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→History of Cuba
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==History of Cuba== | ==History of Cuba== | ||
The following discussion focuses on Cuba since European contact. For additional treatment in a regional context, see Latin America, history of. | |||
Cuba has been heavily influenced by imperial Spain (from 1492 to 1898), the Soviet Union (from the 1960s to 1991), and the United States (from the 19th century to the present). | |||
*Early period | |||
In the late 15th century the indigenous Ciboney and Guanahatabey peoples occupied western Cuba, and the more numerous Taino inhabited the rest of the island. Estimates of the total population range as high as 600,000; however, the actual total was probably about 75,000. The Taino were a peaceful people and were highly proficient agriculturalists, related to the Arawakan peoples of South America who migrated to the Greater Antilles. Their houses, called bohíos, formed villages ranging from single families to communities of 3,000 persons. They made pottery, polished stone implements, and idols of religious spirits called zemis. The Taino diet included potatoes, manioc, fruits, and fish. The name Cuba is pre-Hispanic in origin and its exact derivation unknown. | |||
*Spanish rule | |||
CONQUEST AND COLONIAL LIFE | |||
Christopher Columbus sighted the northern coast of Cuba on October 27, 1492, and made landfall there the following day. The Spanish conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar began permanent settlement in 1511, founding Baracoa on the northeastern coast with 300 Spaniards and their African slaves. | |||
Within five years Spanish authorities had divided the island into seven municipal divisions, including Havana (La Habana), Puerto Príncipe, Santiago de Cuba, and Sancti Spíritus. Each municipality had its own cabildo, or town council, governing its legal, administrative, and commercial affairs. From 1515, elected representatives of each cabildo formed a body that defended local interests before the royal council, especially on such matters as slave trading and the semifeudal encomienda system, which granted conquistadors control over the Indians in specified areas and the right to exact tribute from them. A bishopric, subordinate to Santo Domingo, was founded at Baracoa in 1518 but later moved to Santiago de Cuba. | |||
The island’s limited gold deposits discouraged early settlement. However, the colony became a staging ground for the exploration of the North American mainland. Such expeditions as that of Hernán Cortés, which attracted 400 Spaniards and 3,000 Indians, depleted the colonial population. The remaining Spanish colonists continued to exploit Indians through the encomienda, but by 1550 the system was no longer feasible because the Indian population had been decimated by European diseases, ongoing social dislocation, maltreatment, and emigration. | |||
By 1570 most residents of the Spanish towns in Cuba comprised a mixture of Spanish, African, and Indian heritages, largely because of the paucity of Spanish females among the immigrants and the military nature of the conquest. Colonial society reflected the stratification of the metropolis, although no sharp divisions had yet developed between Spanish-born and American-born citizens, as would later become commonplace. Until the end of the 16th century, African slaves seemed to enjoy a higher social standing than the indigenous people, probably owing to their cultural affinity to the conquerors. | |||
Throughout the 17th century, colonial life was made more difficult by the ravages of hurricanes, epidemics, pirates, and attacks by rival European countries trying to establish bases in the Caribbean. By 1700, however, peace had returned, and the population reached about 50,000. Havana’s status grew commercially and strategically because of the flota (“fleet”) system of regularly scheduled maritime trade between Spain and its American colonies. In addition, ranching, smuggling, and tobacco farming occupied the colonists. The colony’s administrative costs depended, however, on irregular subsidies from New Spain until 1808. | |||
'''SUGARCANE AND THE GROWTH OF SLAVERY''' | |||
During the 18th century Cuba depended increasingly on the sugarcane crop and on the expansive, slave-based plantations that produced it. In 1740 the Havana Company was formed to stimulate agricultural development by increasing slave imports and regulating agricultural exports. The company was unsuccessful, selling fewer slaves in 21 years than the British sold during a 10-month occupation of Havana in 1762. The reforms of Charles III of Spain during the latter part of the century further stimulated the Cuban sugar industry. | |||
Between 1763 and 1860 the island’s population increased from less than 150,000 to more than 1,300,000. The number of slaves also increased dramatically, from 39,000 in the 1770s to some 400,000 in the 1840s—roughly one-third of the island’s population. In the 19th century Cuba imported more than 600,000 African slaves, most of whom arrived after 1820, the date that Spain and Great Britain had agreed would mark the end of slave trading in the Spanish colonies. Cuban plantation owners were among those who insisted on continuing the slave trade, despite the controversies raised between the Spanish and British governments. | |||
During the period 1838–80 the Cuban sugar industry became the most mechanized in the world, utilizing steam-powered mills (ingenios) and narrow-gauge railroads. Expanding sugar mills dominated the landscape from Havana to Puerto Príncipe, expelling small farmers and destroying the island’s extensive hardwood forests. By 1850 the sugar industry accounted for four-fifths of all exports, and in 1860 Cuba produced nearly one-third of the world’s sugar. The phenomenal growth of the sugar industry propelled a new class of wealthy plantation owners to political prominence. Mexican Indians and Chinese contract workers augmented the labour force, although the conditions under which they toiled were nearly as degrading and dangerous as slavery. Meanwhile, African slaves became more costly as the British navy attacked slave traders on the high seas and the United States abolished its own system of slavery. In 1865 the African slave trade ended, although slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1886. | |||
Rural life in Cuba was patently patriarchal, especially on the plantations. Lifestyles were more varied in urban areas, which were characterized by substantial free nonwhite populations and considerable occupational and economic diversification. Families tended to be large, augmented by extended kin and fictive kin relations. Women of the upper classes did not work, but many attained high levels of general education. Nevertheless, life was difficult, even in the largest of Cuban cities. Most visitors to Havana found it unclean and a dangerous place to walk about. In addition, the island was plagued by recurring waves of disease: cholera, malaria, and influenza, especially during the summer months. On the other hand, the social and cultural life of the city continued to develop to serve its residents’ needs. | |||
'''FILIBUSTERING AND THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE''' | |||
The demands of sugar—labourers, capital, machines, technical skills, and markets—strained ethnic relations, aggravated political and economic differences between metropolis and colony, and laid the foundation for the break with Spain in 1898. Spanish colonial administration was corrupt, inefficient, and inflexible. People in the United States, especially in the southern slave states, showed a lively and growing interest in the island and supported a series of filibustering expeditions led by Narciso López (1849–51) and others. (The red, white, and blue battle flag that López flew was designated the Cuban national flag in 1902.) After the 1860s the United States tried many times to purchase the island. | |||
Spain precipitated the first war of Cuban independence—the Ten Years’ War (1868–78)—by increasing taxes and refusing to grant Cubans political autonomy. On October 10, 1868, the eastern planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, now known as the “father of his country,” issued the Grito de Yara (“Cry of Yara”) decree, in which he declared Cuban independence. He also freed his slaves to fight in his revolution. Céspedes had the support of some landowners and of numerous farmers and labourers who wanted to increase their share of political power and abolish slavery. However, many Cubans, including the wealthy sugar producers of the western region and the vast majority of slaves, did not join the revolt. Many questioned Céspedes’s plans for manumission, notably the rate at which slaves were to be freed, or disagreed with his call for U.S. annexation of Cuba. Spain promised to reform the island’s political and economic system in the Pact of Zanjón (1878), which ended the war. However, the nationalist leader Antonio Maceo and several others refused to accept the Spanish conditions. In August 1879 Calixto García started a second uprising, called La Guerra Chiquita (“The Little War”), which Spanish forces put down the following year. | |||
The political and economic crisis grew more severe. The Spanish government failed to carry out most of the promised reforms, although it allowed Cubans to send representatives to the Cortes (parliament) and abolished slavery in 1886. Annual trade between Cuba and the United States had reached about $100 million, but in 1894 Spain canceled a Cuban-U.S. trade pact. In addition, the central government imposed more taxes and trade restrictions. Cubans increasingly resisted colonial authority, and the poet, ideological spokesman, and propagandist José Martí coordinated and mobilized political organizations in exile. War broke out again on February 24, 1895, and Martí and the revolutionary leader Máximo Gómez landed with an invasion force in April. | |||
Gómez and Maceo led a force that quickly conquered the eastern region and began to spread westward. The Republic of Cuba was declared in September 1895. The following year Spain placed General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau at the head of more than 200,000 troops, who brutally “reconcentrated” rural residents into camps in the towns and cities, where tens of thousands died of starvation and disease. Both sides killed civilians and burned estates and towns, with the rebels concentrating on destroying Cuba’s sugarcane crop. | |||
