Between conflict and commitment: Spain's foreign Spanish foreign policy towards Venezuela during the Cuban . Cuban crisis from 1868 to 1878

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the first Cuban colonial crisis on Spanish-Haitian relations. Cuban colonial crisis on Spanish Haitian relations. Spain's Spanish policy towards the Caribbean republic was conditioned from its independence by the security of the Spanish colonies in the Antilles. colonies in the West Indies. The ambiguous attitude of the Haitian Haitian governments towards maintaining Spanish sovereignty in Cuba and Puerto Rico, which meant Cuba and Puerto Rico, which implied the maintenance of a slave regime in both islands, was slave regime on both islands, coupled with Madrid's fear of eventual annexation to of an eventual annexation of this strategic republic to the United States, turned Haiti into one of the main focuses of diplomatic interest. of interest for Spanish diplomacy, despite the small amount of Spain's economic interests. Spain's economic interests in the country were small. In this context, the prolonged Cuban crisis between 1868 and 1878 between 1868 and 1878 accentuated the frictions between the two countries and and led Madrid to try to condition Haitian policy towards the Cuban crisis through the Cuban crisis through a variety of strategies, which ranged from confidential ranging from confidential demarches to the threat of force. of force.