Indians reached pre-Columbian Cuba in three waves of settlers, followed by the arrival of the Caribs, whose settlement was aborted by the coming of the Spaniards. The initial Spanish population was soon depleted by emigration to new conquests, particularly Mexico. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was augmented by fugitives from the foreign occupation of other …
Apart from the loss of much of its early population to the conquests of Mexico, the Spanish Main, and Florida, and the departure of occasional wealthy Cubans pursuing business opportunities in the United Sates, Cuba’s first population exodus was the movement of cigar workers to Tampa, Ocala, Jacksonville, and Key West in the 1850s. The …
The battleship sent to Key West in 1898 as a symbol of a strong United States naval force ready to counter any anti-US conspiracies in Havana. With Spanish approval, it arrived in Havana on January 25, 1898, and, on the evening of February 19th, blew up in the harbor, killing 260 of the 355 crew …
The royal Tribunal del Santo Oficio was established in Spain in 1478, independent of the Papal Inquisition, to preserve the purity of the Church. As the threat from Protestantism grew in Europe, the tribunal was brought to the New World (with a court covering the Caribbean set up in Cartagena de Indias in 1610) to persecute non-Catholics, …
*Por: Vicente Morín Aguado. El 5 de marzo José Martí nos acecha, con un grillete, arrastrando una pesada bola de hierro, a la salida del tribunal monárquico que le condenó en 1870 a 6 años de prisión bajo trabajos forzados, por haber escrito una pequeña carta, dirigida a un compañero de clase, cuestionándole su incorporación …
*Por Néstor Carbonell Cortina Al rememorar este año el glorioso Grito de Baire del 24 de febrero de 1895, preludio de la independencia de Cuba, deberíamos evocar también el trascendental Grito de Libertad del 11 de julio del año pasado, que retumbó en toda la isla y sacudió al régimen opresor. Este grito fue un …
El Grito de Libertad (11-J) y la Constitución Legítima de Cuba Read More »
Spanish institution brought to the New World to deal with the Indians, groups of whom would be assigned to an encomendero entrusted with Christianizing them, with the right to their labor in return. Such Indians remained legally free, and no land title accompanied the grant. The system was much abused, and the amount of labor …
The custom was brought to all Spain’s New World colonies, but its popularity suffered when Charles IV in 1805 tried to ban it (an act later annulled by his son Ferdinand VII). In the mid-19thcentury new bullrings were built in Havana (with a 10,000-seat capacity), Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Matanzas. In Santiago (and elsewhere) the …
As early as 1818, Americans, as well as the British, were buying interests in Cuban sugar and establishing themselves as merchants on the island. The many who owned sugar plantations included William Stewart, owner of La Carolina, near Cienfuegos, and J.S. Baker, owner of San José plantation. Throughout the 19th century, these American interests exercised significant …
Spain sided with France against the United Kingdom in the Seven Years’ War. Britain declared war on Spain on January 4, 1762, and launched an Anglo-American expedition to capture Havana, the third largest city in the New World, and essential to Spanish transatlantic communications (and the supply of wealth from the Indies to Spain). On …