The Spanish government recalled Weyler in 1897 and offered autonomy to Cuba, and the following year it ended the “reconcentration” program. However, the vast majority of Cubans had come to sympathize with the rebels, who held most of the countryside. Meanwhile, commercial activity ground to a standstill, and news of Spanish atrocities spread to the United States, where yellow journalism (notably in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst) stirred up anti-Spanish sentiment. Following a mysterious explosion aboard the USS Maine that sank it in Havana’s harbour in February 1898, the United States and Spain fought the brief, one-sided Spanish-American War, during which U.S. forces captured Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines by mid-August. | |||
*Occupation by the United States | |||
Although Cuban independence was granted by the Treaty of Paris (December 10, 1898), U.S. forces continued to occupy the country, and General John R. Brooke, who was designated the military governor on January 1, 1899, tried to exclude Cubans from government. He disbanded the Cuban army and conducted a census before being replaced by General Leonard Wood, who had previously governed the city of Santiago. Wood increased the role of Cubans in government and supervised elections that gave Cuba its first elected president, Tomás Estrada Palma. | |||
Guantánamo Bay detention camp [Credit: Kathleen T. Rhem/U.S. Department of Defense]U.S. forces modernized Havana, deepened its harbour, and built a number of schools, roads, and bridges. But they were primarily interested in importing U.S. economic, cultural, and educational systems to the island. In addition, the U.S.-supervised electoral system was effectively racist and eliminated Afro-Cubans from politics. The Platt Amendment (1901) gave the United States the right to oversee Cuba’s international commitments, economy, and internal affairs and to establish a naval station at Guantánamo Bay on the island’s southeastern coast. Most of its provisions were repealed in 1934, but the naval base remained. | |||
*The Republic of Cuba | |||
A republican administration that began on May 20, 1902, under Estrada Palma was subject to heavy U.S. influence. Estrada Palma tried to retain power in the 1905 and 1906 elections, which were contested by the Liberals, leading to rebellion and a second U.S. occupation in September 1906. U.S. secretary of war William Howard Taft failed to resolve the dispute, and Estrada Palma resigned. The U.S. government then made Charles Magoon provisional governor. An advisory commission revised electoral procedures, and in January 1909 Magoon handed over the government to the Liberal president, José Miguel Gómez. Meanwhile, Cuba’s economy grew steadily, and sugar prices rose continually until the 1920s. | |||
The Gómez administration (1909–13) set a pattern of graft, corruption, maladministration, fiscal irresponsibility, and social insensitivity—especially toward Afro-Cubans—that characterized Cuban politics until 1959. Afro-Cubans, led by Evaristo Estenoz and Pedro Ivonet, organized to secure better jobs and more political patronage. In 1912 government troops put down large demonstrations in Oriente province. | |||
Batista, Fulgencio: November Revolt of 1933 [Credit: Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library]The pattern of corruption continued under the subsequent administrations of Mario García Menocal (1913–21), Alfredo Zayas (1921–25), Gerardo Machado y Morales (1925–33), Fulgencio Batista (through puppets 1934–39 and himself 1940–44 and 1952–59), Ramón Grau San Martín (1944–48), and Carlos Prío Socarrás (1948–52). Machado was one of the more notorious presidents, holding power through manipulation, troops, and assassins. The U.S. government helped leftist groups overthrow him in the so-called Revolution of 1933, which brought Batista to power. Batista, however, was cut from the same mold as Machado. | |||
Cuba’s income from sugar, which still accounted for four-fifths of export earnings, was augmented by a vigorous tourist trade based on Havana’s hotels, casinos, and brothels, especially during the years of Prohibition (1919–33) in the United States. By the end of the 1950s, Cuba had developed one of the leading economies in Latin America, with an annual income of $353 per capita in 1958—among the highest in the region. Yet economic disparities grew, and most rural workers earned only about one-fourth the average per year. Although the thriving economy enriched a few Cubans, the majority experienced poverty (especially in the countryside), an appalling lack of public services, and unemployment and underemployment. U.S. and other foreign investors controlled the economy, owning about 75 percent of the arable land, 90 percent of the essential services, and 40 percent of the sugar production. And for much of the 1950s, Batista exercised absolute control over the political system. | |||
*The Castro regime | |||
'''REVOLUTION''' | |||
