Cuba - A History of Conquest and Revolution
Let us be real for a moment; when you think of Cuba what comes to mind? If you are anything like me, you think of Castro's authoritarian regime, 1950's Cadillacs, Cuba Libres, Guantanamo Bay, and Ernest Hemmingway sipping rum aboard the Pilar. Perhaps if you are an astute historian, you think of the bloody back to back revolutions which caused the Cuban people no end of misery. One glance over Cuba's extensive list of violent coups should make it clear that revolution is deeply ingrained within the Cuban culture. The number of times a government or power has been topple in Cuba can get confusing, and Cuba's own history is rife with conquest.
It is always best to start at the beginning, so let's take a look at the man who started it all: Christopher Columbus.
Cuba was settled by two indigenous peoples, the Taino (and Ciboney) and the Guanahatabey.
The Taino practiced a matrilineal system of inheritance, meaning that the successor to a tribe often came from the mother's side of the family. Taino women lived with the children, while the men lived separately, giving the women a much broader host of rights. Women were the primary food producers and often took up religious and ceremonial roles. Despite their freedom, Taino women were the first conquest of arriving Spanish explorers, as Dr. Chanca (Columbus' physician) reported that Spaniards took as many Taino women for themselves as they could to keep as concubines.
Art and spirituality in Taino culture were highly developed and linked together. Taino created stone figures representing their gods and painted complex petroglyphs.
Unfortunately, we know far less about the Guanahatabey people. Even Taino translators for Columbus told him that they could not communicate with the Guanahatabey. They did not practice large scale agricultural, and most fished and hunted. They did not develop ceramic pottery, but did create ground stone tools. Anthropologists now believe that the Guanahatabey people were a remnant of a much older culture that existed on many Caribbean islands prior to the arrival of the Taino people.
As a Colony of Spain
As Spanish dominion expanded over the Caribbean, a permanent settlement was founded in 1511 by Diego Velazquez de Cuellar at Baracoa. This was followed in 1515 by the largest settlement, San Cristobal de la Habana, known today as Havana. Under Spanish rule, native Taino were required to perform most of the backbreaking labor under the encomienda system until disease (smallpox and measles) wiped out the vast majority of the population.
In 1754, saw the outbreak of the Seven Years' War. Because Spain held an alliance with France, it pitted the British against them and their colony holdings in the Caribbean. In June of that year, a dozen English ships set off from Portsmouth and sailed for Cuba. Havana surrendered to the British forces by August and the British occupied it for the duration of the war. When the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, England gave Cuba back to the Spanish in exchange for Florida. While this seemed like a fair trade to Spain, it benefited England economically, due to the fear of lowering costs of sugar.
Several movements to realize Cuban independence from Spain occurred from 1860 to 1880, with the most successful of these resulting in Spain offering much more autonomy to its colony. Unimpressed by this attempt to mollify the Cuban revolutionaries, an exiled dissident named Jose Marti kicked off a war for independence in 1895. He was killed in battle in 1895. That same year the Americans deployed the USS Maine to Havana to protect American interests. It exploded in the harbor and sank, killing all but a third of its crew. Though unproven, many blamed the explosion on a Spanish bomb, and the United States and Spain declared war on each other in late April 1898.
By the end of the year, American forces had obliterated the Spanish on both land and at sea. The Battle of Santiago de Cuba saw the largest naval engagement during the whole conflict and resulted in the destruction of the entire Spanish squadron. Another Paris Treaty was signed, (this time in 1898) and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States.
Early Modern Cuba
Cuba gained formal independence from Spain in 1902, and in 1906, it saw its first armed revolution in the overthrow of President Tomas Estrada Palma by veterans of the war for independence. They replaced Palma with Charles Edward Magoon as governor, whose administration saw the beginning of major political corruption. Three years later, the Cuban presidency was restored under Jose Miguel. In 1924, President Gerardo Machado increased tourism, which led to an increase in gambling and prostitution. American owned hotels, bars, and villas sprung up to accommodate the influx of wealthy vacationers.
However, the fun could not last. In 1929 the American stock market collapsed and left the price of rum, sugar, and cotton in the gutter. Political strife and civil unrest marked the turn of the decade in Cuba. Unhappy with the political repression, a group of students called the 1930 Generation forced Machado into out of power and into exile.
In September of 1933, Fulgencia Batista led an uprising called the Sergeant's Revolt. During this time of "virtually unremitting social and political warfare", the fragility of the Cuban government was apparent. All this infighting and insurgency led to a new government creating a constitution which enshrined the ideals of Communism. The key principles of right to labor and right to healthcare preluded now President Batista's massive social reforms. With social reform came economic expansion and the standard of living for almost everyone increased - specifically the middle class. It was awkward, then, when Batista was facing electoral defeat and led an armed coup which was actually backed by the US government. Batista, once back in power, suspended the 1940 Constitution, severely limited civil liberties, and allied himself with the wealthiest segment of the Cuban population. The economy stagnated and the wealth gap between the richest Cuban and the poorest widened considerably. The high rate of unemployment and the growing number of young, graduates without job meant one thing:
You guessed it: Revolution.
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