Cuba

The Republic of Cuba consists of the island of Cuba (the largest of the Greater Antilles), the Isle of Youth and various adjacent small islands. The name of the island is derived from the Taino word "cubanacán", meaning a central place. It is located in the northern Caribbean at the confluence of the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. To the north is found the United States, to the northeast the Bahamas, to the east the Turks and Caicos Islands, to the west Mexico, to the south the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, and to the southeast Haiti.

History

Pre-Columbian Cuba was first visited by Europeans when explorer Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Cuba for the first time on October 28, 1492, at the eastern tip, in the Cazigazgo of Baracoa. Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar led the Spanish invasion, and became governor of Cuba for Spain in 1511 and built a villa in Baracoa, which became the first capital of the island and also the seat of the first episcopate.

Related Topics:
October 28 - 1492 - Cazigazgo - Baracoa - Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar - 1511

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At that time Cuba was populated by at least two distinct indigenous peoples: Taíno and Ciboney (or Siboney). Both groups were prehistoric neolithic cultures. The Taíno were agriculturalist and the Ciboney were a hunter-gatherer society with supplemental farming. Taínos and Ciboney took part in similar customs and beliefs, one being the sacred ritual practiced using tobacco called cohoba, known in English as smoking.

Related Topics:
Taíno - Ciboney - Prehistoric - Neolithic

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The Taínos (Island Arawak) were part of a cultural group commonly called the Arawak, which extends far into South America. Residues of Taíno poetry, songs, sculpture, and art are found today throughout the major Antilles. The Arawak and other such cultural groups are responsible for the development of perhaps 60% of crops in common use today and some major industrial materials such as rubber. Europeans were shown by the Native Cubans how to nurture tobacco and consume it in the form of cigars.

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Approximately 16 to 60 thousand natives from the Taíno and Ciboney tribes inhabited Cuba before colonization. The Native Cuban population, including the Ciboney and the Taíno, were forced into reservations during the Spanish subdual of the island of Cuba. One famous reservation was known as Guanabacoa, today a suburb of Havana. Many Native Cubans died due to the brutality of Spanish conquistadores and the diseases they brought with them, which were previously unknown to them. Many Conquistadors intermarried with Native Cubans as few Spanish women crossed the Atlantic in those days of conquest. Their children were called mestizo, but the Native Cubans called them Guajiro, which translates as "one of us". Today, Taíno descendants maintain their heritage near Baracoa.

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Cuba had first served as base for Spanish conquest of the mainland of the Americas, but the island was almost depopulated in this effort. The resulting treasure, mined gold and silver, chocolate and several then important plant products such as dyes and medicine was transported from the Americas and later from the Philippines to Spain using Cuban ports as safe harbors along the way. In this period there were further indigenous risings most especially that of Guamá, one of the last Taino leaders to organize resistance to Spanish rule.

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But once native uprisings were no longer a concern, a new one arose from piracy and privateering as both individuals and other countries tried to take the treasures that the Spanish had gathered for themselves. Attacks on both ships and cities required Spain to respond by organizing convoys to protect the ships and building forts to protect the cities.

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Spanish mercantilism caused Spain to keep Cuba relatively isolated to external influences, but beginning with the year long occupation of Havana by the British in 1762 at the end of the Seven Years' War, Cuba became more open economically to both the importation of slaves and advances in sugar cultivation and processing. The massive La Cabaña fortress, never taken by assault, which completely dominates Havana Bay was built soon after Havana, exchanged for Florida, was returned to Spain. However, the fortress would later become infamous as a place of execution and imprisonment, not unlike the Bastille in Paris. Cuban colonial forces participated in Spain's efforts during the American Revolutionary War, helping Spain to gain East and West Florida. Between 1791 to 1804, many French fled to Cuba from the Haitian revolution, bringing with them slaves and expertise in sugar refining and coffee growing. As a result Cuba became the world's major sugar producer, but by 1884, slavery was abolished after having been weakened during the struggle to secure independence for Cuba.

Related Topics:
Mercantilism - 1762 - Seven Years' War - La Cabaña - Bastille - East - West - Haitian revolution - Sugar - Coffee - 1884

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The colony's struggle for independence lasted throughout the second half of the 19th century with the first effort with any success being the Ten Years' War beginning in 1868. The writer and rebel organizer José Martí landed in Cuba with rebel exiles in 1895, but little more than a month later was killed in battle. He remains the major hero in Cuba to this day, and his legacy is claimed by both the supporters and opponents of the current government. While he expressed a preference for the U.S. Constitution and enjoyed some popularity in the United States, he was concerned about U.S. expansionism.

