Political events in Puerto Rico and Cuba between the late 1860s and 1898 forced a liberalization of Spanish policy towards both territories, and Betances was directly involved as a protagonist in both circumstances. As a firm believer in ""Antillanismo"" (the common improvement and unity of the countries that formed the Greater Antilles) Betances was also a strong supporter of the sovereignty of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A Dominican historian and political leader, Manuel Rodríguez Objío, likened Betances' revolutionary work to that performed by Tadeusz Kościuszko for Poland, Lithuania and the United States of America. Paul Estrade, Betances' French biographer, likens him to Simón Bolívar, Antonio José de Sucre, Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín.