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FROM THE INTRODUTION OF FIRST AFRICAN SLAVES IN 1513 TO 1959 REVOLUTION
From
1513 to 1607
This
period of the history of Cuba is characterized
by the gradual consolidation of the
power of the Spain, the utilization of
the island as a stepping stone for the
conquest of the mainland and the
establishment of organized production.
Much like in the other parts of the
Americas and the Caribbean the main
source of labor was the African slave.
Following the example of the Spaniards
of Hispagnola, the landowner of Cuba
requested the importation of slaves. The first
African slaves arrived around 1513. Amador de Lares
is recorded as the land owner who gets permission to bring four African slaves from Hispanola (Haiti, Dominican
Republic) to Cuba.
This importation of African Slaves
from Hispanola sets off the long
history of slavery in Cuba. In fact
one can say that the history of
colonial Cuba is intricately link to
that of slavery in the Caribbean in
particular and in the Americas in general.
The African slave was the back bone of
the Cuban colonial economy. In 1520, The first large group of slaves (300) arrive in Cuba to work in a
gold mine named Jaugua. Between 1762 and 1838, about 391,000 slaves are brought to Cuba.
Even after the British-inspired agreement ends the slave trade,
slaves were imported illegally in greater numbers.
The
year 1513 is also important in the
march of Spanish Conquistadors in the
colonization of the New
continent. During the month of March - April. Juan Ponce de León discovers and sails along the South and Southeastern side of Florida (which he considers to be an island).
The Power of Spain on the island was
being consolidated. News cities
will rise as a consequence of this
consolidation. So 1514, The
city of Havana is established by Pánfilo de Narváez. The city is named after San Cristóbal de Habana, a local indian chief.
After the establishment of Havana,
Cuba gained a tremendous strategic
importance for Spain in the
Americas. In 1519 Hernán Cortés
prepared his fleet and travelled to
Mexico from Cuba. The location
of Cuba right across Mexico in the
Caribbean Sea made it a natural
resting place for ships returning to
the Iberian peninsula.
Fortification
After signing the treaty of
Tordesillas with Portugal its
competitor in 1494, Spain influence on
the New World remained unchallenged
for about 40 years. After this
period of supremacie, the other
Europeans monarchies started to appear
in the new continent and attack the
Spanish settlements. For
instance in 1538, French pirates, with the help of disgruntled local slaves, burn the city of Havana.
In
1555, French pirates, again, plunder the city..1554
Peg-Leg
Leclerc, a French pirate, attacks Santiago de Cuba.
In 1555,
Jacques de Sores, the Lutheran
pirate, plunders the city of Havana.
The constant presence of the pirates capable
of taking a city hostage prompted the
Spanish crown to establish some to
protect the big cities. The Castillo del Morro is
completed in 1597 is an example of
such fort. Strategically situated above the eastern entrance to the
harbor, the fort is designed to protect the city
of Havana which is officially named the capital of
Cuba on 1607.
1715
Royal Spanish authorities create a monopoly known as the "Factoria." This agency purchases all Cuban tobacco at fixed prices and sells it
abroad In 1740, another monopoly company,
based on the Factoria Model, is created to handle all imports and exports in Havana. The "Real Compañía de Comercio" soon acquires a bad reputation with Cubans, who complain they are being fleeced and that commerce is restricted in order to keep prices high.
1748
The University of San Jerónimo opens in Havana.
1762
January. England declares war on Spain.
June. Havana is captured by a large British expeditionary force. The British did not expand their occupation beyond the port, and left the island in less than two years.
1763
The English and Spanish government make a trade: Florida (which had been captured by the Spanish) for Havana.
1774
According to the sensus, Cuba has a total population of 172,620 inhabitants: 96,440 whites, 31,847 free blacks, and 44,333 black slaves.
1792-1815
The period of the
Napoleonic Wars brings prosperity to Cuba despite restrictions and obstacles placed by the crown. Demand for sugar, tobacco and coffee increases, and more capital is injected into crop production. More slaves are introduced, and trade between the U.S. and Cuba increases.
1817
The Cuban tobacco monopoly, known as "Factoria," is abolished.
A new census
illustrates the growth of the island: 552,000 inhabitants, 239,000 of them whites, and 331,000 nonwhite.
1821-31
Between 1821 and 1831 more than
three hundred expeditions bring an estimated sixty thousand slaves to Cuba.
1823
Cuban poet José María Heredia and José Francisco Lemus organize a secret society known as "Suns and Rays of Bolívar." The society plans a rebellion for independence and seeks union with the famed liberator.
1824
December 9. With the battle of Ayacucho in Peru, Spanish forces are decisively defeated and thrown out of the American mainland—north, central and south. Spain still controls two islands in the West Indies: Cuba and Puerto Rico.
