An island country , island state , or island nation is a country whose primary territory consists of one or more islands or parts of islands. Approximately 25% of all independent countries are island countries. Island countries are historically more stable than many continental states but are vulnerable to conquest by naval superpowers . Indonesia is the largest and most populated island country in the world.
163-657: Cuba , officially the Republic of Cuba , is an island country , comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud , and 4,195 islands , islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the northern Caribbean Sea , Gulf of Mexico , and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both Florida and the Bahamas , west of Hispaniola ( Haiti / Dominican Republic ), and north of Jamaica and
326-579: A spontaneous protest in Havana. From the start of the crisis until 1995, Cuba saw its gross domestic product (GDP) shrink by 35%. It took another five years for its GDP to reach pre-crisis levels. Cuba has since found a new source of aid and support in the People's Republic of China. In addition, Hugo Chávez , then president of Venezuela , and Evo Morales , former president of Bolivia , became allies and both countries are major oil and gas exporters. In 2003,
489-590: A "protector de indios", an ecclesiastical representative who acted as the protector of the Indians and represented them in formal litigation. Later in the 16th century, in Peru , thousands of indigenous men were forced to hard work as underground miners in the silver mines of Potosí , by means of the continuation of the pre-Hispanic Inca mita tradition. King Philip III inherited a difficult situation in Chile , where
652-593: A Somali invasion. On 24 January 1978, Ethiopian and Cuban troops counterattacked, inflicting 3,000 casualties on the Somali forces. In February, Cuban troops launched a major offensive and forced the Somali army back into its own territory. Cuban forces remained in Ethiopia until 9 September 1989. Despite Cuba's small size and the long distance separating it from the Middle East, Castro's Cuba played an active role in
815-617: A brutal conflict. The victorious former slaves founded the republic of Haiti in 1804. Later slave revolts were arguably part of the upsurge of liberal and democratic values centered on individual rights and liberties which came in the aftermath of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution in Europe. As emancipation became more of a concrete reality, the slaves' concept of freedom changed. No longer did they seek to overthrow
978-484: A campaign titled the "revolutionary offensive" was initiated to nationalize all remaining private small businesses, which at the time totaled to be about 58,000 small enterprises. The campaign would spur industrialization in Cuba and focus the economy on sugar production, specifically to a deadline for an annual sugar harvest of 10 million tons by 1970. The economic focus on sugar production involved international volunteers and
1141-609: A collapse in the price of sugar, political unrest, and repression. Protesting students, known as the Generation of 1930, turned to violence in opposition to the increasingly unpopular Machado. A general strike (in which the Communist Party sided with Machado), uprisings among sugar workers, and an army revolt forced Machado into exile in August 1933. He was replaced by Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada . In September 1933,
1304-482: A decree, Código Negro Español (Spanish Black Code), that specified food and clothing provisions, put limits on the number of work hours , limited punishments, required religious instruction, and protected marriages, forbidding the sale of young children away from their mothers. But planters often flouted the laws and protested against them, considering them a threat to their authority and an intrusion into their personal lives. The slaveowners did not protest against all
1467-562: A difficult target. Many developing small island countries rely heavily on fish for their main supply of food. Some are turning to renewable energy —such as wind power , hydropower , geothermal power and biodiesel from copra oil —to defend against potential rises in oil prices . Some island countries are more affected than other countries by climate change , which produces problems such as reduced land use , water scarcity , and sometimes even resettlement issues. Some low-lying island countries are slowly being submerged by
1630-568: A free black Spanish woman from Jerez de la Frontera and a Spanish settler from Segovia who met in Seville and embarked together as a couple to the New World. This marriage took place in 1565 in the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine, Florida. Estevanico , recorded as a black slave from Morocco, survived the disastrous Narváez expedition from 1527 to 1536 when most of the men died. After
1793-533: A head tax for themselves and half-value for the slaves. However, non-Muslims were prohibited from holding Muslim slaves, and so if one of their slaves converted to Islam, they were required to sell the slave to a Muslim. Mozarabs were later, by the 9th and 10th centuries, permitted to purchase new non-Muslim slaves via the peninsula's established slave trade. During the reconquista , Christian Spain sought to retake territory lost to Muslims and this led to changing norms regarding slavery. Though enslavement of Christians
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#17327585250501956-575: A joint U.S.-Latin American assault on Francoist Spain to overthrow its authoritarian regime. Cuba lost six merchant ships during the war, and the Cuban Navy was credited with sinking the German submarine U-176 . Batista adhered to the 1940 constitution's strictures preventing his re-election. Ramon Grau San Martin was the winner of the next election, in 1944. Grau further corroded the base of
2119-545: A middle class in most urban areas. After finishing his term in 1944 Batista lived in Florida, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election. Back in power, and receiving financial, military, and logistical support from the United States government, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including
2282-816: A mixture of Spanish, African, and Taíno heritages. Cuba developed slowly and, unlike the plantation islands of the Caribbean, had a diversified agriculture. Most importantly, the colony developed as an urbanized society that primarily supported the Spanish colonial empire. By the mid-18th century, there were 50,000 slaves on the island, compared to 60,000 in Barbados and 300,000 in Virginia ; as well as 450,000 in Saint-Domingue , all of which had large-scale sugarcane plantations. The Seven Years' War , which erupted in 1754 across three continents, eventually arrived in
2445-580: A much smaller scale than the Portuguese. Artisans acquired black slaves and trained them in their trade, increasing the artisans' output. Another form of forced labor used in the New World with origins in Spain was the encomienda , on the model of the award of the labor to Christian victors over Muslims during the reconquista . This institution of forced labor was initially employed by the Spaniards in
2608-441: A number of blacks were accused of rebellion. They were executed in the main plaza ( zócalo ) by hanging, an event recorded in an indigenous pictorial and alphabetic manuscript. Demand for African slaves was high and the slave trade was controlled by the Portuguese, who set up trading posts on the west coast of Africa. Spanish colonists purchased them directly from Portuguese traders, who in turn purchased them from African traders on
2771-532: A number of years in the Spanish militia. Most were settled in a community called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose , the first settlement of free Africans in North America. The enslaved African Francisco Menéndez escaped from South Carolina and traveled to St. Augustine, Florida, where he became the leader of the settlers at Mose and commander of the black militia company there from 1726 until sometime after 1742. The former slaves also found refuge among
2934-441: A post of annoyance to them.". Spain requested British intervention, but London declined to assist Spain in the negotiations. Some of President James Monroe 's cabinet demanded Jackson's immediate dismissal, but Adams realized that Jackson's actions had put the U.S. in a favorable diplomatic position. Adams negotiated very favorable terms. As Florida had become a burden to Spain, which could not afford to send settlers or garrisons,
3097-495: A separate black republic in Oriente Province, but was suppressed by General Monteagudo with considerable bloodshed. In 1924, Gerardo Machado was elected president. During his administration, tourism increased markedly, and American-owned hotels and restaurants were built to accommodate the influx of tourists. The tourist boom led to increases in gambling and prostitution in Cuba . The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to
3260-448: A slave could buy his freedom, in the event that his master was willing to sell, by paying the price sought in installments. Slaves were allowed to earn money during their spare time by working as shoemakers, cleaning clothes, or selling the produce they grew on their own plots of land. For the freedom of their newborn child, not yet baptized, they paid at half the going price for a baptized child. Many of these freedmen started settlements in
3423-464: A strategic point in the middle of the country, fell into the rebels hands on December 31, in a conflict known as the Battle of Santa Clara ). In the 1950s, various organizations, including some advocating armed uprising, competed for public support in bringing about political change. In 1956, Fidel Castro and about 80 supporters landed from the yacht Granma in an attempt to start a rebellion against
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#17327585250503586-652: A sugar planter, freed his slaves to fight with him for an independent Cuba. On 27 December 1868, he issued a decree condemning slavery in theory but accepting it in practice and declaring free any slaves whose masters present them for military service. The 1868 rebellion resulted in a prolonged conflict known as the Ten Years' War . A great number of the rebels were volunteers from the Dominican Republic , and other countries, as well as numerous Chinese indentured servants . The United States declined to recognize
3749-553: A time, and oftentimes two to three months. These wooden stocks were made in two types: lying-down or stand-up types. women were punished, even when pregnant. They were subjected to whippings: they had to lie "face down over a scooped-out piece of round [earth] to protect their bellies." Some masters reportedly whipped pregnant women in the belly, often causing miscarriages. The wounds were treated with "compresses of tobacco leaves, urine and salt." After 1784, Spain provided five ways by which slaves could obtain freedom. Five years later,
3912-548: A total ban on trade between the countries and a freeze on all Cuban-owned assets in the U.S. In February 1960, Castro signed a commercial agreement with Soviet Vice-Premier Anastas Mikoyan . In March 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his approval to a CIA plan to arm and train a group of Cuban refugees to overthrow the Castro government. The invasion (known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion ) took place on 14 April 1961, during
4075-579: A vast expedition through the American Southeast , in search of gold, treasure, fame and power. On 1 September 1548, Gonzalo Perez de Angulo was appointed governor of Cuba. He arrived in Santiago, Cuba, on 4 November 1549, and immediately declared the liberty of all Natives. He became Cuba's first permanent governor to reside in Havana instead of Santiago, and he built Havana's first church made of masonry. By 1570, most residents of Cuba comprised
4238-637: A year, providing training to the Algerian army. In 1964, Cuba organized a meeting of Latin American communists in Havana and stoked a civil war in the capital of the Dominican Republic in 1965, which prompted 20,000 U.S. troops to intervene there. Che Guevara engaged in guerrilla activities in Africa and was killed in 1967 while attempting to start a revolution in Bolivia . Starting in 1968
4401-520: Is associated with extinctions of the islands native fauna, particularly its endemic sloths . The Arawakan -speaking ancestors of the Taíno people arrived in the Caribbean in a separate migration from South America around 1,700 years ago. Unlike the previous settlers of Cuba, the Taíno extensively produced pottery and engaged in intensive agriculture. The earliest evidence of the Taíno people on Cuba dates to
4564-821: Is considered part of Latin America. It is a multiethnic country whose people , culture and customs derive from diverse origins, including the Taíno Ciboney peoples, the long period of Spanish colonialism, the introduction of enslaved Africans and a close relationship with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Cuba is a founding member of the United Nations, G77 , Non-Aligned Movement , Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States , ALBA , and Organization of American States . It has one of
4727-729: Is linked to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway , Singapore to Malaysia by the Johor–Singapore Causeway and Second Link , and the United Kingdom has a railway connection to France through the Channel Tunnel . Geographically, the country of Australia is considered a continental landmass rather than an island, covering the largest landmass of the Australian continent . In the past, however, it
4890-481: The Siete Partidas of Alfonso "the learned" (1252–1284) specified who could be enslaved: those who were captured in just war; offspring of an enslaved mother; those who voluntarily sold themselves into slavery, and specified slaves' good treatment by their masters. At the time it was generally domestic slavery and was a temporary condition of members of outgroups. As well as the formal parameters for slavery,
5053-494: The 9th century AD. Descendants of the first settlers of Cuba persisted on the western part of the island until Columbian contact, where they were recorded as the Guanahatabey people, who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. After first landing on an island then called Guanahani on 12 October 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on Cuba on 27 October 1492, and landing in the northeastern coast on 28 October. Columbus claimed
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5216-602: The Arauco War raged and the local Mapuche succeeded in razing seven Spanish cities (1598–1604). An estimate by Alonso González de Nájera put the toll at 3000 Spanish settlers killed and 500 Spanish women taken into captivity by Mapuche. In retaliation the proscription against enslaving Indians captured in war was lifted by Philip in 1608. This decree was abused when Spanish settlers in Chiloé Archipelago used it to launch slave raids against groups such as
5379-721: The Aztecs . The Spanish conquest and settlement in the New World quickly led to large-scale subjugation of indigenous peoples, mainly of the Native Caribbean people , by Columbus on his four voyages. Initially, forced labor represented a means by which the conquistadores mobilized native labor, with disastrous effects on the population . Unlike the Portuguese Crown 's support for the slave trade in Africa, los Reyes Católicos (English: Catholic Monarchs ) opposed
5542-705: The Canary Islands following their conquest, but the Guanche (Canarian) population precipitously declined. The institution as an institution was much more widespread following the Spanish contact and conquests in Mexico and Peru, but the precedents were set prior to 1492. Prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas , slavery was a common institution among some Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples , particularly
5705-525: The Cayman Islands . Havana is the largest city and capital. Cuba is the third-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti and the Dominican Republic , with about 10 million inhabitants. It is the largest country in the Caribbean by area. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC , with the Guanahatabey and Taíno peoples inhabiting the area at
5868-701: The Chono of northwestern Patagonia who had never been under Spanish rule and never rebelled. The Real Audiencia of Santiago opined in the 1650s that slavery of Mapuches was one of the reasons for constant state of war between the Spanish and the Mapuche. Slavery for Mapuches "caught in war" was abolished in 1683 after decades of legal attempts by the Spanish Crown to suppress it. When Spain first enslaved Native Americans on Hispaniola , and then replaced them with captive Africans, it established slave labor as
6031-572: The Creek and Seminole , Native Americans who had established settlements in Florida at the invitation of the Spanish government. In 1771, Governor of Florida John Moultrie wrote to the Board of Trade, "It has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back." When colonial officials asked
6194-522: The Encomienda , private grants of groups of Native Americans to individual Spaniards as well as to Native American nobility. The implementation of the New Laws and liberation of tens of thousands of Native Americans led to a number of rebellions and conspiracies by "Encomenderos" (Encomienda holders) which had to be put down by the Spanish crown . People were in enslaved in what is now Spain since
6357-457: The Maldives . Some island countries share one or more of their islands with other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Ireland ; Haiti and the Dominican Republic ; and Indonesia, which shares islands with Papua New Guinea , Brunei , East Timor , and Malaysia . Bahrain, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have fixed links such as bridges and tunnels to the continental landmass: Bahrain
6520-525: The Philippines are notable exceptions. Some island countries are centred on one or two major islands, such as the United Kingdom , Trinidad and Tobago , New Zealand , Cuba , Bahrain , Singapore , Sri Lanka , Iceland , Malta , and Taiwan . Others are spread out over hundreds or thousands of smaller islands, such as Japan , Indonesia, the Philippines , The Bahamas , Seychelles , and
6683-554: The Sergeants' Revolt , led by Sergeant Fulgencio Batista , overthrew Céspedes. A five-member executive committee (the Pentarchy of 1933 ) was chosen to head a provisional government. Ramón Grau San Martín was then appointed as provisional president. Grau resigned in 1934, leaving the way clear for Batista, who dominated Cuban politics for the next 25 years, at first through a series of puppet-presidents. The period from 1933 to 1937
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6846-499: The Siete Partidas also makes a value judgment, stating that it "was the basest and most wretched condition into which anyone could fall because man, who is the freest noble of all God's creatures, becomes thereby in the power of another, who can do with him what he wishes as with any property, whether living or dead." As the Spanish (Castilians) and Portuguese expanded overseas, they conquered and occupied Atlantic islands off
7009-631: The Spanish Caribbean . Spain's alliance with the French pitched them into direct conflict with the British , and in 1762, a British expedition consisting of dozens of ships and thousands of troops set out from Portsmouth to capture Cuba. The British arrived on 6 June, and by August, had placed Havana under siege . When Havana surrendered, the admiral of the British fleet, George Pocock and
7172-478: The West Indies by Europeans, with approximately 4,000 being brought by the Spanish. The second sector, which flourished after 1790, was rural and was directed by private slaveholders/planters involved in the production of export agricultural commodities , especially sugar. After 1763, the scale and urgency of defense projects led the state to deploy many of its enslaved workers in ways that were to anticipate
7335-464: The West Indies to work on newly established agricultural plantations. These slaves were left behind when the British returned Havana to the Spanish as part of the 1763 Treaty of Paris , and form a significant part of the Afro-Cuban population today. While historians have studied the production of sugar on plantations by enslaved workers in nineteenth-century Cuba, they have sometimes overlooked
7498-531: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , Cuba faced a severe economic downturn in the 1990s, known as the Special Period . In 2008, Fidel Castro retired after 49 years; Raúl Castro was elected his successor. Raúl Castro retired as president in 2018 and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections . Raúl Castro retired as First Secretary of
7661-590: The encomienda system, allowed abuse by holders of the labor grants ( encomenderos ), and officially abolished the enslavement of the native population. However, indigenous people who rebelled against the Spanish could be enslaved, so that following the Mixtón War (1540–42) in northwest Mexico many indigenous slaves were captured and moved elsewhere in Mexico. The statutes of 1573, within the "Ordinances Concerning Discoveries," forbade unauthorized operations against independent Indian peoples. It required appointment of
7824-572: The encomienda system, was also abolished, despite the considerable anger this caused in the conquistador group who had expected to hold their grants in perpetuity. It was replaced by the repartimiento system. After passage of the 1542 New Laws , also known as the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians , the Spanish greatly restricted the power of
7987-617: The encomienda system, which resembled the feudal system in medieval Europe. Within a century, the Indigenous people faced high incidence of mortality due to multiple factors, primarily Eurasian infectious diseases , to which they had no natural resistance (immunity), aggravated by the harsh conditions of the repressive colonial subjugation. In 1529, a measles outbreak killed two-thirds of those few Natives who had previously survived smallpox . On 18 May 1539, conquistador Hernando de Soto departed from Havana with some 600 followers into
8150-435: The first contact . Resistance to indigenous captivity in the Spanish colonies produced the first modern debates over the legitimacy of slavery. And uniquely in the Spanish American colonies, laws like the New Laws of 1542, were enacted early in the colonial period to protect natives from bondage. To complicate matters further, Spain's haphazard grip on its extensive American dominions and its erratic economy acted to impede
8313-500: The global economy . Due to the nature of island countries their economies are often characterised by being smaller, relatively isolated from world trade and economy, more vulnerable to shipping costs, and more likely to suffer environmental damage to infrastructure; exceptions include Japan, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The dominant industry for many island countries is tourism . Island countries are typically small with low populations, although some, like Indonesia , Japan , and
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#17327585250508476-424: The right to strike . He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations , and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Batista outlawed the Cuban Communist Party in 1952. After the coup, Cuba had Latin America's highest per capita consumption rates of meat, vegetables, cereals, automobiles, telephones and radios, though about one-third of
8639-412: The 16th century, the Spanish colonies were the most important customers of the Atlantic slave trade, claiming several thousands in sales, but other European colonies soon dwarfed these numbers when their demand for enslaved workers began to drive the slave market to unprecedented levels. Some of the first black people in the Americas were " Atlantic Creoles ", as the charter generation is described by
8802-456: The 1817–1818 campaign by Andrew Jackson that became known as the First Seminole War . The United States afterwards effectively controlled East Florida (from the Atlantic to the Appalachicola River ). According to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams , the US had to take action there because Florida had become "a derelict open to the occupancy of every enemy, civilized or savage, of the United States, and serving no other earthly purpose than as
8965-406: The 1959 Revolution were policemen, politicians, and informers of the Batista regime accused of crimes such as torture and murder, and their public trials and executions had widespread popular support among the Cuban population. The United States government initially reacted favorably to the Cuban Revolution, seeing it as part of a movement to bring democracy to Latin America. Castro's legalization of
9128-433: The 1970s was "extremely spartan" and discontent was rife. Fidel Castro admitted the failures of economic policies in a 1970 speech. In 1975, the OAS lifted its sanctions against Cuba, with the approval of 16 member states, including the United States. The U.S., however, maintained its own sanctions. During the Cold War, Cuban forces were deployed to all corners of Africa, either as military advisors or as combatants. During
9291-417: The 1970s, Fidel Castro dispatched tens of thousands of troops in support of Soviet-backed wars in Africa. He supported the MPLA in Angola ( Angolan Civil War ) and Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia ( Ogaden War ). In November 1975, Cuba deployed more than 65,000 troops and 400 Soviet-made tanks in Angola in one of the fastest military mobilizations in history. South Africa developed nuclear weapons due to
9454-483: The 19th century, the practice of coartacion had developed (or "buying oneself out of slavery", a "uniquely Cuban development"), according to historian Herbert S. Klein. Due to a shortage of white labor, blacks dominated urban industries "to such an extent that when whites in large numbers came to Cuba in the middle of the nineteenth century, they were unable to displace Negro workers." A system of diversified agriculture, with small farms and fewer slaves, served to supply
9617-452: The African slave trade. He later argued that enslavement of both indigenous and Africans was wrong, violating their human rights. Las Casas campaigned for protections of the indigenous, especially crown limits on the exploitation of the encomienda, helping to bring about the 1542 New Laws. In Spanish Florida and farther north, the first African slaves arrived in 1526 with Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón 's establishment of San Miguel de Gualdape on
9780-453: The American historian Ira Berlin . Mixed-race men of African and Portuguese/Spanish descent, some slaves and others free, sailed with Iberian ships and worked in the ports of Spain and Portugal; some were born in Europe, others in African ports as sons of Portuguese trade workers and African women. The mixed-race men often grew up bilingual, making them useful as interpreters in African and Iberian ports. Some famous black Spanish soldiers in
9943-455: The Atlantic coast. With the increased dependency on enslaved Africans and with the Spanish crown opposed to enslavement of indigenous, except in the case of rebellion, slavery became associated with race and racial hierarchy, with Europeans hardening their concepts of racial ideologies. These were buttressed by prior ideologies of differentiation as that of the limpieza de sangre (en: purity of blood), which in Spain referred to individuals without
