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A
overview from Christopher Columbus
to the Revolution of 1959
The
early history
After
discovering Cuba in November 28,
1492 and claiming the island for
Spain on November 29, 1492, Columbus
travelled toward
Hispagnola (kiskeya or Quiskeya,
Bohio, Haiti). Cuba was not
the geographic location that
dominated his mind. He was
after Gold and Hispagnola had more
of it. He returned to Spain on
January, 4 1493.
On his second Voyage, Columbus
started the colonization of the
Caribbean but he concentrated his
efforts on the subjugation of the
Tainos of Hispagnola and the
extraction of gold from that
island. (see Haiti
and
Dominican
Republic).
Colonization
of the West Indies and its
legal basis
The
return of Columbus with the proof of
existence of lands on the west sea
was a huge event in in the Iberian
peninsula and in Europe in
general. Europe, deeply engaged
at that time in its quest for
commercial expansion and strategic
projection of his presence in the
world, mainly toward the eastern
countries, was ready to capitalize on
Columbus discovery. Portugal was
the leader of the European expansion
toward Africa and the eastern
countries of the world but the discovery of America placed
Spain immediately ahead of Portugal
in the long battle between those two
monarchic states for the strategic
control of the non Christian world.
It created also a new set of legal
problems which were settled by Pope Alexander 6 in favor of Spain.
The legal basis of the Spanish
Claims and the colonization of all
lands discovered or to be discovered
in the Western Ocean was
established on May 3 1493 by the
first Inter
Caetera Bull and the "Eximiae
devotionis", a Papal Bull
(proclamation) from the Spanish
Pope, Alexander VI.(Rodrigo Borgia,
who became Pope Alexander VI, was
the father of 11 children, among
them the infamous Cesare and
Lucresia Borgia).
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Pope
Alexander VI
On
May 4, 1493, this proclamation was
followed by the second Inter
Caetera Papal Bull, a
Demarcation Line Document, by which
the pope gave the possession of the
territory of the non Christian world
to Spain and Portugal. This Document
assigned a fixed dividing line
between the possessions of Spain and
Portugal . The dividing line ran
north to south 100 leagues from the
Azores. The region laying east of
this line is to be settled by the
Portuguese, and the territory to the
west is to belong to Spain.
This demarcation line document gave
a legal basis to the establishment of
the colonies in the West Indies and
the subjugation of the Indians. It
is legal foundation of the letter
of King Ferdinand to the Tainos
people
On September 25, Columbus, carrying
the letter of King Ferdinand, set
sail from Cadiz to begin his second
voyage to the New World. He brings
the fundamental nucleus of the
colonization of the West Indies. He
had 17 ships and 1,500 men,
including missionaries, soldiers and
laborers. There were about one hundred
stowaways, as well as
agricultural equipment, cattle and
seeds.
The march toward the securing
of the colonial power of
Spain on the Antilla and the New
Continent was consolidated by two
strategic moves. The First happened
on June 7 1494 by an an agreement
known as the Treaty of Tordesillas.
with this treaty the dividing
line is moved 370 degrees West of
the Cape Verde Island (supposedly
half way between these lands and
Antillia). The second step was the
"Fourth Bull of 1494,"
issued secretly by the Pope in
September. This Bull virtually
abolishes the Demarcation Line and
give Spain the right to all
territory.
Colinizing
Cuba the First steps
1508
Sebastián de Ocampo circumnavigates
Cuba and proves that it is an
island. The action of de
Ocampo was necessary because
Columbus did not think that Cuba was
an island and wanted apparently to
hide his mistake by making the
sailors on his second voyage swear
that Cuba was not an island.
This instance has served as a strong
argument for some historians who
claim that Columbus indifference to the
distinction between truth and
falsehood sometimes verged on
madness. A huge crowd of
anti-Columbus historians has emerged
over the last two decades, specially
around the time of the celebration
of the 500th anniversary of the
discovery of the New World
(Americas) in 1992.