Related Topics:
Ten Years' War - 1868 - José Martí - 1895

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Between 1895 and early 1898 revolution controlled most of the countryside and some towns, but the efforts of the Spanish, who held the major cities, to pacify the island did not cease until the United States occupied the island in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Cuban independence was granted in 1902, though limited by the Platt Amendment, which granted the United States a major influence in Cuban affairs, even occupying Cuba a second time from 1905 to 1909. The Platt Amendment was revoked in 1934, but the lease of Guantánamo Bay, against a nominal sum, was extended.

Related Topics:
Spanish-American War - 1898 - Platt Amendment - Guantánamo Bay

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In 1940, Fulgencio Batista was elected president and started reforms, including a new liberal constitution, but was voted out in 1944. In 1952 he seized power in an almost bloodless coup three months before the planned election and instituted an oppressive dictatorship. As a result many guerrilla groups started opposing him.

Related Topics:
1940 - Fulgencio Batista - 1944 - 1952

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In 1953, Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada barracks, was exiled to Mexico, but returned to Cuba on November 1956 with 82 fighters trained by Alberto Bayo (a former colonel in the Spanish Republican Army), and with the help of popular discontent managed to overthrow Batista, who fled the country, on 1 January 1959. Castro established a Soviet-leaning one party Communist state, the first in the Western Hemisphere, although Castro did not officially reveal his Marxist-Leninist leanings until 1961. At the time when Batista was deposed, 45 to 75% of Cuba's farmable land was owned by foreign individuals or foreign (mostly U.S.) companies. The new revolutionary government adopted successive "land reforms" and eventually confiscated almost all private property. As a result, relations with the United States rapidly deteriorated, although the U.S. recognized the new government and refused to host a government in exile by anti-Castro Cubans. At first, Castro was reluctant to discuss his plans for the future, but eventually he declared himself a communist, explained that he was trying to build socialism in Cuba, focusing on free health care and education for all, and began close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union.

Related Topics:
1953 - Fidel Castro - Moncada barracks - 1956 - 1 January - 1959 - Communist state - 1961 - Communist - Socialism - Health care - Education - Soviet Union

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The Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 by U.S. backed Cuban expatriates failed because the expected popular support failed to materialize when it became clear Brigade 2506 had been abandoned to its fate. In addition, the Soviet Union had learned of the plans and warned Cuba, leading to arrests of those thought likely to support a counter-revolution. U.S. president John F. Kennedy left the invaders stranded for fear of getting officially involved.

Related Topics:
Bay of Pigs invasion - April - 1961 - John F. Kennedy

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The Cuban Missile Crisis started with the Soviet Union installing nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962, in an attempt to partly restore the nuclear balance. In response, the United States put up a blockade in international waters, not knowing that some Soviet submarines carried nuclear missiles. This is generally believed to be the closest the world has come to a nuclear holocaust. The Soviet Union backed down, in return for a United States promise to remove nuclear missiles in Turkey and never to invade Cuba again.

Related Topics:
Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962 - Nuclear balance - Nuclear holocaust

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After this, the United States never openly threatened Cuba again, but did engage in covert activities to assassinate Castro, as well as sheltering and funding Castro opponents who carried out many violent attacks such as the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455, killing 73. These activities are generally believed to include CIA support for what the present Cuban government calls the "War Against the Bandits". This was a wide spread revolt among the country folk of the middle provinces from early in Castro?s time in power to about 1967. This revolt was eventually suppressed by massive force, executions, and internal deportations.

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In April 1980, over 10,000 Cubans stormed the Peruvian embassy in Havana seeking political asylum. In response to this, Castro allowed anyone who desired to leave the country to do so through the port of Mariel. Under the Mariel boatlift, over 125,000 Cubans migrated to the United States. Eventually the United States stopped the flow of vessels and Cuba ended the uncontrolled exodus.

Related Topics:
1980 - Mariel boatlift

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The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 dealt Cuba a giant economic blow. This led to another exodus of economic asylum seekers to the United States in 1994, which was again stopped bilaterally by Cuba and the United States. The United States has since Castro come to power progressively enacted legislation intended to isolate Cuba economically via the U.S. embargo and other measures, such as prosecuting U.S. citizens who vacation in Cuba. For more on these issues see the Economy section below.

Related Topics:
Collapse of the Soviet Union - 1991 - 1994 - U.S. embargo - Economy

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