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#173275852505010106-440: The Atlantic, may have spoken Spanish and perhaps were even Christians. About 17 of them started in the copper mines, and about a hundred were sent to extract gold. As Old World diseases decimated Caribbean indigenous populations in the first decades of the 1500s, enslaved blacks from Africa ( bozales ) gradually replaced their labor, but they also mingled and joined in flights to freedom, creating mixed-race maroon communities in all
10269-475: The Batista government. In 1958, Castro's July 26th Movement emerged as the leading revolutionary group. The U.S. supported Castro by imposing a 1958 arms embargo against Batista's government. Batista evaded the American embargo and acquired weapons from the Dominican Republic. By late 1958, the rebels had broken out of the Sierra Maestra and launched a general popular insurrection . After Castro's fighters captured Santa Clara , Batista fled with his family to
10432-427: The British occupation of the city proved short-lived. Pressure from London on sugar merchants, fearing a decline in sugar prices, forced negotiations with the Spanish over the captured territories. Less than a year after Britain captured Havana, it signed the 1763 Treaty of Paris together with France and Spain, ending the Seven Years' War. The treaty gave Florida to Britain in exchange for Cuba. Cubans constituted one of
10595-434: The Communist Party in 2021 and Díaz-Canel was elected. Cuba is a socialist state , in which the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the Constitution . Cuba has an authoritarian government where political opposition is not permitted. Censorship is extensive and independent journalism is repressed; Reporters Without Borders has characterized Cuba as one of the worst countries for press freedom. Culturally, Cuba
10758-433: The Communist Party and the hundreds of executions of Batista agents, policemen, and soldiers that followed caused a deterioration in the relationship between the two countries. The promulgation of the Agrarian Reform Law , expropriating thousands of acres of farmland (including from large U.S. landholders), further worsened relations. In response, between 1960 and 1964 the U.S. imposed a range of sanctions, eventually including
10921-471: The Crown decided to cede the territory to the United States. It accomplished this through the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1819, effective 1821. Support for abolitionism rose in Great Britain. Slavery in France's Caribbean colonies was abolished by Revolutionary decree in 1794, (slavery in Metropolitan France was abolished in 1315 by Louis X ) but was restored under Napoleon I in 1802. Slaves in Saint-Domingue revolted in response and became independent following
11084-410: The Cuban Revolutionary Party in New York City in 1892. The aim of the party was to achieve Cuban independence from Spain. In January 1895, Martí traveled to Monte Cristi and Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic to join the efforts of Máximo Gómez . Martí recorded his political views in the Manifesto of Montecristi . Fighting against the Spanish army began in Cuba on 24 February 1895, but Martí
11247-511: The Cuban government had imposed broad restrictions on travel to prevent the mass emigration of people after the 1959 revolution; it approved exit visas only on rare occasions. Requirements were simplified: Cubans need only a passport and a national ID card to leave; and they are allowed to take their young children with them for the first time. However, a passport costs on average five months' salary. Observers expect that Cubans with paying relatives abroad are most likely to be able to take advantage of
11410-492: The Cuban military involvement in Africa was the significant presence of black or mixed-race soldiers among the Cuban forces. According to one source, more than 300,000 Cuban military personnel and civilian experts were deployed in Africa. The source also states that out of the 50,000 Cubans sent to Angola, half contracted AIDS and that 10,000 Cubans died as a consequence of their military actions in Africa. Soviet troops began to withdraw from Cuba in September 1991, and Castro's rule
11573-465: The Dominican Republic on 1 January 1959. Later he went into exile on the Portuguese island of Madeira and finally settled in Estoril, near Lisbon. Fidel Castro's forces entered the capital on 8 January 1959. The liberal Manuel Urrutia Lleó became the provisional president. According to Amnesty International , official death sentences from 1959 to 1987 numbered 237 of which all but 21 were carried out. The vast majority of those executed directly following
11736-782: The Government. Most resistance came from Cuban construction workers, while the Grenadan People's Revolutionary Army and militia surrendered without putting up much of a fight. 24 Cubans were killed, with only 2 of them being professional soldiers, and the remainder were expelled from the island. U.S. casualties amounted to 19 killed, 116 wounded, and 9 helicopters destroyed. During the 1970s and 1980s, Castro supported Marxist insurgencies in Guatemala , El Salvador , and Nicaragua . Cuba gradually withdrew its troops from Angola in 1989–91. An important psychological and political aspect of
11899-612: The Lesser Antilles would be free if they accepted Catholicism. On September 3, 1680 and June 1, 1685 the crown issued similar decrees for escaping French slaves. On November 7, 1693 King Carlos II issued a decree freeing all slaves escaping from the English colonies who accepted Catholicism. There were similar decrees October 29, 1733, March 11 and November 11, 1740, and September 24, 1850 in the Buen Retiro by Ferdinand VI and
12062-606: The Native Americans to return the fugitive slaves, they replied that they had "merely given hungry people food, and invited the slaveholders to catch the runaways themselves." After the American Revolutionary War , slaves from the state of Georgia and the Low Country of South Carolina escaped to Florida. The U.S. Army led increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including
12225-459: The OAS". Fidel Castro wrote that Cuba would not rejoin the OAS, which, he said, was a "U.S. Trojan horse" and "complicit" in actions taken by the U.S. against Cuba and other Latin American nations. Effective 14 January 2013, Cuba ended the requirement established in 1961, that any citizens who wish to travel abroad were required to obtain an expensive government permit and a letter of invitation. In 1961
12388-649: The Republic of Cuba. Under Cuba's new constitution, the U.S. retained the right to intervene in Cuban affairs and to supervise its finances and foreign relations. Under the Platt Amendment , the U.S. leased the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base from Cuba. Following disputed elections in 1906, the first president, Tomás Estrada Palma , faced an armed revolt by independence war veterans who defeated
12551-644: The Royal Decree of October 21, 1753. Since 1687, Spanish Florida attracted numerous African slaves who escaped from slavery in the Thirteen Colonies . Since 1623 the official Spanish policy had been that all slaves who touched Spanish soil and asked for refuge could become free Spanish citizens, and would be assisted in establishing their own workshops if they had a trade or given a grant of land to cultivate if they were farmers. In exchange they would be required to convert to Catholicism and serve for
12714-578: The Seven Cities of Gold , he was killed in a dispute with the Zuñi local people. The Spanish privateer and merchant Amaro Pargo (1678-1747) managed to transport slaves to the Caribbean , although, it is estimated, to a lesser extent than other captains and figures of the time dedicated to this activity. In 1710, the privateer was involved in a complaint by the priest Alonso García Ximénez, who accused him of freeing an African slave named Sebastián, who
12877-423: The Spanish Crown issued the "Royal Decree of Graces of 1789", which set new rules related to the slave trade and added restrictions to the granting of freedman status. The decree granted its subjects the right to purchase slaves and to participate in the flourishing slave trade in the Caribbean. Later that year a new slave code, also known as El Código Negro (The Black Code), was introduced. Under "El Código Negro",
13040-580: The Spanish Empire. Asian people ( chinos ) in colonial Mexico were also taken from the Philippines and enslaved. They were taken to Acapulco by Novohispanic ships and sold. The Spanish restricted and outright forbade the enslavement of Native Americans from the early years of the Spanish Empire with the Laws of Burgos of 1512 and the New Laws of 1542. The latter led to the abolition of
13203-558: The Spanish and the Portuguese colonized the Atlantic islands off the coast of Africa, where they engaged in sugar cane production following the model of Mediterranean production. The sugar complex consisted of slave labor for cultivation and processing, with the sugar mill ( ingenio ) and equipment established with significant investor capital. When plantation slavery was established in Spanish America and Brazil, they replicated
