History History

Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba. Although the exact location of his landing is still a matter of controversy, it is known that he landed in the Bay of Baracoa, east of Gibara. The explorer said that the relief, the mountains and the plains reminded him of Sicily. It is undoubtedly the sought-after paradise. If the island is named Juana, posterity will keep the indigenous name (approximately) of Cuba.

Sebastian de Ocampo, a Spanish navigator, was the first to sail completely around Cuba. He concluded that the island was indeed an island and not a coast of the continent.

With the natives almost decimated, African slaves began to be brought to the island to do the hard work. It is on this labor force that the Spanish Crown relies to ensure exceptional yields. The sugar, tobacco and coffee trade would grow to impressive proportions two centuries later. Throughout the period from the 16th century to the abolition of slavery in Cuba (1886), there was a succession of slave revolts. The first major rebellion took place in 1533 in the copper mines of Santiago del Prado, in El Cobre.

For more than 150 years, the Spanish Empire grew rich thanks to its colonies. Gold, silver and precious stones from Mexico and the rest of America passed through the port of Havana. This did not fail to attract the covetousness of pirates, privateers and other buccaneers.

The French privateer Jacques de Sores attacked Santiago de Cuba, the seat of Spanish governance in Cuba, and burned the city to the ground. The government was then transferred to Havana.

The Treaty of Ryswick marked the official end of piracy in the Caribbean Sea. Attacks gradually declined.

In the 18th century, the sugarcane and tobacco trade was going well: the Cuban planters became rich and the island became the richest of the Spanish colonies. The Catholic Church built magnificent churches throughout the territory. The Spanish Crown, supported by the clergy, firmly maintained its monopoly on the production and trade of sugar and tobacco. This intransigence of the metropolis favored the emergence of smuggling. Between 1717 and 1723, conflicts broke out between local producers and representatives of the Crown. Opponents were arrested and executed.

This monopoly was not to the liking of the English either, who clamored for freedom of trade. At the end of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), a large English fleet laid siege to the port of Havana. The Spaniards made the mistake of sinking two ships. The English then attacked them by land. Havana surrendered to the English after two months of battle. After 11 months of occupation, an agreement was reached: the English returned Havana to Spain in exchange for Florida.

In Haiti, then a French colony, the black slaves, galvanized by Toussaint Louverture, revolted. Louverture sought to establish a black republic but eventually capitulated to the expedition sent by Bonaparte. This episode provoked the exodus of many French planters to Cuba, who brought their know-how and wealth.

First demonstrations for independence.

The triangular trade having been prohibited, Cuban owners hired Chinese workers via agencies in Macao and Hong Kong. 130,000 coolies were shipped from China. Many of these workers, once their contract was over, decided to settle on the island, as the return trip proved to be too expensive.

In the face of Bolivar's War of Liberation in Latin America at the turn of the century, the Spaniards clung to Puerto Rico and Cuba, where they maintained slavery. However, divisions emerged within Cuban society. On one side were the loyalists, on the other the opposition, eager to see an outdated colonial system fall. The rich landowners, grouped in the Havana Club, tried to encourage the purchase of the island by the North Americans and even to organize a liberating invasion via the Venezuelan general Narciso Lopez, who was captured and then executed by the Spanish authorities in 1851. A more radical current will then gradually emerge, demanding the pure and simple independence of Cuba.

The Cuban population reached almost 1.3 million inhabitants. The sugar industry was the foundation of the island's economy. In 1860, nearly one third of the world's sugar production came from Cuba!

On October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes launched the first great war for Cuban independence from his sugar estate, which would last ten years. He freed his slaves and called on his compatriots to rise up against the Spanish yoke. The man who would be called the father of the country was then 50 years old. His small troop - 160 men at the beginning, several thousands later - was very heterogeneous: whites, mulattoes, free blacks, owners of the Oriente regions... The Spaniards called them the Mambis, a Congolese word meaning "despicable". The latter made it an honorary title. The confrontations with the Spanish army were bloody. After six years of struggle, Céspedes had only a handful of supporters left. In 1874, he died in battle.

The republic was proclaimed in Guáimaro and Céspedes was elected president. The rebel troops freed the slaves and seized Bayamo. When the Spanish army surrounded them, Céspedes' army, instead of leaving the city in the hands of the enemy, decided - with the agreement of its inhabitants - to burn it.

