate. [Navarro, José Cantón: History of Cuba, Editorial SI-MAR, Havana, Cuba, 1998, p. 81, ISBN 959-7054-19-1] On December 31, 1901, Estrada Palma was elected President. His politics have been likened to those of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Fact|date=February 2007

American troops left after the Cuban government signed a bill lowering tariffs on American products and incorporated the Platt Amendment into their constitution. Many American companies came to do business in Cuba.

On February 16, 1903, Estrada Palma signed the Cuban-American Treaty, agreeing to lease the Guantanamo Bay area to the United States, in perpetuity, for use as a naval base and coaling station.

econd term

Estrada Palma was re-elected in 1906, but this time against violent opposition by the moderates, who claimed electoral fraud. Estrada Palma and the liberal camp appealed to the US for intervention, and in 1906 the US installed a provisional occupation government which lasted from 1906 to 1909. After 1908 elections, another pro-American government was established in Cuba under Charles Magoon. [ [http://library.thinkquest.org/18355/charles_magoon.html Charles Magoon ] at library.thinkquest.org]

Personal life

Born in Bayamo, Cuba, Estrada Palma was the son of Andrés Duque de Estrada y Palma and wife and cousin María Candelaria de Palma y Tamayo. He married in Honduras with Genoveva Guardiola Arbizu, daughter of General José Santos Guardiola, President of Honduras, and wife Ana de Arbizu, and they had six children: Manuel José Estrada Palma Guardiola (b. 1875); Tomás Andrés Estrada Palma Guardiola (1884-1960), married in 1910 to Helen Douglas Browne and had issue; Carlos Joaquín Estrada Palma Guardiola; María de la Candelaria Estrada Palma Guardiola (b. 1887); Mariana de la Luz Estrada Palma Guardiola; and Rafael Morales Estrada Palma Guardiola. He was an attorney, and died in Santiago de Cuba. There are so little people that are related to him. Their names are Carole Martin, Michele Davis, Connor Davis(age 8), and Miranda Davis(age 12 1/2). Edited by the Davis and Martin family who love their great great grandfather dearly.

tatue

A statue of Estrada Palma was erected in the "Avenida de los Presidentes" in Havana. It was pulled down by Fidel Castro's revolutionaries, reportedly because they blamed Estrada Palma for starting the trend of U.S. intervention in Cuba. The plinth, with a pair of shoes, remains.

Estrada Road (Old U.S. Route 6) through Central Valley, a hamlet in the Town of Woodbury, in Orange County, New York is named after Tomas Estrada Palma. Palma spent many years of his exile in the United States in the Orange County town and ran a summer camp which has since been abandoned along the road bearing his name.

References

*Mellander, Gustavo A.; Nelly Maldonado Mellander (1999). "Charles Edward Magoon: The Panama Years". Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Plaza Mayor. ISBN 1563281554. OCLC 42970390.

There are so few people who are related to this man and their names are,Kenny Martin, Carole Martin, Michele Davis, Connor Davis, and Miranda Davis.
* cite book
last = Otero
first = Juan Joaquin
authorlink =
title = Libro De Cuba, Una Enciclopedia Ilustrada Que Abarca Las Artes, Las Letras, Las Ciencias, La Economia, La Politica, La Historia, La Docencia, Y ElProgreso General De La Nacion Cubana - Edicion Conmemorative del Cincuentenario de la Republica de Cuba, 1902-1952
publisher =
series =
year = 1954
doi =
isbn = (Spanish)