13366-517: The United States declared war on each other in late April 1898. After the Spanish–American War , Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898) , by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico , the Philippines , and Guam to the United States for the sum of US$ 20 million and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States. Cuba gained formal independence from the U.S. on 20 May 1902, as
13529-472: The already teetering legitimacy of the Cuban political system, in particular by undermining the deeply flawed, though not entirely ineffectual, Congress and Supreme Court. Carlos Prío Socarrás , a protégé of Grau, became president in 1948. The two terms of the Auténtico Party brought an influx of investment, which fueled an economic boom, raised living standards for all segments of society, and created
13692-528: The areas which became known as Cangrejos ( Santurce ), Carolina , Canóvanas , Loíza , and Luquillo . Some became slave owners themselves. Despite these paths to freedom, from 1790 onwards, the number of slaves more than doubled in Puerto Rico as a result of the dramatic expansion of the sugar industry in the island. On May 29, 1680 the Spanish crown decreed that slaves escaping to Spanish territories from Barlovento, Martinique, San Vicente and Granada in
13855-573: The attacks on the Cuban government, manufacturing a reason for the United States to invade Cuba. This plan was rejected by President Kennedy. By 1963, Cuba was moving towards a full-fledged communist system modeled on the USSR. In 1963, Cuba sent 686 troops together with 22 tanks and other military equipment to support Algeria in the Sand War against Morocco. The Cuban forces remained in Algeria for over
14018-573: The barracoons were harsh; they were highly unsanitary and extremely hot. Typically there was no ventilation; the only window was a small barred hole in the wall. Cuba's slavery system was gendered in a way that some duties were performed only by male slaves, some only by female slaves. Female slaves in Havana from the 16th century onwards performed duties such as operating the town taverns, eating houses, and lodges, as well as being laundresses and domestic labourers and servants. Female slaves also served as
14181-545: The basis for colonial sugar production. It was believed by Europeans that Africans had developed immunities to European diseases, and would not be as susceptible to fall ill as the Native Americans because they had not been exposed to the pathogens yet. In 1501, Spanish colonists began importing enslaved Africans from the Iberian Peninsula to their Santo Domingo colony on the island of Hispaniola . These first Africans, who had been enslaved in Europe before crossing
14344-522: The broad and systematic spread of plantations operated by slave labor. Altogether, the struggle against slavery in the Spanish American colonies left a notable tradition of opposition that set the stage for conversations about human rights . Slavery in Spain can be traced to the times of the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans. Slavery was cross-cultural and multi-ethnic. It had an important role in
14507-502: The cities with produce and other goods. In the 1820s, when the rest of Spain's empire in Latin America rebelled and formed independent states , Cuba remained loyal to Spain. Its economy was based on serving the empire. By 1860, Cuba had 213,167 free people of color (39% of its non-white population of 550,000). Full independence from Spain was the goal of a rebellion in 1868 led by planter Carlos Manuel de Céspedes . De Céspedes,
14670-467: The commander of the land forces George Keppel , the 3rd Earl of Albemarle , entered the city, and took control of the western part of the island. The British immediately opened up trade with their North American and Caribbean colonies, causing a rapid transformation of Cuban society. Though Havana, which had become the third-largest city in the Americas, was to enter an era of sustained development and increasing ties with North America during this period,
14833-460: The continent for their labour, indigenous people were enslaved until the 1543 laws that prohibited it. The Spanish empire enslaved people of African origin . The Spanish often depended on others to obtain enslaved Africans and transport them across the Atlantic. Spanish colonies were major recipients of enslaved Africans, with around 22% of the Africans delivered to American shores ending up in
14996-453: The crucial role of the Spanish state before the 1760s. Cuba ultimately developed two distinct but interrelated sources using enslaved labor, which converged at the end of the eighteenth century. The first of these sectors was urban and was directed in large measure by the needs of the Spanish colonial state, reaching its height in the 1760s. As of 1778, it was reported by Thomas Kitchin that "about 52,000 slaves" were being brought from Africa to
15159-432: The current Georgia coast. They rebelled and lived with indigenous people, destroying the colony in less than 2 months. More slaves arrived in Florida in 1539 with Hernando de Soto , and in the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, Florida . Native Americans were also enslaved in Florida by the encomienda system. Slaves escaping to Florida from the colony of Georgia were freed by Carlos II's proclamation November 7, 1693 if
15322-516: The development of the economy for Spain and other countries. The Romans extensively utilized slavery for labor and slaves' status was specified in the Code of Justinian. With the rise of Christianity, the status of was altered in that Christians were in theory banned from enslaving fellow Christians, but the practice persisted. With the rise of Islam, and the conquest of most of the Iberian peninsula in
15485-403: The economy. With rising demand for sugar on the international market, major planters increased their labour-intensive cultivation and processing of sugar cane. Sugar plantations supplanted mining as Puerto Rico's main industry and kept demand high for African slavery. Those slaves who worked on sugar plantations and in sugar mills were often subject to the harshest of conditions. The field work
15648-556: The effects of the climate , especially sea level changes . Remote or significant islands and archipelagos that are not themselves sovereign are often known as dependencies or overseas territories . Historically, island countries have tended to be less prone to political instability than their continental counterparts. The percentage of island countries that are democratic is higher than that of continental countries. While island countries by definition are sovereign states , there are also several islands and archipelagos around
15811-403: The eighth century, slavery declined in remaining Iberian Christian kingdoms. At the time of the formation of Al-Andalus , Muslims were prohibited from enslaving fellow believers, but there was a slave trade of non-Muslims in which Muslims and local Jewish merchants traded in Spanish and Eastern European Christian slaves. Mozarabs and Jews were allowed to remain and retain their slaves if they paid
15974-672: The elements of the complex in the New World on a much larger scale. The Portuguese exploration of the African coast and the division of overseas territories via the Treaty of Tordesillas meant that the African slave trade was held by the Portuguese. However, demand for African slaves as the Spanish established themselves in the Caribbean meant that became part of the Spanish Empire 's social mosaic. Black slaves in Spain were overwhelmingly domestic servants, and increasingly became prestigious property for elite Spanish households though at
16137-501: The embargo between the United States and Cuba was not immediately lifted, it was relaxed to allow import, export, and certain limited commerce. Raúl Castro stepped down from the presidency on 19 April 2018 and Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president by the National Assembly following parliamentary elections . Raúl Castro remained the First Secretary of the Communist Party and retained broad authority, including oversight over
16300-420: The enslavement of the native peoples in the newly conquered lands on religious grounds. When Columbus returned with indigenous slaves , they ordered the survivors to be returned to their homelands. In 1512, after pressure from Dominican friars, the Laws of Burgos were introduced to protect the rights of the natives in the New World and secure their freedom. The papal bull Sublimus Dei of 1537, to which Spain
16463-424: The first generations of the early Puerto Rican and Cuban populations. The slaves had little choice but to adapt. Many converted to Christianity and were given their masters' surnames. Both women and men were subject to the punishments of violence and humiliating abuse. Slaves who misbehaved or disobeyed their masters were often placed in stocks in the depths of the boiler houses where they were abandoned for days at
16626-617: The first stages of the Spanish conquest of America were Juan Valiente and Juan Beltrán in Chile, Juan Garrido (credited with the first harvesting of wheat planted in New Spain ) and Sebastián Toral in Mexico, Juan Bardales in Honduras and Panama, and Juan García in Peru. The first known and recorded Christian marriage anywhere in the continental United States was an interracial union between
