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Why did thousands of Cuban reconcentrados die in Spanish camps?
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Spanish-American War
Theodore Roosevelt leading the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, 1898; print created by Kurz & Allison.
Thousands of Cuban reconcentrados died in Spanish camps primarily because the Spanish authorities, under the command of Captain General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, failed to provide adequate food, shelter, sanitation, or medical care for the rural residents they had forcibly relocated.1
Weyler implemented this brutal "reconcentration" policy to deprive revolutionary forces of the rural support and resources they relied upon during the Cuban Independence Movement. By herding hundreds of thousands of people into camps in and around larger cities, the Spanish military created dire conditions where exposure, hunger, and disease spread rapidly, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.231