1825
Mexico and Venezuela plan an expedition to Cuba in order to help the struggle for independence. But the United States, fearing an independent Cuba would lead to the end of slavery with repercussions in the Southern states, let it
be known through Secretary of State Henry Clay that it would block any move to liberate Cuba from Spain. The decision was based on the belief that in due time, under the operation of the law of political economy, Cuba would fall into the lap of her North American neighbor.
1827
The census shows a population of 704,000, of whom 311,000 were white, 286,000 slaves, and 106,000 free Negroes or mixed bloods. It also lists 1,000 sugar mills, 30,090 ranches, 5,534 tobacco farms, and 2,067 coffee plantations.
1830
Spain increases taxation, imposes arbitrary rules for its own benefit and completely alienates the Creoles (native born Cubans of mixed ancestry), by denying them any voice in the government.
1832
British colonies abolish slavery.
1833
Child-queen Isabel II assumes the throne of Spain.
1834
Miguel Tacón is appointed Captain-General of Cuba.
1825
Mexico and Venezuela plan an expedition to help liberate Cuba, but the U.S., fearing that an independent Cuba would bring about an end to slavery (which would have repercussion in the Southern states) announces that it would block any move to liberate Cuba.
1842
Official Cuban census reports: 1,037,624 inhabitants: 448,291 white, 152,838 free blacks, 436,495 slaves. Twice as many American ships visit Havana. The value of Cuban exports to the U.S. is double that of sales to Spain.
1847
January. U.S. citizens and manifest destiny advocates Moses Beach and John O'sullivan meet in Havana with members of the Club de la Habana, a group of wealthy Cubans seeking annexation to the U.S.
1848
June 9. President Polk offers Spain $100 million for Cuba.
August 15. U.S. Minister Saunders meets with Spain's minister of foreign affairs Pedro J. Pidal in Madrid. Spain officially refuses to sell Cuba.
1849
Yucatecan Indians from Mexico are imported for slave labor. At the same time, Chinese contract workers are entering the island in considerable numbers.
White persons enforce segregation in
public places as a means of stressing their claim to superiority.
1850
Read an excerpt from the introduction to: "Slaves, Sugar, & Colonial Society: Travel Accounts of Cuba, 1801-1899," by Louis A. Pérez, Jr.
May 19. A filibustering expedition from the U.S., led by Narciso López, takes control of Cárdenas. After a brief battle with Spanish forces they are forced to take
to the sea.
August 12. Another filibustering expedition (with about 400 men) led by Narciso López lands at El Morillo.
August 13. Spanish forces defeat López' army in the village of Las Pozas.
August 16. After capturing some of López' men at sea, they are taken to Havana, where the 51 remaining members of the regiment are placed before a firing squad.
September 1. Narciso López is executed in Havana.
1852
October 22. After Spain refuses to sell Cuba to the U.S. (a second time) the New York Times declares, "The Cuban question is now the leading one of the time."
1853
January 28. Don Jose Marty Pérez is born in Havana.
1854
President Franklin Pierce offers Spain $130 million for Cuba. Spain refuses, again.
Attempts to buy or forcibly annex Cuba by invasion ends with the American Civil War.
1864
Maceo joins the Masonic Lodge of Santiago de Cuba (and enters the inner revolutionary circle).
1865
November 25. Spain establishes a Colonial Reform Commission to discuss proposals to reform the
island.
1866
José Martí writes:
"The U.S. has never looked upon Cuba as anything but an appetizing possession with no drawback other than its quarrelsome, weak and unworthy population."
"...to change masters is not to be free."
1867
Early in the year, the Spanish government imposes a new tax on the island ranging from 6 to 12 percent on real estate, incomes and all types of
business. This is on top of the enormous customs duties about which Cubans have continuously complained.
In Madrid, the Spanish government dismisses the "Junta de Información," a 22-member Cuban delegation asking for reforms.
1929
October.
The Wall Street crash drags Cuba into its worse economic crisis. From 1928 to 1932, the price of sugar drops from 2.18 cents per pound to an all-time low of 0.57 cents.
1931
August. Mendieta and Menocal
attempt an uprising in the interior of the island, supposedly co-ordinated with members of Machado's army. The two leaders are easily captured in Río Verde, in Pinar del Río.
1933
As the year begins, Machado
is deeply entrenched in power, using official brutality in an attempt to crush the opposition.
May. U.S. ambassador Benjamin Sumner Welles arrives in Havana. He brings previous diplomatic experience with the Dominican Republic.
August 4. A minor strike of bus drivers becomes a general strike which paralyzes Havana. To break the strike, Machado reaches a compromise with Communist leaders, but before any action can be taken, the announcement of his resignation by a radio station sends jubilant crowds to the streets.
August 9. President Machado resigns after a
general strike spreads throughout the island. Under U.S. support, Carlos M. Céspedes, the son of Cuba's legendary leader, succeeds Machado.