16789-409: The first years these black overseers were so absolute in their maltreatment of the Indians, over-loading them, sending them far from their land and giving them many other tasks that many Indians died because of them and at their hands, which is the worst feature of the situation." In Yucatan, there were regulations attempting to prevent blacks presence in indigenous communities. In Mexico City in 1537,
16952-610: The frequent absence of essential drugs. A 2023 study by the Cuban Observatory of Human Rights (OCDH), estimated 88% of the population is living in extreme poverty. The traditional diet is of international concern due to micronutrient deficiencies and lack of diversity. As highlighted by the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations, rationed food meets only a fraction of daily nutritional needs for many Cubans, leading to health issues. Historians believe
17115-405: The gold mines, or in the island's ginger and sugar fields. They were allowed to live with their families in a hut on the master's land, and given a patch of land where they could farm, but otherwise were subjected to harsh treatment; including sexual abuse as the majority of colonists had arrived without women; many of them intermarried with the Africans or Taínos. Their mixed-race descendants formed
17278-550: The government arrested and imprisoned a large number of civil activists, a period known as the "Black Spring" . In February 2008, Fidel Castro resigned as President of the State Council due to the serious gastrointestinal illness which he had suffered since July 2006. On 24 February, the National Assembly elected his brother Raúl Castro the new president. In his inauguration speech, Raúl promised that some of
17441-402: The harsh regime. Sometimes if the overseers did not like the quality of children, they separate the parents and sent the mother back to working in the fields. African slaves were legally branded with a hot iron on the forehead, prevented their "theft" or lawsuits that challenged their captivity. The colonists continued this branding practice for more than 250 years. They were sent to work in
17604-408: The intense work regimes on sugar plantations in the nineteenth century. Another important group of workers enslaved by the Spanish colonial state in the late eighteenth century were the king's laborers, who worked on the city's fortifications . The Spanish colonies were late to exploit slave labor in the production of sugarcane , particularly on Cuba. The Spanish colonies in the Caribbean were among
17767-438: The island after the failed Taíno revolt of 1511. The Spanish colonists, fearing the loss of their labour force, complained to the courts that they needed manpower. As an alternative, Las Casas suggested the importation and use of African slaves. In 1517, the Spanish Crown permitted its subjects to import twelve slaves each, thereby beginning the slave trade on the colonies. The other major form of coerced labor in their colonies,
17930-444: The island followed. The U.S. battleship USS Maine was sent to protect American interests, but soon after arrival, it exploded in Havana harbor and sank quickly, killing nearly three-quarters of the crew. The cause and responsibility for the sinking of the ship remained unclear after a board of inquiry. Popular opinion in the U.S., fueled by active yellow press , concluded that the Spanish were to blame and demanded action. Spain and
18093-461: The island for the new Kingdom of Spain and named it Isla Juana ("John's Island") after John, Prince of Asturias . In 1511, the first Spanish settlement was founded by Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar at Baracoa . Other settlements soon followed, including San Cristobal de la Habana , founded in 1514 (southern coast of the island) and then in 1519 (current place), which later became the capital (1607). The Indigenous Taíno were forced to work under
18256-610: The islands where Europeans had established chattel slavery . Slaves first arrived in Puerto Rico in 1511, after the Black conquistador Juan Garrido helped invade the island in 1508-1509. Spanish colonist turned Dominican friar Bartolomé de las Casas (1484–1566) observed and recorded the effects of enslavement on the Native populations. Initially he sought to protect the indigenous from enslavement by advocating and participating in
18419-418: The largest labor union privileges in Latin America, including bans on dismissals and mechanization. They were obtained in large measure "at the cost of the unemployed and the peasants", leading to disparities. Between 1933 and 1958, Cuba extended economic regulations enormously, causing economic problems. Unemployment became a problem as graduates entering the workforce could not find jobs. The middle class, which
18582-422: The last to abolish slavery. While the British abolished slavery by 1833, Spain abolished slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873. On the mainland of colonies, Spain ended African slavery in the eighteenth century. Peru was one of the countries that revived the institution for some decades after declaring independence from Spain in the early 19th century. In 1789 the Spanish Crown led an effort to reform slavery and issued
18745-402: The mainland for indigenous people to enslave on Hispaniola. With the rise of sugar cultivation as an export product in 1810, Spaniards increasingly utilized enslaved African people for labor on commercial plantations. Although plantation slavery in Spanish America was one aspect of slave labor, urban slavery in households, religious institutions, textile workshops ( obrajes ), and other venues
18908-486: The many diverse units which fought alongside Spanish and Floridan forces during the conquest of British-controlled West Florida (1779–81). The largest factor for the growth of Cuba's commerce in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was the Haitian Revolution . When the enslaved peoples of what had been the Caribbean's richest colony freed themselves through violent revolt, Cuban planters perceived
19071-522: The meager government forces. The U.S. intervened by occupying Cuba and named Charles Edward Magoon as Governor for three years. Cuban historians have characterized Magoon's governorship as having introduced political and social corruption. In 1908, self-government was restored when José Miguel Gómez was elected president, but the U.S. continued intervening in Cuban affairs. In 1912, the Partido Independiente de Color attempted to establish
19234-499: The measures of the codex, many of which they argued were already common practices. They objected to efforts to set limits on their ability to apply physical punishment. For instance, the Black Codex limited whippings to 25 and required the whippings "not to cause serious bruises or bleeding". The slave-owners thought that the slaves would interpret these limits as weaknesses, ultimately leading to resistance. Another contested issue
19397-409: The mid-nineteenth century when most countries in the Americas reformed to disallow chattel slavery , Cuba and Puerto Rico – the last two remaining Spanish American colonies – were among the last, followed only by Brazil . Enslaved people challenged their captivity in ways that ranged from introducing non-European elements into Christianity ( syncretism ) to mounting alternative societies outside
19560-414: The mobilization of workers from all sectors of the Cuban economy. Economic mobilization also coincided with greater militarization of Cuban political structures and society in general. The ten million ton harvest goal was not reached. The Cuban economy feell into decline after large sectors of the economy were neglected when large amounts of urban labor mobilized to the countryside. The standard of living in
19723-555: The most extensive and wealthiest in the Americas. Since Spaniards themselves were barred by the Crown from participating in the Atlantic slave trade, the right to export slaves in these territories, known as the Asiento de Negros was a major foreign policy objective of other European powers, sparking numerous European wars such as the War of Spanish Succession and the War of Jenkins' Ear . In
19886-402: The name Cuba comes from the Taíno language ; however, "its exact derivation [is] unknown". The exact meaning of the name is unclear, but it may be translated either as 'where fertile land is abundant' ( cubao ), or 'great place' ( coabana ). Humans first settled Cuba around 6,000 years ago, descending from migrations from northern South America or Central America. The arrival of humans on Cuba
20049-557: The new Cuban government, although many European and Latin American nations did so. In 1878, the Pact of Zanjón ended the conflict, with Spain promising greater autonomy to Cuba. In 1879–80, Cuban patriot Calixto García attempted to start another war known as the Little War but failed to receive enough support. Slavery in Cuba was abolished in 1875 but the process was completed only in 1886. An exiled dissident named José Martí founded
20212-436: The new policy. In the first year of the program, over 180,000 left Cuba and returned. As of December 2014, talks with Cuban officials and American officials, including President Barack Obama , resulted in the release of Alan Gross , fifty-two political prisoners, and an unnamed non-citizen agent of the United States in return for the release of three Cuban agents currently imprisoned in the United States. Additionally, while