Four years after the death of Céspedes, the majority of the rebels resigned themselves to sign the Pact of Zanjon, a peace without independence. A small fringe of diehards continued the struggle until 1880. A surrender in exchange for amnesty was then proposed by Spain. But the government did not keep its promises and imprisoned many rebels. Among them, José Martí was sentenced to prison for having written a subversive letter. He was deported to Spain in 1879 but managed to escape to New York and then Venezuela.

It was during this period that the first Cuban political parties were formed, which would remain in place until the second half of the 20th century. Although they were represented in the Spanish Parliament, little attention was paid to the proposals of these parties, so much so that uprisings aimed at overthrowing the Spanish government followed one another. These attempts, however, remained disorganized. The union of forces was achieved by Antonio Maceo and José Martí.

Slavery, a key element in the growth of the sugar industry, was definitively abolished in Cuba. This event, combined with the fall in world sugar prices, led to the decline of the sugar industry.

Born in a modest family, José Martí was an exceptional character: a talented writer, he was perhaps above all a man of action, a politician aware that the conquest of independence required the creation of a (single!) party and the war, which he qualified as necessary. Admired by his contemporaries as an orator, he also knew how to fight with his arms when the time came. This Cuban national hero spent half his life in exile. From convictions to amnesties, he took refuge in the United States and fought throughout his life for the independence of his country. From afar, he organized the struggle and founded, in 1892, the Cuban Revolutionary Party, with the intention of also liberating Puerto Rico. He constantly warned his supporters against the risk of interference by the United States.

Three years after the creation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party, the struggle resumed. The second war of independence was launched in the province of Oriente, on Martí's initiative.

In early May, Martí and Dominican General Máximo Gomez joined General Maceo in La Mejorana, not far from Santiago de Cuba. On May 19, José Martí died in a skirmish. Nevertheless, the struggle continued: more than 900 battles were fought on Cuban territory. The following year, Maceo, known as the Bronze Titan, was finally killed as well.

Despite the arrival in Cuba of 300,000 Spaniards with heavy equipment, the countryside remained under the control of the insurgents.

Washington, fearing the establishment of a black republic in Cuba, sent a battleship - the Maine - to Havana on 24 January 1898. On February 15, a mysterious explosion destroyed the ship, and 266 crew members were killed. The United States blamed Spain (although it was also accused of having mounted the provocation itself). Under this pretext, they declared war on Spain at the end of April. On July 17, 1898, Spain surrendered. The American flag was raised in Santiago de Cuba.

Signature of the Treaty of Paris. Spain gives up its territories in the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Cuba to the United States. The end of the Spanish Empire consecrates the advent of the North American Empire.

A North American military government controlled the island. The new Constitution of the island was drafted in Washington in 1901, completed by the Platt Amendment, which imposed on Cuba the right of US intervention on Cuban soil.

Tomas Estrada Palma was named the first president of the Cuban Republic. Nevertheless, the island will remain, in fact, a semi-colony of the United States dedicated to the monoculture of sugar. In 1903, Guantánamo became a North American territory.

The first half of the century was characterized by a division of power between the two main parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives. The many scandals that shook successive governments increased the discontent of the people.

Gerardo Marchado became president. He tried to satisfy the financial interests of the local bourgeoisie and the Americans while developing a certain stability of the economy and employment. At the same time, any opposition movement was muzzled. Marchado granted himself power for life. The same year, the first Cuban Communist Party was founded.

With the global economic crisis of 1929, popular dissent gained momentum. In 1933, a national strike led to the fall of Marchado. One of his opponents formed a provisional government that lasted 100 days. It was Fulgencio Batista, a sergeant in the Cuban army, who dominated the next 25 years of Cuban history, supported by the American special envoy Summer Welles.

Repeal of the Platt Amendment by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The United States kept only the naval base at Guantánamo Bay.

Batista was elected president in 1940, then lost the elections in 1944 and emigrated to Florida. He returned to Cuba in 1951 and, on March 10, 1952, overthrew the elected government in a military coup d'état and took over a ruthless dictatorship. The United States recognized his government two weeks after the coup.

Fidel Castro, leading a group of young revolutionaries, attacks the Moncada barracks. In October, during his trial, Castro laid the foundations of the Revolution, with a first manifesto that was later published under the title History will acquit me . Sentenced to 19 years in prison, Castro was transferred to the Isle of Pines with most of his companions. An amnesty campaign led to their release, but the revolutionaries had to go into exile in Mexico, where Fidel met the Argentinean doctor Ernesto Che Guevara.

