It started, as it often does, with a brief taste of freedom. For the better part of a century, the island nation of Cuba was under Spanish rule; allowed to trade only with Spain, with prices set by Spain. But for a brief, 11-month rule by the British, they could trade anywhere. It was a prosperous time, but then Spain took over again, clamping down on insurrections harder than ever. Meanwhile, in the neighboring U.S. concern over Spain’s misdeeds in their backyard were egged on and transformed into full-scale anti-Spain sentiment by “yellow” journalists like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, until a mysterious battleship explosion in Havana harbor and public opinion made it impossible for the U.S. to avoid war in Cuba.

On this day, February 5th, in 1904, three years after a short war against the Spanish in Cuba liberated the island, the U.S. officially ended its occupation. While there was a plan in place to annex the nation, a sober assessment of the challenges made them reconsider: a foreign, mostly black population, and an economy ravaged by war.

The U.S. did what it could to restore the Cuban infrastructure during the occupying year, building schools and establishing a democratic government. Ultimately Cuba proved too different to join the U.S.; but before withdrawing, the Americans inserted several provisions establishing a permanent American base on the island, in addition the right to purchase land and conduct its affairs on the island. What came to be known as the Platt Amendment became the basis of the American military camp in Guantanamo Bay.