Máximo Gómez: Difference between revisions

| image = Retrato de Máximo Gómez en La Habana 1905MaximoGomezBaez2.jpg

| caption = Máximo Gómez in 1905

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1836|11|18}}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1905|06|17|1836|11|18}}

| birth_place = [[Baní]], [[UnificationDominican of Hispaniola|HaitiRepublic]],Haitian occupation

| death_place = [[Havana]], [[La Habana Province|La Havana]], [[Republic of Cuba (1902–1959)|Cuba]]

| birth_name =

| allegiance = {{flag|Dominican Republic|1844}} (1854–1861)<br>{{flag|Spain|1785}} (1861–1865)<br>{{Flag|Cuba|1902}} (1868–1898)

| branch = Army

| serviceyears = 1852 – 1905

| servicenumber =

| unit =

| commands =

[[Dominican Restoration War]]<br>[[Ten Years' War]]<br>[[Cuban War of Independence]]

| laterworkawards =

'''Máximo Gómez y Báez''' (November 18, 1836 &ndash; June 17, 1905) was a [[List of people from the Cuban-Dominican Republic|Dominican]] [[Major general|Major GeneralGeneralissimo]] in [[Cuba]]'s [[Ten Years'Cuban War]] (1868–1878)of against [[Spanish EmpireIndependence|Spain]]. He was also Cuba's military commander in that country's [[Cuban War of Independence|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, Gómezthe hadrebellion thewas Spanishvirtually forcesdefeated onin most of Western Cuba, with only a few operating pockets in the center and the ropeseast. 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 was trained as an officer of the [[Spanish Army]] at the [[w:es:Academia General Militar|Zaragoza Military Academy]] {{in lang|es}}. He had arrived originally in Cuba as a [[cavalry]] officer, a [[captain (OF-2)|captain]], in the Spanish Army and fought alongside the Spanish forces in the [[Dominican Restoration War|Dominican Annexation War]] (1861–18651863–1865), earning promotion from captainsergeant 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>

He arrived in Cuba with the Spanish troops evacuated from Santo Domingo in 1865, starting an agricultural enterprise. In Cuba, he married Bernarda Toro (Manana), who accompanied him during the war.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stoner|first=K. Lynn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfRQz5N_FvUC&q=maximo+gomez+bernarda+toro&pg=PA26|title=From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Woman's Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940|date=1991-04-30|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-1149-2|language=en}}</ref>

On October 2625, 1868, atduring Pinosthe [[Battle of Pino de Baire]], Gómez led a machete charge on foot, ambushing a Spanish column and obliterating it; the Spanish suffered 233 casualties. The Spanish Army was terrified of the charges because most were infantry troops, mainly conscripts, who were fearful of being cut down by the machetes. Because the Cuban Army always lacked sufficient munitions, the usual combat technique was to shoot once and then charge the Spanish.

On February 19, 1874, Gómez and 700 other rebels marched westward from their eastern base and defeated 2,000 Spanish troops at El Naranjo. The Spaniards lost 100 [[killed in action]], 200 [[wounded in action]]; the rebels incurred 150 casualties.<ref name="nJw4f" /> A battalion of 500 Chinese fought under the command of Gómez in the {{ill|[[Battle of Las Guasimas (1874)|lt=Battle of Las Guasimas|es|Batalla de las Guásimas (1874)}}]] (March 1874). The battle cost the Spanish 1,037 casualties and the rebels 174 casualties.<ref name="nJw4f" /> However, the rebels had exhausted their resources: the unusual departure from guerrilla tactics had proved a costly enterprise.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Simons |first1=Geoff |title=Cuba: From Conquistador to Castro |publisher=Springer |page=148}}</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}}

He was wounded only twice during 15 years of guerrilla warfare against an enemy far superior in manpower and logistics. In contrast, his most trusted officer and second-in-command, Lieutenant General [[Antonio Maceo y Grajales]], was shot 27 times in the same span of time, with the 26th being the mortal wound. Gómez's son and Maceo's [[aide-de-camp]], [[Panchito Gómez Toro|Francisco Gómez y Toro]], nicknamed "Panchito," was killed while he was trying to recover Maceo's dead body in combat on December 7, 1896.

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>

[[Category:Cuban military personnelgenerals]]