Early Cuba

Humans have inhabited the island of Cuba since 3500 BC. The first known native tribes were the Siboney and Guanahatabey, who were pushed west around 1250 AD by a branch of the Arawak tribe called the Taino. The Taino arrived on Cuba's shores as they fled the Carib tribes of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, an especially fierce tribe whose name was later adapted into the English word cannibal. When the Spanish arrived in 1492, the majority of the native Cuban population was Taino-speaking Arawaks.

The Spanish Arrive

Columbus, upon approaching Cuba's sandy shores, described it as "the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen." He promptly named it Juana, in honor of Prince Juan, heir to the Spanish throne. Finding little gold, Columbus left for more golden opportunities on Hispaniola.

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar led his men from Hispaniola to Cuba in 1512 to claim the island for Spain, and successfully established seven settlements, including Havana, by the end of that year. It was this expedition that brought sugarcane to Cuba, along with the diseases that would decimate the native populations. Although rebellions were launched by tribal chiefs like the revered Hatuey, the Taino were slaughtered by the thousands and Hatuey was captured and burned at the stake.

Native resistance removed, the Spanish launched massive gold mining efforts while they spread both Christianity and smallpox to the natives. By 1550, the native populations had diminished from 100,000 to a sparse 5,000. With their forced labor resources depleted, the Spanish began importing slaves from Africa to tend to their cash crops: tobacco, cattle, and sugar cane.

The struggle between Spain's monarchy, established Spanish traders, and pirates came into full bloom from the mid-16th century to the mid-18th century. European nations scrambled to claim land as their own. The British successfully took Jamaica, the French took Haiti, and Cuba hung in the balance. The Seven Years' War landed Britain in Cuba, importing some 4,000 African slaves and later tens of thousands more, boosting Cuba's sugar production and giving Britain a brief, albeit profitable slice of Cuba. The Peace of Paris treaty of 1763 returned Cuba to Spain in exchange for Florida.

Cuba's sugar production was so attractive to the United States by the 1848, President Polk authorized the American minister in Madrid to offer $100,000,000 for the purchase of Cuba—Spain rejected the offer. Cuba prospered as its sugar production boomed. Most tariffs on trade between Cuba and the United States were dropped in 1890, giving prosperity to Cuba but at a price. Cuba's dependence on sugar exports to the United States gave the US a monopoly, spurring many wealthy Cuban landowners to push for annexation to protect this profitable relationship.

José Marti, the famed Cuban poet and patriot, led the fight for independence alongside Antonio Maceo and Máximo Goméz, drawn from exile and the Dominican Republic respectively. Marti was killed in 1895 leading the revolution, placing him forever as the hero of Cuban independence. As the uprising continued, Cuba was burning and in near ruin. The US was preparing to take control of Cuba as the American press gained support for an invasion by exaggerating and fabricating Spanish atrocities in Cuba. On the night of February 15th, 1898 during a nationalist uprising in Cuba, an explosion destroyed the United States battleship Maine in Havana's harbor killing 266 US sailors, sparking the Spanish American War. The war lasted only a few short months ending with the Treaty of Paris in 1898, under which Spain relinquished its control of Cuba to the United States.

Revolution

Cuba became an independent republic on May 20, 1902 but US intervention promoted weak leadership and corruption throughout all presidential and dictatorial terms. By this time, US companies owned the majority of Cuban farmland and mines, and while US prohibition boosted the Cuban tourism economy, the Great Depression left Cuba in financial dire straits. The Cuban president-turned-dictator Gerardo Machado y Morales was forced out by Fulgencio Batista, who was elected president in 1940. He staged a comeback into presidency again in 1952, successfully leading a military coup that secured his victory despite the fact he was sure to lose.

Corruption gave way to corruption, spurring a revolutionary effort led in part by Fidel Castro, a succession of events that would chart out his role in Cuban history that endures today. Leading failed assaults that cost him many men and two years' imprisonment, Castro was freed two years later after Batista once again won the presidency through fraudulent elections and freed all political prisoners. Once free, Castro returned to organization of the revolt. Joining the famed Argentine Ernesto “Che” Guevara and other revolutionaries to form the M-26-7, Castro fled into the Sierra Maestra Mountains where supplies were sent in anticipation of their next assault.

