Julio César Guanche possibility of expanding social rights on the basis of the control of national resources. As part of the same approach, the intervening government he approved, with support of Cuban conservative actors, a very restrictive Electoral Law (1901), which established active suffrage for Cuban males over 21 years of age who were able to read and write. For passive suffrage, it imposed that provincial governors had to be Cuban by birth (or naturalised before the age of 8), at least 30 years old, heads of family, as well as property owners or taxpayers in the province at least one year before the election. To become president, the person would also have had to have fought in the war of independence for at least 10 years (Electoral Law for the constitution of a republican government for the island of Cuba 1901). This requirement prevented the generation that fought in the war from 1895 onwards, as was the case of José Martí himself (killed in combat in 1895). To close the circle of the “transfer of power”, through the peace treaty between Spain and the United States of America (1898), which excluded Cuba, both nations mutually renounced any compensation claim, national, private or other. They also renounced to claims of their subjects or citizens against the government of the other country, which could have emerged from the beginning of the 1895 insurrection until the ratifications of the treaty. The two countries also renounced to all compensation for expenses caused by the war (Vivanco 1902, p. 154). The legislation of the nascent Cuban republic would show these marks: the law of June 9th, 1902 granted amnesty for crimes committed during the period of intervention by citizens of the United States of America and their partners, accomplices and abettors. The law of October the 3rd, 1902 granted full amnesty for crimes committed by municipal officials in the exercise of their position until May 20th, 1902. All criminal acts committed under the aegis of the intervening power where thus validated, while the law of November 10th, 1902 granted amnesty for all tax offences committed until October 11th, 190211. 3. Citizenship in the constitutionalism of 1901 Thirty years of disputes over independence were also reflected in the ensuing legislation. On the eve of the creation of the independent republic, the Constitution of 1901 picked up part of the independentist program. Cuba was one of the first nations of the continent to establish universal male suffrage (for men over 21 year of age, although not universal as established in the Constitution of La Yaya in 1897), compared to existing electoral schemes in the region based on restrictive suffrage on the basis of census or education. While it excluded women (female suffrage started in 1936), the number and quality of the electorate determined singular logics of political struggle for the acquisition of voting rights (for example, with regards to Cubans of colour). This process took place within the framework of a new and quite broad Electoral Law (1908), which responded to the collective action deployed by diverse actors and to the great social protest generated by the restrictions on Cuban sovereignty by the United States (Celia, Soler 2000). An amendment of a North American law —the Platt Amendment —was imposed on the Republic, as a condition for its emergence. The norm guaranteed the “right” of the United States to intervene in the country and to dispose of areas of its territory for naval and military ends. The Platt Amendment thus codified the relation between Cuba and the United States as 11 This legislation can be consulted in (Borges 1935). RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/3 - © 2020 Author(s) 7