WI: Mass Confederate Immigration to Cuba

[Oba Cahokia]

A lot of Confederates after the Civil War left the South to go West, Brazil and even Mexico. However what if with a harsher Reconstruction with a clear sign of not backing down there was mass migration leaving to Cuba instead of the mentioned places? How would the United States, Spain and the Cuban react to the immigration? Would there be a Cuban Revolution down the line or would the Spanish-American War still happen? How different would the World actually be?

Flag comes from the Thumbnail of the YouTuber 'The Alternate Historian' on his discussion of Confederate Cuba. I really like this design.

 

[Paladín Wulfen]

Slavery was abolished by royal decree on October 7, 1886. The opportunity to put the plantation system into practice in Cuba is quite high. Although the Confederate Southerners were scum when practicing slavery, it cannot be denied that they knew how to take advantage of it. In Cuba, the greatest defenders were the so-called Indians, who were Peninsulares who went with the objective of obtaining wealth through the trade of sugar and other natural goods. The most likely thing is that the Confederates would end up joining with the Indians because the racial element was neither a legal impediment nor a social censure, which would allow mixed marriages, miscegenation, and access to jobs, studies and titles of nobility, something that In the USA it was not common. Contrary to what people may think, I advocate that the Confederates would end up fiercely supporting Spain in the Cuban War, making ACW veterans the commanders of Spanish militias in Cuba. Logically, these Confederates would help in the rebel uprisings since Cuba becoming free indicates the loss of its power. Let us remember that until 1898, Spain was considered to the average American as an Empire and therefore a powerful rival.

 

[Johannes Parisiensis]

Would the Madrid authorities allow for a Confederate mass migration, considering what happened with Mexican Tejas?

 

[Lalli]

Would the Madrid authorities allow for a Confederate mass migration, considering what happened with Mexican Tejas?

Certainly not happy. And perhaps they try to stop them but considering how imcompetent Spaniards were on that time I doubt that they would have lot of success.

 

[Paladín Wulfen]

Would the Madrid authorities allow for a Confederate mass migration, considering what happened with Mexican Tejas?

The Mexican Tejas happen with the Mexicans, not the Spaniards. Soo... mostly they gona allow it mostly because means more "stabilizing elements".

Certainly not happy. And perhaps they try to stop them but considering how imcompetent Spaniards were on that time I doubt that they would have lot of success.

The Spaniards can try it, and maybe can manage for expel it, but then gonna happen like IRL where go to South America.

 

[Ogrelord420]

Would the Madrid authorities allow for a Confederate mass migration, considering what happened with Mexican Tejas?

Was there enough to worry them? Texas only had a couple thousand criollos when mass immigration of American started. Meanwhile, the population of Cuba at the time was around 1.4 million in 1865, while the Confederados only numbered 20,000 at most (a number of whom returned to the US). Even with a stronger reconstruction, I don’t see them becoming populous enough to really threaten Spanish rule.

 

[Mitridates the Great]

America would probably be more than happy for all the Dixies to go away because "it's good for traitors to leave the country they hate." In any case his only concern might be that the Dixies may later try to organize filibuster armies to try to annex pieces of the Southern United States to Spain.

In contrast, Spain probably does not consider them as a "stabilizing element" but as a source of problems, since the Dixies would be the fiercest opponents of the abolition of slavery in Cuba and would begin to demand that Dixies laws and also the Common Law Dixie Edition to be implemented in Cuba.

So Cuba's next war for independence will be between the "State of Cuba", led primarily by rich Dixies and Indians against the rest of Cuba's inhabitants, including former slaves and those who are not white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant.

At which point the United States will decide to suddenly forget how much it hated the Dixies and offer them a deal: they will be able to create their independent, slave-holding State of Cuba, but they will align themselves with the foreign and economic policy of the United States. Deciding that it is preferable to be aligned with "a good democratic, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Republic" rather than "a tyranny with a papist king," the Dixies also decide to forget how much they hate the Yankees and accept the deal.

The United States demands on Spain to recognize the independence of the State of Cuba under threat of war. War happens. The State of Cuba is "independent" and becomes a Caribbean version of Apartheid South Africa, as well as the main regional actor and armed wing of the United States in the region.

No one cares about this the same way no one cared in OTL when the United States conquered Cuba.