20375-547: The north coast of Africa, including the Canary Islands as well as São Tomé and Madeira where they introduced plantation sugar cultivation. They treated the Canarian natives as pagans, supposedly justifying their enslavement, although several attempts were made by the Catholic Church to prevent their enslavement and defend the freedom of evangelized Canarians. The Canary Islands came under Castilian control, and in
20538-457: The perceived taint of Jewish or Muslim ancestry. However, in Spanish America, purity of blood came to mean a person free of any African ancestry. In the vocabulary of the time, each enslaved African who arrived at the Americas was called " Pieza de Indias " (en: a piece of the Indies). The crown issued licenses " asientos ", to merchants to specifically trade slaves, regulating the trade. During
20701-681: The period from 1498 (when the Catholic Kings ordered the freedom of the Guanches enslaved) until 1520 (when the last Guanche slaves were freed), indigenous slavery was replaced by African slavery. Multiple West African states were participants in slave raiding and trading, and the slaves the Castilians purchased were considered legitimate slaves. Slave-trading African states accepted a variety of European goods, including firearms, horses, and other desirable goods in exchange for slaves. Both
20864-481: The plantation (slave labour camp) system ( Maroons ). The first open Black rebellion occurred in Spanish labour camps (plantations) in 1521. Resistance, particularly to the enslavement of indigenous people, also came from Spanish religious and legal ranks. The first speech in the Americas for the universality of human rights and against the abuses of slavery was also given on Hispaniola, a mere nineteen years after
21027-416: The population was considered poor and enjoyed relatively little of this consumption. However, in his " History Will Absolve Me " speech, Fidel Castro mentioned that national issues relating to land, industrialization, housing, unemployment, education, and health were contemporary problems. In 1958, Cuba was a well-advanced country in comparison to other Latin American regions. Cuba was also affected by perhaps
21190-663: The presence of a Cuban tank brigade in the Golan Heights , which was supported by two brigades. The Israelis and the Cuban-Syrian tank forces engaged in battle on the Golan front. In 1979, the U.S. objected to the presence of Soviet combat troops on the island. Following the 1983 coup that resulted in the execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and establishment of the military government led by Hudson Austin , U.S. forces invaded Grenada in 1983, overthrowing
21353-480: The president. Cuba approved a new constitution in 2019. The optional vote attracted 84.4% of eligible voters. 90% of those who voted approved of the new constitution and 9% opposed it. The new constitution states that the Communist Party is the only legitimate political party, describes access to health and education as fundamental rights, imposes presidential term limits, enshrines the right to legal representation upon arrest, recognizes private property, and strengthens
21516-584: The region during the Cold War. In 1972, a major Cuban military mission consisting of tank, air, and artillery specialists was dispatched to South Yemen . Cuban military advisors were sent to Iraq in the mid-1970s but their mission was canceled after Iraq invaded Iran in 1980. The Cubans were also involved in the Syrian-Israeli War of Attrition (November 1973–May 1974) that followed the Yom Kippur War (October 1973). Israeli sources reported
21679-436: The region's changing circumstances with both a sense of fear and opportunity. They were afraid because of the prospect that slaves might revolt in Cuba as well, and numerous prohibitions during the 1790s of the sale of slaves in Cuba who had previously been enslaved in French colonies underscored this anxiety. The planters saw opportunity, however, because they thought that they could exploit the situation by transforming Cuba into
21842-466: The restrictions on freedom in Cuba would be removed. In March 2009, Raúl Castro removed some of his brother's appointees . On 3 June 2009, the Organization of American States adopted a resolution to end the 47-year ban on Cuban membership of the group. The resolution stated, however, that full membership would be delayed until Cuba was "in conformity with the practices, purposes, and principles of
22005-439: The right to labor and health care. Batista was elected president in the same year, holding the post until 1944. He is so far the only non-white Cuban to win the nation's highest political office. His government carried out major social reforms. Several members of the Communist Party held office under his administration. Cuban armed forces were not greatly involved in combat during World War II—though president Batista did suggest
22168-847: The rights of multinationals investing with the state. Any form of discrimination harmful to human dignity is banned under the new constitution. Raúl Castro announced at the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba , which began on 16 April 2021, that he was retiring as secretary of the Communist Party. His successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel, was voted in on 19 April. Island country There are great variations between island country economies: they may rely mainly on extractive industries, such as mining, fishing and agriculture, and/or on services such as transit hubs, tourism , and financial services. Many islands have low-lying geographies and their economies and population centers develop along coast plains and ports ; such states may be vulnerable to
22331-662: The rising water levels of the Pacific Ocean . Climate change also impacts island countries by causing natural disasters such as tropical cyclones , hurricanes, flash floods and droughts . Some small and low population islands do not have the resources to protect their islands and natural resources. They experience climate hazards which impact on human health, livelihoods, and inhabitable space. This can lead to pressure to leave these islands but resources to do so are often lacking as well. Many island countries rely heavily on imports and are greatly affected by changes in
22494-539: The rural population into what he called reconcentrados , described by international observers as "fortified towns". These are often considered the prototype for 20th-century concentration camps . Between 200,000 and 400,000 Cuban civilians died from starvation and disease in the Spanish concentration camps, numbers verified by the Red Cross and United States Senator Redfield Proctor , a former Secretary of War . American and European protests against Spanish conduct on
22657-429: The ships, horses, equipment and finally most of the men were lost, with three other survivors, Estevanico spent six years traveling overland from present-day Texas to Sinaloa , and finally reaching the Spanish settlement at Mexico City . He learned several Native American languages in the process. He went on to serve as a well-respected guide. Later, while leading an expedition in what is now New Mexico in search of
22820-608: The slave society and sugar-producing "pearl of the Antilles" that Haiti had been before the revolution. As the historian Ada Ferrer has written, "At a basic level, liberation in Saint-Domingue helped entrench its denial in Cuba. As slavery and colonialism collapsed in the French colony, the Spanish island underwent transformations that were almost the mirror image of Haiti's." Estimates suggest that between 1790 and 1820 some 325,000 Africans were imported to Cuba as slaves, which
22983-560: The slaves were willing to convert to Catholicism, and it became a place of refuge for slaves fleeing the Thirteen Colonies . In this early period, enslaved African men were often labor bosses, overseeing indigenous labor. Franciscan Toribio de Benavente Motolinia (1482-1568), one of the First Twelve Franciscans to arrive in Mexico in 1524, considered blacks the Fourth Plague on Mexican Indians. He wrote "In
23146-656: The term of President John F. Kennedy . About 1,400 Cuban exiles disembarked at the Bay of Pigs . Cuban troops and local militias defeated the invasion, killing over 100 invaders and taking the remainder prisoner. In January 1962, Cuba was suspended from the Organization of American States (OAS), and later the same year the OAS started to impose sanctions against Cuba of similar nature to the U.S. sanctions. The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 almost sparked World War III . In 1962 American generals proposed Operation Northwoods which would entail committing terrorist attacks in American cities and against refugees and falsely blaming
23309-598: The threat to its security posed by the presence of large numbers of Cuban troops in Angola . In 1976 and again in 1988 at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale , the Cubans alongside their MPLA allies defeated UNITA rebels and apartheid South African forces. In December 1977, Cuba sent its combat troops from Angola, the People's Republic of the Congo, and the Caribbean to Ethiopia, assisted by mechanized Soviet battalions, to help defeat
