In the 19th century two civil wars took place in Cuba. At that time the battle was against colonial domination by Spain. In both wars José Marti played an important role, he was killed in the second one (19 may 1895). The revolutionaries of the second war were denied victory by intervention of the United States (1898). This intervention finally resulted in a Spanish-American war. After this war, however formally independent, Cuba entered a period of successive American intervention. The American naval base at Guantanamo Bay is a still visible witness of this period. Cuba's successive presidents in this period merely were corrupt representives of the United States. Cuba's economy was very much dominated by U.S. companies that owned most of the farming ground.