Fidel organized the guerrilla. On November 25, 1956, 82 partisans embarked on the yacht Granma, designed for about 20 passengers. They disembarked on December 2, 1956 on the beach Las Coloradas, in the Oriente. Spotted by Batista's troops, only 12 of them, including Ernesto Guevara, managed to escape, all the others were killed. Forming the real hard core of the Revolution, they established their headquarters in the heart of the Sierra Maestra mountains

The misery pushing the peasants towards guerrilla warfare, the rebels soon numbered in the thousands. They organized themselves and occupied more and more towns and villages. Batista's troops were held in check in 1957 and Che took Santa Clara in 1958. The same year, a general strike was organized in support of the Barbudos, the bearded revolutionaries. The rebel army, led by Fidel, Che, Raúl (Fidel's brother) and Camilo Cienfuegos, attacked from all sides.

Batista's escape. The revolutionary army enters Havana in general euphoria on January 8, 1959. The new revolutionary power is established throughout the country: Cuba Nueva! At that moment, the Cuban revolution was above all nationalist and anti-imperialist, as Fidel Castro had always affirmed. Later, the Lider Maximo would turn to the USSR.

Cuba Nueva is trying to institute the new man. The first step was the prosecution and execution of collaborators of the former dictator Batista. Until the mid-1960s, the authorities put down the counter-guerrilla financed by the United States and Cuban emigrants. Rents were cut in half, landowners were dispossessed, and a massive literacy campaign was launched.

Diplomatic relations between the USSR and Cuba were re-established. Two months later, on July 6, the State nationalized the major American companies and ended up controlling 80% of the country's economic activity. In retaliation, Washington suspended all purchases of sugar and foodstuffs, before stopping the supply of oil to the island. The USSR then took the place of its large North American neighbor. It bought the sugar production destined for the United States and provided the fuel essential to the island.

Beginning of the US economic embargo. The US government accused the USSR of supplying arms to Cuba and declared an embargo on all exports to Cuba.

The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Tensions rose again during the first quarter of 1961. Sporadic bombings, sabotage and commando actions, organized and financed by the United States, regularly hit the island. On April 15, 1961, an air raid on the airports of Havana and San Antonio de los Baños left 7 dead and 53 wounded. The next day, Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban revolution.

1,500 exiled Cuban mercenaries land in the Bay of Pigs. Recruited, armed and trained by the CIA, they hoped to trigger a popular uprising. The fighting lasted several days. But the air support promised by the CIA did not come. With Castro at its head, the regular Cuban army took over in 72 hours.

In 1962, at the request of Cuba, the USSR deployed SS-4 and SS-5 missiles with nuclear warheads towards the territory of the United States. Directly threatened, the United States said it was ready to respond massively. Never during the Cold War has humanity been so close to an apocalyptic disaster. On 27 October 1962, Kennedy and the United States threatened to bomb the launch pads and to land massively if the rockets were not withdrawn as soon as possible. After a confrontation between the Russian and American navies off the coast of Cuba, the situation was finally defused. The Kremlin dismantled the launch pads. Just after this event, a direct line - the famous red telephone - between the White House and Moscow was set up

The opposition press disappeared. 250,000 Cubans left the island.

Che Guevara abandons his governmental functions. One year later, he managed to enter Bolivia clandestinely to organize the armed struggle. He will be killed there on October 8, 1967.

Total free medical services and education. In 40 years, Cuba's infant mortality rate will drop from 46.7 ‰ to 5.3 ‰, a better score than the United States.

At the time of the zafra (harvest), the authorities did not reach the objective of 10 million tons of sugar produced. The only currency in a country dedicated to monoculture, sugar - whose world price was very low at the time - was no longer able to supply a country on the verge of economic asphyxia. The agreement (oil-sugar) signed with the USSR and the latter's subsidies enabled Cuba to avoid going under.

Cuba joined COMECON (an organization for mutual aid between communist countries), playing a game of seesaw between Moscow and the non-aligned movement. Havana hosted the 1979 summit of non-aligned countries.

Cuban troops were sent to Angola (where they remained until 1988), at Neto's request. One year later to the day, the Cuban socialist constitution was proclaimed.

The political system began to crumble. 125,000 Cubans left the island for Miami. The economy could only be maintained with the help of Moscow. Massive tourism on the island began.

The agreements with the USSR were terminated and Cuba entered a period of recession that the authorities modestly called Período especial (special period). There was a lack of spare parts for Russian machines, a shortage of fuel, food and medical equipment, power cuts, and a drastic drop in sugar production... The U.S. Torricelli Law (1992, followed by another one in 1996) reinforcing the trade embargo against Cuba did not help.