August 9. President Machado resigns after a general strike closes down the city of Havana and then spreads throughout the island. Under U.S. support, Carlos M. Céspedes, the son of Cuba's legendary leader,
succeeds Machado.
September 4. An uprising known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants," led by
Fulgencio Batista, takes over.
A new revolutionary government takes over, led by Ramón Grau San Martín and Antonio Guiteras
credited with keeping this government together for the time it
lasted. This government lasts 100 days, but engineers radical changes in Cuban society. It nullifies the Platt Amendment
(except for the Guantanamo naval base lease) and set up an 8-hour working day, established a Department of Labor, opened the university to the poor, granted peasants the right to the
land they were farming, gave women the right to vote, and reduced the electric rates by 40 percent. Roosevelt's adviser, Sumner Welles, referred to these changes as "communistic" and "irresponsible." The U.S. government did not recognize the Grau-Guiteras government.
Meyer Lansky meets with Batista, and they forge a friendship and
business relationship that lasts three decades. Batista also forms a relationship with Roosevelt's adviser, Sumner Welles, who encourages his political ambition.
1934
January 14. Guiteras announces the
nationalization of American-owned Electric Bond and Share Company. It is his last governmental act.
January 15. Batista, with blessing of the U.S. govt., forces the resignation of the Grau-Guiteras government.
January 20. The U.S. government recognizes the Batista-installed government.
May 29. Cuba and the U.S. sign the "Treaty on Relations," which eliminates the Platt Amendment but allows the U.S. to continue leasing Guantanamo Bay.
1935
May 8. While preparing to leave Cuba and organize an armed invasion like that of José Martí, forty years earlier, Guiteras is killed by the army.
1936
Civil war breaks out in Spain. About one thousand Cubans fight with the International Brigades to defend Spanish democracy.
1938
Batista allows the legalization of the Cuban Communist Party.
1940
The Constitution of 1940 is established by a national assembly that includes Blas Roca,
a young shoemaker who helped organize the Revolution of 1933. The document strikes a balance between the rich and the working class, it protects individual and social rights, supports full employment and a minimum wage, extends social security, calls for equal pay for equal work and outlaws the huge plantations known as
latifundias.
General Batista is elected the as Cuba's fourteenth president.
1943
Batista legalizes Cuba's Communist Party (established in 1925).
1944
Fidel Castro, a student about to enter a Jesuit high school in Havana, is proclaimed the best high school athelete in Cuba for the year 1943-44.
Ramón Grau San Martín is elected president.
1945
October 24. Cuba joins the United Nations.
1946
Famed mobster Lucky Luciano calls a summit in Havana. Attendees at the Hotel Nacional meeting include: Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Tommy Lucchese, Vito Genovese, Joe Bonanno, Santo Trafficante Jr. and Moe Dalitz. Among the topics discussed is the assasination of Bugsy Siegel. Coincidentally, Frank Sinatra makes his singing debut in Havana.
1947
May 15. The Cuban People's Party (Partido Del Pueblo Cubano) is formed. It becomes known as the Orthodox Party (Partido Ortodoxo).
1948
June 1. Carlos Prío Socarrás is elected president.
Fulgencio Batista is elected in Las Villas to the Cuban Senate.
1951
August 5. At the end of his popular radio comentaries Eddy Chibás comits suicide.
December. The popular weekly magazine, "Bohemia," holds a public opinion poll that shows Batista (who's running for president) as a distant third.
1952
Fidel Castro, two years out of law
school, runs for Congress as a candidate of the Orthodox Party.
March 10. Fulgencio Batista takes over (again) in a bloodless coup de etat. Elections, three months away, are canceled.
March 27. Washington recognizes Batista's government. (So much for democracy!)
1953
July 26. Fidel Castro leads a revolt in which 100 men and women attack the Moncada army barracks near Santiago de Cuba. The attack is a failure and Castro is arrested. Most of his men are tortured and killed.
October 16. At his defense trial Castro delivers a historic statement that ends with the phrase la historia me absolverá" (history will absolve me). He is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
1955
May 15. Castro and the revolutionaries are released from prison in a general amnesty.
June 24. Castro leaves for Mexico.
1956
December 2. On a 60-foot yacht named "Granma," 81 men, under the leadership of Castro set sail for Cuba and lands in the province of Oriente. But poor communications between the expeditionaries and the
Cuban underground, bad weather and government knowledge of their arrival prompted a counterattack by Batista's forces. The majority of the revolutionaries are killed or captured, but few escape to the Sierra Maestra, including the Castro brothers, Fidel and Raúl, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida, Calixto García and a handful of others.
1957
January 14. The war opens with a successful rebel attack on a small army garrison at the mouth of the La Plata River.
March 13. Student leader José
Echeverría and a small group take over a radio station in Havana. He is machine-gunned to death while retreating to the university.