23472-459: The time of Spanish colonization in the 15th century. It was then a colony of Spain , through the abolition of slavery in 1886, until the Spanish–American War of 1898, when Cuba was occupied by the United States and gained independence in 1902. In 1940, Cuba implemented a new constitution , but mounting political unrest culminated in the 1952 Cuban coup d'état and the subsequent dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista . The Batista government
23635-528: The times of the Roman Empire . Slavery also existed among Native Americans of both Meso-America and South America. The Crown attempted to limit the bondage of indigenous people, rejecting forms of slavery based on race . Conquistadors regarded indigenous forced labor and tribute as rewards for participation in the conquest and the Crown gave some conquerors encomiendas . The indigenous people held in encomienda were not slaves, but their underpaid labor
23798-469: The total Cuban population and 41% of the non-white Cuban population. Planters encouraged Afro-Cuban slaves to have children in order to reproduce their work force. The masters wanted to pair strong and large-built black men with healthy black women. They were placed in the barracoons and forced to have sex and create offspring of "breed stock" children, who would sell for around 500 pesos. The planters needed children to be born to replace slaves who died under
23961-596: The town prostitutes. Some Cuban women could gain freedom by having children with white men. As in other Latin cultures, there were looser borders with the mulatto or mixed-race population. Sometimes men who took slaves as wives or concubines freed both them and their children. As in New Orleans and Saint-Domingue, mulattos began to be classified as a third group between the European colonists and African slaves. Freedmen , generally of mixed race, came to represent 20% of
24124-611: The world that operate semi-autonomously from their official sovereign states. These are often known as dependencies or overseas territories and can be similar in nature to proper island countries. Island countries have often been the basis of maritime conquest and historical rivalry between other countries. Island countries are more susceptible to attack by large, continental countries due to their size and dependence on sea and air lines of communication . Many island countries are also vulnerable to predation by mercenaries and other foreign invaders, although their isolation also makes them
24287-549: The world's few planned economies , and its economy is dominated by tourism and the exports of skilled labor, sugar, tobacco, and coffee. Cuba has historically—before and during communist rule—performed better than other countries in the region on several socioeconomic indicators, such as literacy, infant mortality and life expectancy. Cuba has a universal health care system which provides free medical treatment to all Cuban citizens, although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and
24450-472: Was a time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare". On balance, during the period 1933–1940 Cuba suffered from fragile political structures, reflected in the fact that it saw three different presidents in two years (1935–1936), and in the militaristic and repressive policies of Batista as Head of the Army. A new constitution was adopted in 1940, which engineered radical progressive ideas, including
24613-405: Was also important. Spanish slavery in the Americas diverged from other European powers in that it took on an early abolitionist stance towards Native American slavery. Although it did not directly partake in the trans-Atlantic slave trade , enslaved Black people were sold throughout the Spanish Empire, particularly in Caribbean territories. During the colonial period, Spanish territories were
24776-447: Was committed, also officially banned enslavement of indigenous peoples, but it was rescinded a year after its promulgation. When Ponce de León and the Spaniards arrived on the island of Borikén (Puerto Rico), they enslaved Taíno tribes on the island, forcing them to work in the gold mines and in the construction of forts. Many Taíno died, particularly from smallpox, to which they had no immunity . Other Taínos committed suicide or left
24939-565: Was comparable to that of the United States, became increasingly dissatisfied with unemployment and political persecution. The labor unions, manipulated by the previous government since 1948 through union "yellowness", supported Batista until the very end. Batista stayed in power until he resigned in December 1958 under the pressure of the US Embassy and as the revolutionary forces headed by Fidel Castro were winning militarily (Santa Clara city,
25102-449: Was considered an island country for tourism purposes (among others) and is sometimes referred to as such. Slavery in colonial Spanish America Slavery in the Spanish American viceroyalties included indigenous peoples, enslaved people from Africa, and enslaved people from Asia. The economic and social institution of slavery existed throughout the Spanish Empire including Spain itself. Enslaved Africans were brought over to
25265-553: Was four times the amount that had arrived between 1760 and 1790. Although a smaller proportion of the population of Cuba was enslaved, at times, slaves arose in revolt. In 1812, the Aponte Slave Rebellion took place, but it was ultimately suppressed. The population of Cuba in 1817 was 630,980 (of which 291,021 were white, 115,691 were free people of color (mixed-race), and 224,268 black slaves). In part due to Cuban slaves working primarily in urbanized settings, by
25428-585: Was mandatory and coerced, while they had rights and could take to trial to their managers, and they were "cared for" by the person in whose charge they were placed ( encomendado ), this might mean offering them the Christian religion and other perceived (by the Spaniards) benefits of Christian civilization. With the collapse of indigenous populations in the Caribbean, where Spaniards created permanent settlements starting in 1493, Spaniards raided other islands and
25591-419: Was originally permitted, over the period from the 8th to the 11th centuries the Christian kingdoms gradually ceased this practice, limiting their pool of slaves to Muslims from Al-Andalus. Conquered Muslims were enslaved with the justification conversion and acculturation, but Muslim captives were often offered back to their families and communities for cash payments ( rescate ). The thirteenth-century code of law,
25754-726: Was overthrown in January 1959 by the 26th of July Movement during the Cuban Revolution . That revolution established communist rule under the leadership of Fidel Castro . The country was a point of contention during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is widely considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into nuclear war . Following
25917-424: Was rigorous manual labour which the slaves began at an early age. The work days lasted close to 20 hours during harvest and processing, including cultivating and cutting the crops, hauling wagons, and processing sugarcane with dangerous machinery. The slaves were forced to reside in barracoons , where they were crammed in and locked in by a padlock at night, getting about three to four hours of sleep. The conditions of
26080-506: Was severely tested in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse in December 1991 (known in Cuba as the Special Period ). The country faced a severe economic downturn following the withdrawal of Soviet subsidies worth $ 4 billion to $ 6 billion annually, resulting in effects such as food and fuel shortages. The government did not accept American donations of food, medicines and cash until 1993. On 5 August 1994, state security dispersed protesters in
26243-406: Was the work hours that were restricted "from sunrise to sunset"; plantation owners responded by explaining that cutting and processing of cane needed 20-hour days during the harvest season. By 1570, the colonists found that the gold mines were depleted, relegating the island to a garrison for passing ships. The cultivation of crops such as tobacco, cotton, cocoa, and ginger became the cornerstone of
26406-589: Was transported to Venezuela on one of Amaro's ships. The aforementioned Alonso García granted a power of attorney on July 18, 1715 to Teodoro Garcés de Salazar so that he could demand his return in Caracas . Despite this fact, Amaro Pargo himself also owned slaves in his domestic service. The population of slaves in Cuba received a large boost when the British captured Havana during the Seven Years' War , and imported 10,000 slaves from their other colonies in
26569-403: Was unable to reach Cuba until 11 April 1895. Martí was killed in the Battle of Dos Rios on 19 May 1895. His death immortalized him as Cuba's national hero. Around 200,000 Spanish troops outnumbered the much smaller rebel army, which relied mostly on guerrilla and sabotage tactics. The Spaniards began a campaign of suppression. General Valeriano Weyler , the military governor of Cuba, herded
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