35,000 balseros fled Cuba on makeshift boats. Faced with this situation, Castro accepted a timid opening of the economy to foreign capital and relied on tourism.

Agreements are signed between Cuba and Venezuela: oil for medical services.

Arrival of the first prisoners from Afghanistan at the US base in Guantánamo.

Fidel Castro is victim of an acute intestinal crisis. He handed over the reins of power to his brother, Army General Raúl Castro. On February 18, 2008, the Lider maximo will finally give up the presidency of Cuba, leaving his place to Raúl the following week, who will immediately improve the living conditions of Cubans: purchase of computers, cell phones and household appliances are now allowed.

Cuba is strongly affected by the global economic crisis. Raúl Castro eliminates 500,000 public jobs and announces a new law promoting private entrepreneurship.

At the VI Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, Raúl Castro officially succeeded his brother and became the leader of the Cuban Communist Party. A few months later, Cubans could buy and sell apartments and cars for the first time since the Revolution.

Pope Benedict XVI went to Cuba for a 3-day visit. After meeting with Fidel Castro, he allowed himself, during his last speech at the airport, some criticism of the regime while denouncing the American embargo. In September 2015, it will be Pope Francis' turn to visit Havana.

French President François Hollande visited Havana, inaugurated the new headquarters of the Alliance Française and met with the Castro brothers. This is the first visit of a French head of state to Cuba. Raúl Castro will visit France the following year.

The United States removed Cuba from the list of terrorist countries and then restored diplomatic relations with the island. Both countries reopen their embassies in Washington and Havana. Obama calls on Congress to end the embargo.

Barack Obama is the first American president to visit the island in 88 years! Three days later, the Rolling Stones gave a free concert in the Cuban capital. Cruise ships started to operate again, followed closely by airplanes flying directly between Cuba and the United States.

Death of Fidel Castro. A national mourning of 9 days is observed.

Donald Trump, elected 8 months earlier, declared that he wanted to go back on the measures of rapprochement with Cuba put in place by Obama. He will go in this direction at the end of the same year, before repatriating the American diplomatic personnel following the diplomatic crisis triggered by the affair of the acoustic attacks

Hurricane Irma hit the northern coast of Cuba.

Miguel Díaz-Canel, Raúl Castro's right-hand man, succeeded him as president of Cuba. In February of the following year, a new constitution was passed. No major changes were made, however.

Donald Trump is increasing the economic pressure on the island. The global pandemic is pushing Cuba to close its borders to tourism (a key sector of the Cuban economy), which it will not reopen until November 2021.

The end of the two-currency system was voted for 2021. The convertible peso will be forgotten in favor of the single Cuban peso.

Joe Biden, the US President, evaluates the possibility of closing the prison in Guantánamo. In the spring, Miguel Díaz-Canel was elected president of the Cuban CP. In the summer, popular demonstrations - demanding freedom of expression - of unprecedented proportions shook the country.

The first mypimes were created in Cuba: Micro, Pequeñas Y Medias Empresas (for Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). The Cuban government decided to authorize Cubans to set up their own businesses, albeit under supervision, allowing them to import goods from abroad at preferential rates. A breath of fresh air and liberalism in a country that has become unable to meet the needs of its population (little or no local production).

The United States announces the gradual resumption of consular activities (halted since 2017) in Cuba.

To no one's surprise, Miguel Diaz-Canel is elected President of Cuba and begins his second term.

Despite its reluctance to ask for outside help, Cuba requested assistance from the World Food Program (WFP). On March 14, 2024, $600,000 was allocated to the island to reduce hunger and malnutrition. It was mainly powdered milk for children that was delivered.

In the east of the country, demonstrations broke out in Santiago and Bayamo. Exhausted by food shortages and frequent power cuts, the population took to the streets in protest, shouting "corriente y comida" (electricity and food). It has to be said that since 2020, Cuba has been facing a deep crisis: pandemic, US sanctions, peso devaluation, food supply problems, electricity crisis, gasoline shortages... Problems have been piling up on the crocodile island for the past four years.

After five days in Havana harbor, a Russian flotilla - including a nuclear-powered submarine that Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel stepped onto - left the island's territory. Against a backdrop of tension between the United States and Russia (due to the war in Ukraine), this visit by the Russian army 150 km off the coast of Florida could have constituted a threat to the United States, but was not considered as such by the North Americans.