paragraph_text: President McKinley signed a joint Congressional resolution demanding Spanish withdrawal and authorizing the President to use military force to help Cuba gain independence on April 20, 1898.. In response, Spain severed diplomatic relations with the United States on April 21. On the same day, the U.S. Navy began a blockade of Cuba. On April 23, Spain stated that it would declare war if the US forces invaded its territory. On April 25, the U.S. Congress declared that a state of war between the U.S. and Spain had de facto existed since April 21, the day the blockade of Cuba had begun. The United States sent an ultimatum to Spain demanding that it surrender control of Cuba, but due to Spain not replying soon enough, the United States had assumed Spain had ignored the ultimatum and continued to occupy Cuba.

paragraph_text: Dehesas de Guadix is a municipality located in the province of Granada, Spain. According to the 2005 census (INE), the city has a population of 556 inhabitants.

paragraph_text: During the Napoleonic Occupation of Spain, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of progressive ideas, declared Mexican independence in the small town of Dolores, Guanajuato on September 16, 1810 with a proclamation known as the "Grito de Dolores". Hidalgo built a large support among intellectuals, liberal priests and many poor people. Hidalgo fought to protect the rights of the poor and indigenous population. He started on a march to the capital, Mexico City, but retreated back north when faced with the elite of the royal forces at the outskirts of the capital. He established a liberal government from Guadalajara, Jalisco but was soon forced to flee north by the royal forces that recaptured the city. Hidalgo attempted to reach the United States and gain American support for Mexican independence. HIdalgo reached Saltillo, Coahuila where he publicly resigned his military post and rejected a pardon offered by Viceroy Francisco Venegas in return for Hidalgo's surrender. A short time later, he and his supporters were captured by royalist Ignacio Elizondo at the Wells of Baján (Norias de Baján) on March 21, 1811 and taken to the city of Chihuahua. Hidalgo forced the Bishop of Valladolid, Manuel Abad y Queipo, to rescind the excommunication order he had circulated against him on September 24, 1810. Later, the Inquisition issued an excommunication edict on October 13, 1810 condemning Miguel Hidalgo as a seditionary, apostate, and heretic.

paragraph_text: The Hotel Galvez is a historic hotel located in Galveston, Texas, United States that opened in 1911. The building was named the Galvez, honoring Bernardo de Gálvez, 1st Viscount of Galveston, for whom the city was named. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 4, 1979.

paragraph_text: The Philippine Declaration of Independence (Filipino: Pagpapahayag ng Kasarinlan ng Pilipinas) was proclaimed on June 12, 1898 in Cavite II el Viejo (present - day Kawit, Cavite), Philippines. With the public reading of the Act of the Declaration of independence (Spanish: Acta de la proclamación de independencia del pueblo Filipino; Filipino: Paggawa ng Proklamasyon ng Kasarinlan ng sambayanang Pilipino), Filipino revolutionary forces under General Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the sovereignty and independence of the Philippine Islands from the colonial rule of Spain.

paragraph_text: Peal de Becerro is a city located in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2005 census (INE), the city has a population of 5470 inhabitants.

paragraph_text: Francisco Javier de Lizana y Beaumont (1750 in Arnedo, La Rioja, Spain – March 6, 1815 in Mexico City) was bishop of Mexico and, from July 19, 1809 to May 8, 1810, viceroy of New Spain.

paragraph_text: Nannina de' Medici (14 February 1448 – 14 May 1493), born Lucrezia de' Medici, was the second daughter of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. She was thus the elder sister of Lorenzo de' Medici. She married Bernardo Rucellai. Her father's name was Piero, so she is sometimes known as Lucrezia di Piero de' Medici.

paragraph_text: The Spanish colonies won their independence in the first quarter of the 19th century, in the Spanish American wars of independence. Simón Bolívar (Greater Colombia, Peru, Bolivia), José de San Martín (United Provinces of the River Plate, Chile, and Peru), and Bernardo O'Higgins (Chile) led their independence struggle. Although Bolivar attempted to keep the Spanish - speaking parts of the continent politically unified, they rapidly became independent of one another.

paragraph_text: Don Carlos Bernardo Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, 4th Duke of Liria and Jérica, 4th Duke of Berwick (25 March 1752 – 7 September 1787) was a Spanish nobleman. Born in Liria, Spain, he was the son of James (Jacobo) Fitz-James Stuart, 3rd Duke of Berwick, and his wife, María Teresa de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo (a sister of Fernando, 12th Duke of Alba).

paragraph_text: After four hundred years of colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, Puerto Rico finally received its sovereignty in 1897 through a Carta de Autonomía (Charter of Autonomy). It was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta and ratified by the Spanish Cortes.

paragraph_text: After the Spanish -- American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of $20 million. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on May 20, 1902, as the Republic of Cuba. Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment, the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay naval base from Cuba.

paragraph_text: The Regional Assembly of Murcia (Spanish: "Asamblea Regional de Murcia") is the autonomous parliament of the Region of Murcia, one of the autonomous communities of Spain. The unicameral assembly, which contained 45 elected legislative seats, is located in the Murcian city of Cartagena, Spain.

paragraph_text: The Mexican War of Independence (Spanish: Guerra de Independencia de México) was an armed conflict, and the culmination of a political and social process which ended the rule of Spain in 1821 in the territory of New Spain. The war had its antecedent in Napoleon's French invasion of Spain in 1808; it extended from the Grito de Dolores by Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla on September 16, 1810, to the entrance of the Army of the Three Guarantees led by Agustín de Iturbide to Mexico City on September 27, 1821. September 16 is celebrated as Mexican Independence Day.

paragraph_text: Bernardo Álvarez Afonso (Breña Alta, island of La Palma, in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, July 29, 1949) is a Spanish Catholic bishop, since September 2005 twelfth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife) (Spanish: Diócesis Nivariense).

paragraph_text: Villamayor de Gállego is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2010 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 2,888 inhabitants. Villamayor de Gállego became independent from Zaragoza in 2006.

paragraph_text: Bernardo de Balbuena (c. Valdepeñas (Spain) 1561 – San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 1627) was a Spanish poet. He was the first of a long series of Latin American poets who extolled the special beauties of the New World.

paragraph_text: Fuensanta de Martos is a city located in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the city has a population of 3326 inhabitants.

paragraph_text: Mexico’s capital is both the oldest capital city in the Americas and one of two founded by Amerindians (Native Americans), the other being Quito. The city was originally built on an island of Lake Texcoco by the Aztecs in 1325 as Tenochtitlan, which was almost completely destroyed in the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlan, and subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524, the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenochtitlán, and as of 1585 it was officially known as Ciudad de México (Mexico City). Mexico City served as the political, administrative and financial center of a major part of the Spanish colonial empire. After independence from Spain was achieved, the Federal District was created in 1824.

paragraph_text: The Prime Minister of Dominica is the head of government in the Commonwealth of Dominica. Nominally, the position was created on November 3, 1978 when Dominica gained independence from the United Kingdom. Hitherto, the position existed de facto as Premier.

Question: When did the island containing the city where Bernardo de Balbuena died gain their independence from Spain?
Answer: 1897