Máximo Gómez: Difference between revisions

| birth_place = [[Baní]], [[PeraviaDominican Province|PeraviaRepublic]],Haitian [[Dominican Republic]]occupation

'''Máximo Gómez y Báez''' (November 18, 1836 &ndash; June 17, 1905) was a Cuban-Dominican [[Generalissimo]] in [[Cuban War of Independence|Cuba's War of Independence]] (1895–1898). He was known for his controversial [[Scorched earth|scorched-earth]] policy, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and torching the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Howard |title=Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913 |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=270}}</ref> He greatly increased the efficacy of the attacks by torturing and killing not only Spanish soldiers, but also Spanish sympathizers and especially Cubans loyal to Spain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ledbetter |first1=Mark David |title=America's Forgotten History. Part Three: A Progressive Empire |page=398}}</ref> By the time the [[Spanish–American War]] broke out in April 1898, the rebellion was virtually defeated in most of Western Cuba, with only a few operating pockets in the center and the east. He refused to join forces with the Spanish in fighting off the United States, and he retired to the Quinta de los Molinos, a luxury villa outside of Havana after the war's end formerly used by captains generals as summer residence.

Gómez was born on November 18, 1836, in the town of [[Baní]], in the province of [[Peravia]], in what is now the [[Dominican Republic]]. During his teenage years, he joined in the battles against the frequent [[Haiti]]an incursions of [[Faustin Soulouque]] in the 1850s.<ref name="cubagob.cu" /> He fought alongside the Spanish forces in the [[Dominican Restoration War|Dominican Annexation War]] (1861–18651863–1865), earning promotion from sergeant to commander in a famous victory over the Dominican general, [[Pedro Florentino]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tone |first1=John Lawrence |title=War and Genocide in Cuba, 1895-1898 |date=2006 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |page=61}}</ref>

In the interlude between the two Cuban independence wars, Gómez held odd jobs in [[Jamaica]] and [[Panama]] (among them, he supervised a laborers' brigade during the construction of the [[Panama Canal]]), but he remained as an active player for the cause of Cuban independence as well as that for the rest of the [[Antilles]]. For example, when [[Puerto Rico]] experienced a period of severe political repression in 1887 by the Spanish governor, Romualdo Palacio, which led to the arrest of many local political leaders, including [[Román Baldorioty de Castro]], Gómez offered his services to [[Ramón Emeterio Betances]], the previous instigator of the island's first pro-independence revolution, the [[Grito de Lares]], who was then exiled in [[Paris]].{{cncitation needed|date=May 2020}} Gómez sold most of his personal belongings to finance a revolt in Puerto Rico and volunteered to lead any Puerto Rican troops if any such revolt occurred.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} The revolt was deemed unnecessary later that year, when the Spanish government recalled Palacio from office to investigate charges of abuse of power from his part, but Gómez and Betances established a friendship and logistical relationship that lasted until Betances's death, in 1898.{{cncitation needed|date=June 2020}}

At the end of the Cuban Independence War in 1898, he retired to a villa outside of [[Havana]]. In 1899, he was dismissed as general-in-chief of the Cuban army by the Asamblea del Cerro, and this position was abolished. He refused the presidential nomination that was offered to him in 1901, which he was expected to win unopposed, mainly because he always disliked politics. Also, after 40 years of living in Cuba, he still felt that being [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]]-born, he should not become the civil leader of Cuba.

<ref name="BR93b">{{cite web|url=http://www.listin.com.do/la-republica/2011/11/16/211083/Wilton-apoya-Peravia-sea-provincia-Maximo-Gomez|title=Wilton apoya Peravia sea provincia Máximo Gómez|author=Listin Diario|work=listindiario.com|date=28 October 2023 }}</ref>