Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the relation between liberalism and democracy by studying political action and propaganda developed by the Partido Revolucionario Cubano and the Partido Autonomista Cubano.

Paper long abstract:

The Cuban process of independence from Spanish domination could be defined as lasting from 1868 to 1898. Two major political and social groups played a central role during this thirty-year-period: the independents and the autonomists. Democracy and Republicanism were particularly important to the Cuban Revolutionary Party lead by José Martí.

This paper analyses what liberal and democratic philosophies underpinned these political movements and explores their external influences, focusing particularly on Spanish republicanism. Another aim is to study the ideological differences within these two groups and between them, through a consideration of their revolutionary activities and propaganda: political conferences and debates, newspapers, public meetings, etc.

These political actors of the Cuban revolution were, it will be argued, avant-garde democratic forces and their struggle should be understood as a process of civic and democratic education of the Cuban population. By the beginning of the twentieth- century, democracy would have become more important than liberalism among Cuban population.