35 students from the University of Havana attacked the presidential palace on March 13, 1957 in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Batista. Anybody connected to the attempt on Batista's life was killed but high in the Sierra Maestra, small victories were giving the M-26-7 the momentum it needed to establish a permanent headquarters and more on the horizon. Radio Rebelde was broadcast from La Plata, Castro's headquarters, and support for the revolution was growing day by day.

Castro in Power

Castro was first named Prime Minister and then President when the first revolutionary president Manuel Urrutia proved to be aligned more with US interests than with that of Cuba. Rent and electricity cost reductions as well as agrarian reform were Castro's first fledgling acts made as president. As Castro's vision was unveiled step-by-step, Cubans left the country in droves as Cuba's economy plummeted. The US position towards Cuba grew hostile as Cuba's relationship with the Soviets developed, establishing trade agreements in 1960. American-owned oil companies, under pressure from the US government, refused to refine Soviet petroleum flowing into Cuba. Two weeks later the companies were nationalized spurring President Eisenhower to cut 700,000 tons from Cuba's sugar quota. US-owned electric and telephone companies, along with nearly 40 sugar mills were nationalized, outraging the American government and provoking them to officially condemn “extracontinental” intervention in the Western hemisphere. Cuba's response was the establishment of political ties to Communist China and in September of 1960, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev began to supply arms to Cuba.  Washington imposed a partial embargo by October as Cuba found itself in the middle of the escalating Cold War. By this time, all remaining US-owned businesses in Cuba were nationalized.

The Cold War

January of 1961 marked the end of diplomatic relations between the Cuba and the US, banning all US citizens from traveling to Cuba. The remaining sugar quota was eliminated by President Kennedy as the CIA planned to overthrow Castro's regime. US forces invaded land in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) without the cover of air troops—a last minute decision made by Kennedy. Through a series of speeches in response to US attacks, Castro's Marxist-Leninist beliefs were made public, revealing the true socialist nature of the Cuban revolution for the first time. Defeated, the US declared a full trade embargo and expelled Cuba from the Organization of American States (OAS). Khrushchev moved medium-range missiles into Cuba, capable of striking anywhere in the US. Kennedy's order to detain Soviet ships bound for Cuba brought about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which after an intense six days was defused through secret talks between Kennedy and Khrushchev. Castro was never consulted.

Socialism and the Collapse of the Eastern Bloc

The Cuban economy dwindled despite Soviet aid and the next years of Cuban economic history are marked by inconsistent production and quality and excessive bureaucracy. Conditions improved slowly into the 1970’s through trade with the Soviet Bloc, however dependence on the USSR was to be costly. At the same time, Che Guevara was leading guerilla socialist efforts in Africa and Latin America, campaigns intended to spark a global revolution but instead resulted in Guevara’s capture and murder in November of 1966 by US-backed Bolivian troops. 

The collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1986 lead to Castro’s five-year Periodo Especial, a time when food shortages and rolling blackouts tested the Cuban people. The US continued to make Cuban trade difficult, banning all ships that had docked in Cuba over the past six months from docking anywhere in the United States. Food and medicine shortages were the result in Cuba, although conditions improved slowly through the designation of the US dollar as legal tender, the influx of tourism dollars, and the legalization of self-employment in more than 100 trades.

Into the Future

US policy towards Cuba remains tough today although hostility towards the US bolsters a healthy Cuban nationalism. Trade and immigration policies endure, supporting the invisible wall that exists between Cuba and its powerful northern neighbor. Ongoing tension produces newsworthy stories like the 1999 Elian Gonzales drama that unfolded on televisions and in newspapers around the world. The George W. Bush presidency and the events of September 11, 2001 have invoked even stronger policies concerning travel and diplomacy.  Ongoing questions of human rights and the general foundation of Castro’s political regime persist however Cuba was elected, uncontested, to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in April of 2003.