 | The first inhabitants of Cuba were the Siboney, the hunter-gatherers from South America, around 3000 year ago followed by the Taino, the Arawak tribe. Christopher Columbus reached Cuba on 27 October 1492. By this time, the Taino has become powerful and drove the Siboney to the western tip of the island. When the Europeans arrived, there were an estimated half-million indigenous people living in small villages. |
In 1514, Diego Velasquez from Spain landed near Guantánamo Bay with 300 men. They fought fierce battles with Hatuey, a Taino chief who was eventually burned. Velasquez successfully established 7 new settlements and introduced an encomienda system. In 1522, the first African slaves were brought to work in the mines and plantations. In 1512, first sugarcane was planted. However, a native plant, tobacco, became the first important commercial crop.
Because of its strategic position, Cuba became a staging point for the shipment of colonial plunder to Spain. Even though, Havana was heavily fortified it was frequently attacked by British and French pirates. In 1762, the British occupied the port shortly and severed the Spanish trading monopoly.
The sugar industry explode after 1791 when French planters fled a slave revolt in Haiti and settled in Cuba. Cuba was the world’s largest sugar producer. The newly independent United States America served as its biggest market.
Meanwhile, the criollo bourgeoisie - born in Cuba of Spanish descent - became wealthier and impatient with Spanish rule. The US attempted to buy Cuba from Spain twice in 1848 and 1854, but the colonial power refused to sell. In the 1850s, nationalist pressure for self-rule began to build and soon became unstoppable.
The first war of independence began in the eastern province of Oriente by the Criollo planters on 10 October 1868 at the instigation of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes who called for the abolition of slavery. The exhausted rebel leadership was forced to sign a peace treaty in February 1878. US investors snapped up plantations sold cheaply by bankrupt Spanish landowners. |  |
By the late 1890s, 70% of the land in Cuba was in US hands and 90% of the country’s sugar went to the US. In 1895, the second war against Spain was started by José Martí, the Cuba’s national hero. In February 1898, the US battleship Maine was blown up in Havana harbor for which US blamed Spain and declared a war. In July 1898, the Spanish surrendered and the Americans occupied Cuba.
Finally, Cuba gained independence in 1902. The independence came with a forceful clause to accept USA’s constitution that included the Platt Amendment. The clause gave the freedom the USA to intervene in Cuban internal affairs whenever it deemed necessary to protect American interests. It also allowed for a US naval base at Guantánamo Bay which remains to this day.
The next 5 decades of independence were prevailed by corruption and incompetence along with the growing control of America over the economy. In 1933, a young mulatto army sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, seized power and ruled until 1944. The next 2 governments combined systemic corruption with brutal repression of political opponents. Batista staged another coup in March 1952 ‘to restore order and democracy’. Batista and his supporters fueled corruption and the dictatorship opened its arms to organized crime.
By: Shuchita Bist
GOWEALTHY.COM © 2008
For comments: editor@gowealthy.com
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