Castro, Fidel: 1964 [Credit: Elliott Erwitt/Magnum Photos]Batista’s fall resulted as much from internal decay as from the challenges of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement (commemorating Castro’s failed attack on the Moncada military base in Santiago on July 26, 1953) or from the Federation of University Students and other groups opposed to Batista’s rule. Castro had been a legislative candidate for elections in 1952 that were aborted by Batista. His defense of his part in the Moncada attack, edited and published as “History Will Absolve Me,” was a political manifesto. Released from prison in 1955, Castro and some friends went to Mexico to prepare for the overthrow of the Cuban government. In December 1956 the small yacht Granma landed Castro and a band of rebels in southeastern Cuba, where they were routed and almost annihilated by security forces. A dozen survivors, including Castro, his brother Raúl, and the Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara, retreated to the Sierra Maestra and began a guerrilla campaign. Over the next two years they attracted hundreds of Cuban volunteers, won several battles over Batista’s increasingly demoralized armed forces, and advanced westward across the island. Meanwhile, communist groups and radical members of the Federation of University Students, a noncommunist organization, staged strikes and attacks in urban areas. In 1958 the United States isolated Batista’s government with an arms embargo, and several Cuban military commanders sympathized with the rebellion or joined it. Batista fled the country on the morning of January 1, 1959, and on his heels about 800 of Castro’s supporters marched into Havana, having defeated an army of some 30,000. | |||
The 26th of July Movement had vague political plans, relatively insignificant support, and totally untested governing skills. They quickly forged a following among poor peasants, urban workers, youths, and idealists. The Communist Party of Cuba, dating to 1925, assumed the dominant political role, and the state modeled itself on the Soviet-bloc countries of eastern Europe, becoming the first socialist country in the Americas. | |||
The regime progressively dissolved the capitalist system in Cuba by establishing a centrally planned economy, collectivizing agricultural production (except for a small percentage of farmland), forming close economic ties with the Soviet Union, and developing a range of social services, particularly in rural areas. It also eliminated the remnants of Batista’s army and created new institutions to replace the former labour unions, political parties, and associations of professional workers and farmers. The regime nationalized hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. property and private businesses, which provoked retaliatory measures by the U.S. government, including a trade embargo, an unsuccessful invasion by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs in south-central Cuba (April 1961), and unexecuted plots to assassinate Castro. However, the U.S. stance only solidified Castro’s popular support and further pushed him toward the Soviet Union. In December he declared himself a communist. | |||
'''NATIONAL EVOLUTION AND SOVIET INFLUENCE''' | |||
Cuban missile crisis: U.S. ship intercepting a missile-carrying Soviet ship [Credit: Carl Mydans—Time Life Pictures/Getty Images]Cuba’s erratic drift toward socialism and its growing dependence on the Soviet Union divided both the leadership and the country at large. Hundreds of thousands of Cubans, especially skilled workers and wealthy investors, emigrated to the United States (principally to Miami, Florida), Spain, and other countries. Soviet economic and military support was crucial in the early years of Castro’s regime, and Soviet maneuvers often aroused strong antagonism from the United States. The Cuban missile crisis (October 1962) was an especially serious incident. After the Soviet Union installed nuclear missile bases in Cuba, the world stood at the brink of war as the U.S. government set up a naval blockade of the island and demanded that the missiles be removed. | |||
Cuba became plagued by shortages of foods, fuel, and other necessities. A second agrarian reform in the mid-1960s ended attempts to diversify the economy, which remained dependent on sugarcane. At the same time, Cuba renewed its efforts to export revolution by organizing a meeting of Latin American communists in Havana (1964) and stoking a civil war in the Dominican Republic in April 1965 that prompted the U.S. military to intervene there. Guevara engaged in covert activities in Congo (Kinshasa) and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia. Most Latin American and Caribbean states alienated Cuba for its attempts to foment unrest. | |||
The government during the late 1960s renewed its attack on private property by nationalizing hundreds of small businesses. Military officers moved into the highest ranks of government, industry, and the Cuban Communist Party. The regime attempted to boost production and foster nationalism by offering moral incentives (nonmonetary awards such as medals and titles) and mobilizing labour organizations. When that approach failed to bring about desired results, the government returned to Soviet-type central planning and an orthodox system of socialist incentives. In 1976 a new constitution and a new electoral code reorganized the political system. Castro became president of the Council of Ministers and of the Council of State, thereby effectively combining the roles of president and prime minister. | |||
