Captains-general Sentence Examples

Partly because of political and social divisions thus revealed, conspiracies being rife in the decade 1820-1830, and partly as preparation for the defence against Mexico and Colombia, who throughout these same years were threatening the island with invasion, the captains-general, in 1825, received the powers above referred to; which became, as time passed, monstrously in disaccord with the general tendencies of colonial government and with increasing liberties in Spain, but continued to be the spiritual basis of Spanish rule in the island.

The policy of successive captains-general was alternately uncompromisingly repressive and conciliatory.

The captains-general corresponded directly with the council of the Indies, and were independent of the viceroys except in war time.

The Palace, which served as a residence for the captains-general during the Spanish rule, is the home of the city government and the residence of the president of the republic. It is a large and handsome stone structure (tinted in white and yellow), and stands on the site of the original parish church, facing the Plaza de Armas from the east.

But as the colony had no voice in the Cortes, while the " special laws " were never passed (Cuba expected special fundamental laws, reforming her government, and the government regarded the old Laws of the Indies as satisfying the obligation of the constitution) the arbitrary rule of the captains-general remained quite supreme, under the will of the crown, and colonial discontent became stronger and stronger.

The domestic problem, the problem of discontent in the island, had become acute by 1850, and from this time on to 1868 the years were full of conflict between liberal and reactionary sentiment in the colony, centreing about the asserted connivance of the captains-general in the illegal slave trade (declared illegal after 1820 by the treaties of 1817 and 1835 between Great Britain and Spain), the notorious immorality and prodigal wastefulness of the government, and the selfish exploitation of the colony by Spaniards and the Spanish government.