May 28. The first major battle of the war is a rebel attack on the El Uvero garrison, in a small town south of the Sierra Maestra range. "For us," writes Guevara, "it was a victory that meant that our
guerrillas had reached full maturity. From this moment on, our morale increased enourmously, our determination and hope for victory also increased, and though the months that followed were a hard test, we now had the key to the secet of how to beat the enemy."
July 30. Chief of police, Colonel José Salas Cañizares guns down Frank Pas, a
23-year-old leader of the July-26-Movement and a Castro ally. Almost the entire city of Santiago comes out for the funeral, and the crowds are too large for the police to control. The city closes down for three days.
September. Members of the July-26-Movement in Cienfuegos attack the naval police headquarters and the garrison of the Rural Guards.
October. Ex-president of the Cuban Medical Association, Dr. Augusto Fernandez Conde, denouces the atrocities of the Batista regime at the World Medical Association meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.
A weekly news
magazine, Revista Carteles, reports that twenty members of the Batista government own numbered Swiss bank accounts, each with deposits of more than $1 million.
1958
Early in the year Batista receives $1,000,000 in military aid from the U.S. All of Batista's arms, planes tanks, ships, and military supplies come from the U.S., and his army is trained by a joint mission of the three branches of the U.S. armed forces.
February 24. On the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of Martí's War of
Independence, RADIO REBELDE begins transmission from "the free territory of Cuba."
March 1. Raúl Castro leaves the Sierra Maestra with a column of sixty-seven men to open a second front in the mountains north of Santiago-the Sierra Cristal.
In March, forty-five civic institutions sign an open letter supporting the July-26-Movement, including the national organizations of lawyers, architects, public accountants, dentists, electrical engineers, social workers, professors, and veterinarians.
Mid July. The Battle of Jige begins. It lasts about ten days
and "reveals the complex nature of the war."
October 31. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his wife dine with the Cuban Ambassador at the Cuban Embassy in Washington to commemorate Teddy Roosevelt, who had refused to allow the Cuban liberating army from entering Santiago in 1898.
1958
Early in the year Batista receives $1,000,000 in military aid from the U.S. All of Batista's arms, planes tanks, ships, and military supplies come from the U.S., and his army is trained by a joint mission of the three branches of the U.S. armed forces.
February 24. On the 63rd anniversary of the beginning of Martí's War of Independence, RADIO REBELDE begins transmission from "the free territory of Cuba."
March 1. Raúl Castro leaves the Sierra Maestra
with a column of sixty-seven men to open a second front in the mountains north of Santiago-the Sierra Cristal.
In March, forty-five civic institutions sign an open letter supporting the July-26-Movement, including the national organizations of lawyers, architects, public accountants, dentists, electrical engineers, social workers, professors, and
veterinarians.
April 9. A national strikes failes due to timing errors and lack of popular support. This is a serious setback for the rebels.
May. Batista launches a vast offensive against the guerillas in
the Sierra Maestra mountains.
June 29. In Santo Domingo, on the Sierra Mastra mountains, the rebels achieve a serious victory with many captured prisoners and supplies. (Prisoners are later released.)
Mid July. The
üBattle of Jige begins. It lasts about ten days and "reveals the complex nature of the war."
October 31. U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his wife dine with the Cuban Ambassador at the Cuban Embassy in Washington to commemorate Teddy
Roosevelt, who had refused to allow the Cuban liberating army from entering Santiago in 1898.
December 10. Hotel Riviera opens. (It costs $14 million, most of it supplied by the Cuban government for Meyer Lansky.) The floor show in the Copa Room is headlined by Ginger Rogers. Lansky complains that Rogers "can wiggle her ass, but she can't sing a
goddam note."
December 29. Che Guevara takes the city of Santa Clara and captures over 1,000 prisoners.
It is estimated by the end of 1958, 11,500 Cuban women earn their living as prostitutes.
Terrence Cannon writes:
"The U.S. did not send in the marines for one basic reason: it did not fear the Revolution. It was inconceivable to the U.S. policy makers that a revolution in Cuba could turn out badly for them. After all, U.S. companies owned the country."
January 1 1959
January 1. Revolutionary forces take control of Havana. At
about 2 a.m., Batista and his family and closest associates board a plane at Camp Columbia, leaving the island to the revolution. Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos lead the rebels into Havana.
January 2. Manuel Urrutia is installed as President and Jose Mira Cardona as Prime Minister.
January 7. Castro arrives in Havana.
February 7. Cuba's Constitution of 1940 is reinstated (it had been suspended by General Batista after his coup in 1952).
February 16. Fidel Castro, Commander of the Rebel Army, replaces Miró Cardonas as Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government.
March 3. The Cuban government nationalizes the Cuban Telephone Company, an affiliate of ITT, and reduces telephone rates.
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