Material conditions improved slightly during the 1970s. Bottlenecks and shortages were substantially eliminated, and diplomatic isolation gave way to a significant leadership role among developing countries and nonaligned nations (i.e., those not associated with either the Eastern or Western bloc). Cubans, who had been redefining themselves as an “Afro-Latin American people” since the late 1960s, offered technical, commercial, and military assistance to several states in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean region. However, Cuba lost considerable influence among the nonaligned nations when it supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In addition, that year the United States objected to the presence of Soviet combat troops on the island. Cuban military assistance in the 1980s influenced civil wars in Angola and Ethiopia, and civilian personnel made contributions in Asia and Latin America. The United States invaded the island of Grenada in 1983, killing more than two dozen Cubans and expelling the remainder of the Cuban aid force from the island. Cuba gradually withdrew its troops from Angola in 1989–91. | |||
Although there has been some improvement in relations between Cuba and the United States since the revolution, the U.S. trade embargo imposed in the early 1960s remains essentially in force. U.S. activities such as the invasion of Grenada, investigations concerning the condition of political prisoners in Cuba, and propaganda radio broadcasts beamed toward Cuba since 1985 perpetuated bilateral antagonism. Emigration from Cuba to the United States has been a major issue since 1980, when some 125,000 Cubans crossed the Florida Straits to the United States during what became known as the “Mariel boatlift” (so named because many of the boats departed from Mariel, a small port west of Havana). In 1987 the two countries signed an agreement allowing 20,000 Cubans to emigrate annually to the United States. Tens of thousands have also migrated illegally to the United States and elsewhere. | |||
Soviet aid to Cuba in loans, petroleum, war matériel, and technical advice was crucial and amounted to a significant portion of Cuba’s annual budget. The Soviet Union also bought the major portion of the Cuban sugar crop, generally at a price above that of the free world market. Cuban-Soviet relations deteriorated as Soviet political, economic, and social policies were liberalized in the late 1980s. The Cuban government, however, refused to modify its approach to social and economic policy. | |||
'''CUBA SINCE 1991''' | |||
Soviet troops began to withdraw from Cuba in September 1991 over the latter’s objections that the withdrawal would compromise the island’s security. When the Soviet Union dissolved later that year, the already troubled Cuban economy suffered further from the loss of vital military and economic support that had, in effect, constituted subsidies. Amid severe internal shortages, and with unrest and dissatisfaction growing, Castro declared a “special period in peacetime” of food rationing, energy conservation, and reduced public services. Unemployment increased, and shortages of food, medical supplies, raw materials, and fuel were exacerbated by the ongoing U.S. trade embargo. | |||
In 1993 the government legalized small businesses such as paladares (family restaurants), private employment, and the use of U.S. dollars (notably remittances from abroad) in Cuba. The following year independent farms and farmers’ markets were encouraged. The government also attracted foreign capitalists, including Canadian and Spanish hoteliers. Christmas was restored as a national holiday in 1997, in anticipation of what turned out to be a highly successful visit by Pope John Paul II the following year. The economy improved markedly, led by the tourist sector, but many Cubans began to question the future of socialism. | |||
In 1996, after Cuba shot down two small aircraft piloted by a Florida-based anti-Castro group, the U.S. Congress passed the Helms-Burton law, which threatened sanctions against foreign-owned companies investing in Cuba. In 1999 prominent dissidents in Cuba were jailed and repressive laws enacted, prompting further international criticism. In the early 21st century, Cuba benefited from a petroleum-trade agreement with Venezuela and eased some of its more restrictive economic and social policies. | |||
Although Castro maintained a firm grip on power, speculation grew outside Cuba on the state of his health, especially given his advancing age. Increasing attention was focused on his brother and designated successor, Raúl Castro Ruz, who was also the head of the armed forces, and Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, the influential president of the National Assembly. Indeed, on July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro passed power on a provisional basis to Raúl in order to recover from a serious intestinal illness. In February 2008 Fidel Castro officially announced that he would not accept another term as the president and commander in chief of Cuba, a position that he had held for 49 years; Cuba’s National Assembly chose Raúl as Cuba’s new leader. | Although Castro maintained a firm grip on power, speculation grew outside Cuba on the state of his health, especially given his advancing age. Increasing attention was focused on his brother and designated successor, Raúl Castro Ruz, who was also the head of the armed forces, and Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, the influential president of the National Assembly. Indeed, on July 31, 2006, Fidel Castro passed power on a provisional basis to Raúl in order to recover from a serious intestinal illness. In February 2008 Fidel Castro officially announced that he would not accept another term as the president and commander in chief of Cuba, a position that he had held for 49 years; Cuba’s National Assembly chose Raúl as Cuba’s new leader. | ||