One can understand the disappointment
of many when they were gradually
coming face to face with a humanized,
radically demythologized version of
Columbus, as more
facts and reasonable conjectures
have allowed a methodical
decortications of the man. On
the other hand, his iconographic
statue as a man who stood for the
triumph of the truth against
the falsehood of his time led to his
consecration by many of the past and
of today as a radical empiricist
celebrated by popular songs and
cited constantly as an historical
reference. However, any
impartial student of history can
realize that Columbus used lots of
energy into the creation of
elaborate constructs just not to see
things as they were. His
coming to
the West Indies with a set of
preconceived ideas that he refused
to abandon, regardless of the
evidence to the contrary, does not
fit in the optimal profile of an empiricist
exemplar. Perhaps, when
the dust settles in the battle between
the points of view of his apologists,
like Samuel
Eliot Morison , and that of his
detractors, like Kirkpatrick
Sale, the emerging true historical
profile will be centered on his life
as a man of his time who had one foot
in the middle ages and the other in the
renaissance.
View
and buy books about Columbus at Kwabs
Store
1509
Ponce
de León begins the conquest of
Puerto Rico, and Juan de Esquivel,
under orders of Diego Columbus,
"settles" Jamaica where
Christopher Columbus spend one year
stranded during his fourth voyage.
1511
Diego Columbus (son of Christopher
Columbus restored to the titles and properties of his father after
the death of the Admiral )settles
the island. Diego Velázquez is
appointed governor of Cuba by Spain.
Most of the Indians (Ciboneys and Taíno
Arawaks) that inhabit the island are
wiped out.
Modern pockets of
survivors of the Arawacks exist
according to some research in Sierra
Maestra area. The resistance of the
Tainos to the Spanish colonization
is symbolized by the figure of
Hatuey, the tainos chief from from
Mole Saint Nicholas area of
Hispagnola who fled to Cuba when the
indians of that island were being
massacred by the Spaniards.
According to the Haitian historian
Thomas Madiou (Histoire d'Haiti tome
1), Diego Colombus wanted to
establish a pearl gathering
operation in Cuba. He send Diego de
Velasquez with four caravels. The
oriental portion of the island was
under the control of Hatuey. when he
saw the Spanish vessels approaching
he gathered the bravest of his
followers and told them they should
fight with extreme determination.
Madiou said that Hatuey tossed a
gold vase to the sea as a sacrifice
to the god of the Spaniards. He also
made his followers do the same with
all their gold items to prevent the Spanish
from finding them. A
strong resistance was organized but
Velaquez and his troops crushed the
Tainos resistance and captured
Hatuey. He was sentenced to be
burned alive. It is said that when,
attached to a pole and about
to be burned at stake he was
approached by a Franciscan monk who
promised him the splendors of
paradise if he accepted to be
baptized, he asked:"Are there
any Spanish in this Paradise you are
telling me about". When
the priest responded that" Yes
, but there are only good
Spanish", Hatuey replied
that:"The best of them has no
value, I don't want to go any place
where I could meet even one of
them". After the defeat of the
Tainos resistance, Cuba remains
under Spanish rule for the next four
centuries
We have to note
however that in the early 1550's, a
Taino chief named Guamá, along with
his wife and about sixty other men,
battled the Spaniards in
hit-and-run, guerrilla-style
attacks. By this time, however, the
Spaniards have spread across the
entire island. The name of Hatuey
has remained in the history
of the Cuba and the Caribbean as one
the first fighter for the freedom of
Cuba against its invaders. His
legacy as a freedom fighter goes
beyond the utilization of his name
in a beer called: Hatuey, la
gran selvesa de Cuba. Hatuey
is an central icon of Cuban history
and culture who, like Jose Marti and
Antonio Maceo, has been used been used
by politicians of both sides of the
post 1959 Cuban political drama, be
they communists revolutionaries or
exile opponents . His figure is
even used, today, as an inspiration
for modern artists.
Hatuey wood sculpture
by an unknown artist of Santiago de
Cuba
See the rest of the history of Cuba
from the Arrival of the First
African Slaves in 1513 to the
1959 Revolution
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